Another wonderful time off is in the books. My favorite part about my month at home is
that Chad officially a Houstonian!!!!
Chad arrived in Houston about 12 hours after I did, and we headed
straight to a pre-graduation celebration for our new family doctor – Dr.
Juliana Wilking-Johnson!
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| SO proud of this little lady :) |
That weekend, we headed up to Dallas for a good friend from
college’s wedding, with the added bonus of getting able to meet two of my
favorite girls!!! I can’t tell you how
many times my heart just melted that weekend.
I got to spend some quality time with the Kennedy clan. Now, I always knew that Jenna would be an
excellent mother, but seeing Wesley with sweet Brooklyn was one of my favorite
things ever. Then seeing my parents with
her, and don’t even get me started with how much I loved seeing her fall asleep
on Chad….needless to say that little girl is forever a part of the Johnson
family J After a gooorgeous wedding for Joe and
Kristin, I was able to squeeze in an hour with sweet Miss Kennedy Braun on
Sunday morning – Lauren and Brett too.
Not only did I get a few smiles out of that precious girl, but we got in
a serious cuddle session and she took a quick nap on me before I had to give
her up. It’s safe to say that I had some
intense baby fever going on this month off…
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| Brooklyn LaRue Kennedy has stolen my heart |
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| Kennedy Tate Braun has done the same... |
From Dallas, we touched down in Houston for a day and then
headed to San Francisco. Chad had some
work in the Bay Area, so I tagged along – who wouldn’t want to spend a few days
in the city!? We met some of Chad’s
college buddies for dinner and then I spent the next day catching up with my
friend Isaac. Chad and I went up to San
Francisco a little over 3 years ago, and that was the last time I’d seen the
city AND Isaac, so our catch up day was MUCH needed.
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| PERFECT day in SF |
From San Fran, we took off down Highway 1 towards Avila
Beach. The road trip from the Bay Area
down to the Central Coast (and vice versa) is still hands down my favorite road
trip EVER. We stopped for the night in
Carmel by the Sea, which is just stunning.
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| BEST hotel in Carmel |
We went on to Avila Beach, which was our home base for Chad’s
friend Barrett’s wedding weekend in Nipomo.
Chad’s best friend and his sweet girlfriend were our double date for the
weekend. The wedding started at 2pm on
Saturday, which I thought was a little strange at first, but when I found out
how it was going to be a HUGE family affair I realized we needed all the time
we could get at the reception. Barrett
has a huge family on both his mom and dad’s side, so there are a TON of cousins
in the area. Every family wedding is
held on his grandparent’s Christmas tree farm, and everyone in the family has a
job – cooking, serving, bar tending.
Needless to say, not only was it gorgeous but it was one of the most fun
weddings I’ve ever been to!
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| Pre-wedding wine tasting :) |
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| typical photo prep |
After a bit of an airline debacle (cancelled flight, night
in LA…typical Alli travel) I made it back to Houston for a few days before
heading to Colorado for what would be just the BEST girl’s trip. 7 of Courtney’s ladies from a mixture of high
school, college, and work were invited to a week in the mountains to break in
her parent’s new house just outside of Colorado Springs. Court has been planning this weekend for
MONTHS, and I couldn’t be more grateful because it was just perfect! It was a long weekend full of hiking, rafting, eating, drinking, relaxing, and just having FUN with a wonderful group of ladies. Most of us came into the weekend not knowing each other, and I think it's a mutual feeling that (thanks to Court) we are stuck with each other fo life.
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| 11-mile canyon reservoir |
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| this was NO joke |
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| post-rafting hydration |
My last week in Houston was definitely bittersweet. Chad was finally starting to get semi-settled
(which I love), but I was attempting to get back in the work mindset (which I
don’t love). Chad’s sweet parents came
in town for the weekend, and Chad found us a DELICIOUS Italian restaurant just
a few blocks from his place….we mutually determined it would be our date
spot!
Saturday morning, Brian, my uncle Mark, and I hit the road
for Salado to attend the Neely family reunion.
We had a great time visiting with Nana’s family, and I learned so many interesting
things about this family that I’ve been a part of for 29 years. I was looking at one of the old family photos
just sure that I had picked out Nana. I
was talking to one of her cousins, Sue, and she told me that the beautiful lady
that I thought was my grandma was actually her.
Naturally, my reaction was “are you sure??” She gave me a look and simply replied “I
think I know who I am.” I also realized
that I was doomed to be light-skinned and freckle-faced after seeing some of
the little ones running around at the reunion….
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| cutest HOMEMADE cookies |
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| No roadtrip is complete without a Buccee's selfie! |
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| all boarded, ready for work! |
I’ve complained about all kinds of things out here from bugs
to burgers, but I had an experience Wednesday takes the cake. Now, keep in mind that I leave my house in
Houston Monday morning at 7:30AM, arrive in camp at around 11AM (Angola time)
Tuesday, and then wait for a boat that finally gets me to my room around 6PM
Tuesday night – totaling about 30 hours of traveling. So Wednesday was my first “official” day of
work, and it was loooong. I got into the
office around 5:30 in the morning and didn’t leave until about 9:30PM. I was dead as a doornail, and all I wanted
was a warm shower and my bed. I got to
my room, let the shower run for a few minutes and then got in….to a FREEZING
COLD stream of water. I jumped out
thinking that I was so exhausted I turned on the cold water, but NOPE….it was
all the way on hot. Long story short, I
took about a 30 second shower and jumped into bed a very unhappy camper. Friday night AND this morning I had the same situation. The good news is that I’ve confirmed that I
am the only one with this problem, so I wrote it down in the maintenance book
this morning. My fingers are triple crossed that things get solved quickly!
I originally planned on working 5 weeks this rotation, but it's looking more and more like I'll be here for a but longer than expected. Unfortunately, my back-to-back is going through a tough situation with his contract agency, and he's having to apply for a new visa...which means I'm going to be working a bit of over time from now to the end of the year to cover our position...more updates to come!
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| there truly is beauty in everything :) |
5 days down, ?? to go...xoxo....
