Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Family Reunion 2015!!

Last Wednesday my family and I headed to the great state of Iowa. We started planning this trip months ago, so that we could be in attendance for both my cousin's wedding as well as my grandmother's 90th birthday! We left our house Wednesday with thoughts of "We will see you Monday night Houston!", but don't let that fool you!!!


As we arrived in Des Moines, Iowa late Wednesday night, we were all just so excited to get to my aunts house and get some rest. It had been a long night of traveling, and we had an even busier five days ahead. Thursday morning we woke up fairly early, and just slowly got ready for the day. We had lunch plans at my uncle's house and then we were going to just come back and relax, catch up and just take a load off. Lunch at my uncles was fabulous, the weather was perfect, the food was delicious, but most of all the company was even better. With my family living in Houston and the rest of my mom's family living in Iowa, visits tend to be few and far in between. So when we are all together we treasure that time so much! 


Friday the girls (my mom, sister, aunt and I) headed out to get some shopping done. I am sorry but girls just can't go on a trip without doing some shopping. Although Des Moines has most of the same stores as Houston, one store they do have that we don't have is Von Maur! Y'all I am telling you from a shopping addicts perspective that store is the BEST. It is a cross between Nordstrom's and Neiman's, but it has more of the Nordstrom's prices which I LOVE.  Friday night my uncle made his famous pork tenderloin sandwiches and I was in heaven. They are literally one of my favorite foods. We stayed up really late on Friday and just chatted, and laughed about old times. It is so fun to be on the adult side of the spectrum now. No longer having to go to bed early while everyone else is still up, or just finally understanding everything the adults are talking about HAHA. 


Saturday was my cousin's wedding. The morning was crazy between hair appointments, getting my grandma ready for wedding pictures and just making sure everyone was fed and ready before 3:00pm. It was supposed to rain all day Saturday, and everyone was freaking out because the wedding was on a beautiful golf course outside. Luckily The Lord was on our side and held the rain! Thank you God! The wedding was absolutely gorgeous, it was the perfect day all around. My cousin had a live band, and I am telling you that is the way to go!! The band made the reception that much more fun. Saturday night we headed back to my aunt's house tired and danced out. That night I got some of the best sleep ever. Mind you this whole time I was/ still am battling a sinus infection!!! UGH!! 

Sunday we slept in and just relaxed. Everyone was so tired from the night before. After pretty much hanging out all day, we all got ready for my grandmother's 90th birthday party. The party was being held at a little small italian place down the road from my aunt and uncles house. It was all of our family plus 4 of my grandmother's high school best friends! I think it is so incredible that she still talks to her high school besties!! That gives me so much hope for the future!! It was a lovely party, and my grandmother was glowing from head to toe. She truly is one of a kind! So witty, smart, kind and just all around beautiful. I hope I am half of the woman she is at 90. 


Monday- Labor Day, we got packed up, had a wonderful lunch and then went on a tour to the main alcohol headquarters of Iowa. My uncle is the administrator of the Iowa Alcohol Beverage Division. We got to tour the warehouse that houses all of the alcohol in Iowa. Even though I am not a drinker, I found it to be super fascinating. It was cool to kind of learn about how all of it works. Monday late afternoon we headed to the airport to start our L O N G truck home. 

Our plane was supposed to take off at 6:30pm and arrive around 9:30pm back in Houston. After being at the airport for over 3 hours and having our flight pushed back due to mechanical issues, we final hopped on the plane at 7:30. We were about an hour into the flight and everything was going pretty smooth until BOOM- we were flying through tons of rain, thunder and lightning. It was one of the most scariest flights I have ever been on in my entire life. Finally the pilot got on the little intercom and announced that because of bad weather in Texas, we were going to have to be taken to DENVER, COLORADO!!! Say what???? DENVER??! We unloaded off the plane in Denver only to find out that we would not be getting our luggage, and that we could get it in Houston when we arrived there on Tuesday. After all of that fiasco we were shuttled to a nice hotel, to eat (mind you it's 11:30pm at this point) and sleep until we could get a flight out Tuesday at 2:15pm. We woke up Tuesday to beautiful weather in Denver, and we enjoyed a delicious breakfast at a local restaurant. We finally arrived home last night at about 8pm. It was the longest 24 hours of my life. Thankfully we came home to no flooding in our house and 2 happy happy dogs! In the midst of all the chaos we have so much to be thankful for. There are so many families who lost their homes and cars, and I just pray that they seek The Lord in these hard times. 

We surely had one of the best Labor Day weekends ever! So much family and so much fun! Now back to reality and making money ;) 


I'll leave you with some pictures of our trip, because we all know that the only reason why people read blogs, is so that they can be nosey and see people's pictures!!! 


 My beautiful cousin Laura and her husband Chris 
 My family plus my mom's sister, husband and mom
 Our whole family at my grandma's birthday celebration (don't mind my brother's goofy smile)

 My sister, cousin and I at my cousin's wedding
 Our last hooray before we said goodbye and headed on home to Houston! We love you Iowa!!!

You were so good to us Iowa and Denver, but we are so glad to be back home in Houston, where the mexican food is yummy and the weather is toasty! 


XOXOXO,

Maggie 
 
 

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