Soaking up all the summer fun!

This girl loves her some jammies and Grams got her some new ones.

Taylor and I did an essential dorm shopping run, I might have cried more than a handful of times while we were there.

Kendall went to the infra red sauna with me, she said she has never sweated so much in her entire life.

Marley got a haircut and looks like a young pup again.

Friday, Ryan and I headed to Fort Worth.

Meet up with the Abilene crews and Lackeys for dinner and celebrated Cade and Ryan's birthday.

Loaded the bus

Morgan Wallen time!!!

The fire was electric with energy

Clay, Cade, John, Ryan, and Matt

Concerts and company were fantastic!

"Playground" aka Alison, Clara, Avery, Meredith, and Katie came in for a visit.

All the girls after church

Then we all went out on the lake

Meanwhile, Taylor is in Florida with her nanny family at Disney World and she got to see her favorite, Buzz! 

July video clips:

living their best lives

The girls were working and living their best lives while we were gone.

Elli and Kendall

They spent a few days at the lake with a bunch of friends

They took a trip to San Antonio to see Aunt Jennifer, Avery, Alison, and Papa

Goodbye, so sad

Woke up to a bit of a delayed flight, which should have been a good hint of how the day would go, but I walked to grab a coffee while Ryan was still sleeping.

 

The grounds are beautiful

Headed to the airport to start travel home and the biggest nightmare

We flew from St. Thomas to Atlanta which was fine, once we landed in Atlanta and got off the plane it all changed.  I have never seen anything in real life like this, we literally couldn't walk, it was packed, wall to wall people- just standing, sitting, laying as far as you could see.  It was insane!  There was a global internet glitch that affecting all aspects of flying.  As soon as we landed we got notifed that our flight was canceled, not delayed just canceled.  Robbie and Celise flight was landed and just delayed.  We tried to get on stand-by and were number 31 & 32, so not a chance that was happening.  The line to talk to  Delta was the entire length of the terminal and wrapped around.  I was on my phone trying to book a flight with any airline to any city in and area Austin and everything was book for the day and for the next few days.  I told Ryan we were going to have to rent a car and drive, he thought I was INSANE but I just had a feeling so I headed to the rental car area (which is 2 levels) and started going kiosk to kiosk trying to rent a car, one by one they were sold out or were not doing one way rentals.  I was in the last lane and they had a car!!  As I was checking out the manager came out and said no more one way rentals and they were sold out!  I was so thankful!  By this this time Robbie and Celise's flight had been canceled and there were no flights available for the next two days.  So we all four jumped in our rental without any luggage and started the 14 hour drive back to Austin!  

A few stops later, VERY little sleep, almost 1,000 miles we made it back home! 

Even though the travel left alot to be desired I am not complaining it was a trip of a life time!

Here is Celise and I's vlog of the travel day.

BVI's- Day 7

 Last morning coffee on the boat.

After breakfast we sailed to St. John to go through customs

Then we sailed to St. Thomas and said good bye to the boat and crew.

Captain Tom and Chef Joe truly made this trip.  They are incredible at their job, made everything so much fun, took care of all the details, took us to the best places, and felt like they were part of the group.

We are not heading home just yet, we are staying the night on the island.

We spent the rest of the day in the pool that looked out over the ocean.

When we were at the pool bar I noticed that we had a vistor.  I told the bar tender and she didn't believe me till all of a sudden....

it came crawling up the stool and hopped on the bar.  The bartenders freaked out and one of them jumped up and started yelling and shoeing it away.  We were dying laughing.

Our room had these cool chairs on the balcony.

That evening we went to Old Stone Farmhouse for dinner, it is in a 200 year old, restored planation field house.  

Perfect relaxing way to end the week.

BVI's- Day 6

 We had "map class" every morning during/after breakfast.  Captain would bring out the map, ask us where we were and then show and tell us the plan for the day on where we were heading.  We didn't have a set plan when we started, we gave them a list of island we would like to go and then left everything else up to them.  We figured this is their playground and they know it best might as well let them show us around.   

We sailed to The Indians, they are uninhabited small archipelago of islets.  People think from a distance that they look like a Native American's head dress.  They are known to have good snokeling as well.

Celise did go so she got some pics of us on our way.

Next up was Norman Island to explore and snorkel the three coves.

There was a huge sea turtle that swam right by us, I wasn't quick enough to get a good pic.

The first cave, they are not very deep so you have to be really careful and tread water so you don't step on sea orchins or coral.  The current was pretty strong and I didn't grab a life jacket or noodle from the boat (dumb move on my part) so after the first cave I had to swim back to the dingy while the rest of them did the second two caves.

When we got back to the boat Chef Tom had more amazing food waiting for us.

We sailed to the other side of Norman Island to Willie T's.  It is a floating pirate ship that is a bar/restuarnt in the bay.  

It is a tradition for the girls to get a Willie T's tattoo from the bartenders, Celise was first up

Also to jump off the second deck before you can have your first shot.

Celise, Tom, and I went first- it was fun!

Then the entire group went together

We hung out and had way to many drinks at Willie T's so we took the dingy to shore and grab a snack at the resort right there before heading back to the boat.

Chef Tom had dinner for us, we had a late night dance party, enjoyed the last night on the boat to the fullest.