Mighty Fine

It seems like almost every time we visit Mighty Fine Burgers and Fries something interesting happens. When we lived near the North Austin location, we'd randomly see church friends there all the time. Now that we're patrons of the South Austin location, we haven't seen any church friends there, but...one of the first times we ate there an old lady told us that we were good parents (so nice!), and the last time we ate there a middle-aged woman gave us five dollars for our "angel girl." Henry and I joked that we were finally capitalizing on Elle's cuteness.

Tonight there was a group of 12 year old boys that stood in line in front of us and then sat at the table in front of ours. I'm pretty sure the birthday boy took a picture of me with his cell phone (and then played it off by saying he was trying to get a selfie of his friends when I said, "did you just take a picture of me??") because later he turned and yelled "you're a hottie!" in our general direction. I can only guess that the message was intended for me and not my toddler or husband, so thanks, kid. I was feeling particularly bulbous and unattractive today. Mama's still got it at 4 months pregnant.

The cherry on top: I'd be willing to bet that the birthday boy goes to the same church as us (different congregation, same building or a different congregation in our stake). My Mormon-dar immediately went off when I saw the parents, while chatting in line the mom told me they have six kids, and Henry overheard a friend of the parents talking about the Barton Creek ward. That'd be fun to cross paths in the hall.

The Barbie Tree

Growing up, I was a bit of a girly girl. I tried to like sports, but my coordination was pretty awful until I reached the age of 14ish (and even then it wasn't that great). P.E. in elementary school was okay--except for that whole Punt, Pass, and Kick thing--but P.E. in junior high was a nightmare. It was the only class I made a B in from grades 6-8. But I digress.

Girly. I loved makeup and jumped at the chance to give anyone a makeover who would let me. I also really, really loved Barbies, and I owned a lot of them. I played with them a lot a lot too. Somewhere between the ages of 10 and 25 I lost the desire to actually play with them though, so now my beloved Barbies are boxed, safely under the guardianship of my parents' shed.

But evidently my love of Barbie has not completely waned, because each year when I go home, I find myself drawn to The Barbie Tree.

Behold, The Barbie Tree!

It's white, and it doesn't have a gazillion mismatched ornaments like my parents' other tree...and all of those Barbie ornaments have been given to me as Christmas gifts over the years. I dare you to guess how many Barbie ornaments I received for Christmas this year. 

Did you guess? 

The answer is four. I received a fifth ornament, but it wasn't Barbie; it was Crayola, the other type of Hallmark ornament I collect (all thanks to my mom). Normally I don't get so many in one year, but Mom said it was too hard to choose which one to buy this year. They make too many cute ones.

 I'm not complaining; this is one of the cuties I received. A Barbie shoe tree!

While I was at home, I practiced using the manual setting on my camera and got up-close and personal with some of the Barbies.

I know it'd look ridiculous on me, but I'd kind of like to try on her outfit.

Jackie O., is that you?

50th anniversary Barbie. My mom has an original like this. Very cool.

Polished and professional Barbie.

Trophy Wife Barbie? She seems a little uppity to me with one hand on her hip and the other clutching her gold necklace.

If a Barbie ornament were to be made in my likeness, I think it'd look a lot like this. Blue outfit, pencil skirt, camera in hand. She just needs to be a brunette.

See?

Whitewater Rafting in Frisco

I've spent a good amount of time today trying to organize and group our vacation pictures, and I can't help but wonder WHY we took so many! It's a bit overwhelming now, but I'm sure once I start really looking through them and editing, I'll be glad we have them. I've already stumbled across a few that make my heart go pitter patter.

Since I haven't edited any of our own personal photos yet, I thought I'd make it easy on myself and write about our whitewater rafting trip. It happened to be one of my favorite things we did on this vacation, and we bought the action shots from the rafting company, meaning I don't have to edit anything just yet.

So let's begin, shall we?

Our friend Bill {one of Henry's former roommates, piano-playin' singles ward compadre who once rode his bike from Austin to Anchorage, Alaska!} drove over from Boulder to meet us in Frisco, CO for our little whitewater rafting expedition.

We chose the Blue River Half Day Trip for its moderate II-III class rating. We didn't want anything too scary for my mom or for me. It was definitely a good choice for our first ever whitewater rafting experience. Definitely not boring, but I wasn't scared either...except for beforehand when they were going over all of the safety measures and made it sound inevitable that someone would go a'swimming on our trip. Mom and I were about ready to back out then. But once we got in the water and started rowing, I thought it was awesome.

Here we are pre-safety talk. Bill said I looked prepared for any number of outdoor adventures.

Enjoying some beautiful scenery...

Now we're getting to the good stuff. You'll notice that in this picture our guide, Ben, is flying up in the air. That wasn't supposed to happen, but isn't it cool that they caught it on camera?

And here he is coming back down into the raft where seconds later he'll collide with my lower back. My mom thought I was falling out of the raft. It all happened so fast I had no idea what was going on. They tell you before the trip to tuck your feet into the sides of the raft, and after Ben fell on me, half of my leg was up in the raft. I felt reeeally safe then.

And here's our group back on land. No swimmers here.

This reminds me of my least favorite part of the experience: having to wear a smelly, already wet and therefore cold wetsuit and a pair of nasty, wet water shoes. It wasn't that uncomfortable, but it really grossed me out. So, if you ever go whitewater rafting, hit up Academy beforehand for some cheap water shoes...just in case. My mom was very happy she did.

After our very exciting whitewater rafting adventure we said goodbye to Bill and headed across the street to the weirdest A&W chain I've ever seen. Upon first glance it just seemed kitschy. After we had ordered I noticed the religious pamphlets on Messianic Judaism next to the cash register {one caught my eye because it mentioned UT Austin}. Then I noticed the Psalm 1 {if I remember correctly} wood carvings above the doorways, and the scripture out on the marquee. The playing of the national anthem while we were dining was really just the icing on the cake. I placed my hand over my heart and had to laugh as I saw an older gentleman doing the same across the room.

I'm not the only one who delighted in discovering this gem; you can read the articles Fast-Food Salvation and Thank God for Root Beer Floats {like that a lot}. On the more serious side, you can also read about how the Bible references were taken down for a little while.

So, the moral of this story is...if ever you should find yourself in Frisco, CO, you might want to check out a Performance Tours rafting trip, and you definitely want to check out the divine A&W. Because God so loved the world, He gave us Jesus, ice cream, fish, and curds. Yes. Yes, He did.