Everything's bigger in Texas!! {Surprise Blate Part 1 of 2!!}

I am back from such an incredible, perfect and beautiful 4th of July week/weekend with the best people and HOLY CRAPOLA I have so much to share!! I want to split this into 2 posts just because there is too much to say in one!

Let’s start in February. I remember the day perfectly because I was working from home during a monster blizzard. I got a group text from Shalyn and Katie was on it too. It went a little something like this…. “Y’all should come visit Texas for the 4th of July and we surprise Steph!” From there, it was ON. For the next few months, there were daily group texts sharing excited squeals, questions, planning surprises, nerves, the whole shebang.

I won’t lie when I say I must have almost slipped about 10 trillion times to Steph by accident! A few times I had to delete my text chain with her in fear I would text her by mistake haha! The plan was finally carved out. Katie went to Houston the night before (Tuesday) to surprise Steph! See the video here---OHH MAN it is just so good! Makes me want to cry how happy it is!! We texted Katie as she landed and then vowed not to text her again until Kurt, Shay, DDHP and I got there…just in case something happened or Steph saw a text---Kurt and I were the second part of the surprise :-)

Kurt and I had an early flight Wednesday morning from Boston to Austin where the one and only Shalyn greeted us with open arms and screams at the airport!! It made me so happy to finally see her teeny little pretty self in Drews monster truck haha! We spent the day in Austin and met Drew Drew Hot Pants for some delicious barbeque at Stubs BBQ! I’ll tell ya…I have a special place in my heart for Austin. I just love it so much, plus it rhymes with Boston….so it’s pretty much a win win! Plus, my loves Shay and DDHP live there :-) Kurt quickly fell in love with Texas too!

The plan for the night was to drive to Beau’s aunts GOOOORGEOUS ranch house at the Frio River, but make a stop in San Antonio for drinks/food with everyone, including Beau and Stephs awesome friends Brian, Ashley and Todd, to surprise Steph! Kurt and I were excellent backseat hiders, while Shay and Drew sent a pic to Steph in the car saying “On the way!!” We must have checked the picture a zillion times to make sure you couldn’t see us in the backseat.

The surprise went over flawlessly! Beau even captured it on video! We had Kurt go up to Steph asking if the table next to her was free. Steph had never met Kurt before (only seen him in pictures) so we were hoping she saw him and was confused enough to BARELY recognize him. It worked!

Watching this video and Katie’s video just make me SO happy! Surprising someone like this in their home state, having everything planned out with everyone else and geared for an amazing week is so much fun. The daily group chats with Shay, Katie and even Beau! This is honestly something I will never forget. Seeing Stephs surprise face where she is basically just like HOLY F was priceless!! I loved getting to finally hug her after over a year of not seeing her and Beau! And Katie's pretty face who I also had not seen in over a year! Seeing all of their faces together was just so surreal, I smile so big thinking about it as I type it! :-) All of these girls--Shay, Katie and Steph have such a special place my heart.

That night on the way to the river, we made a pit-stop at Walmart for some goods and Harlem Shaked it in the aisle. Check out Steph’s instagram for that video haha! I saw the box of Honey Buns and knew they had to go on my ass.

We got to the ranch house that night around midnight and met Beau’s aunt. Holy bajoley she is one of the sweeeeeetest ladies I’ve ever met, and opened up her gorgeous home to 10 crazy kids. Add in miss Oakley, and a bunch of other dogs/cats/animals and we had a huge crew :-) Seeing the beautiful ranch house and its surroundings made me appreciate the great outdoors. We don’t get to see this sort of natural beauty here in Massachusetts.

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with allllll the shenans and pictures of our Texas Ho-Down Ranch Life weekend!! I was also taught how to two-step…am I considered a true Texan now!?! :-) Seriously though...I miss these people so so much!