JASPER!!

Enough said....

Ha. I love this small town in south east Texas. It is beautiful driving into town as you make your way through the Angelina National Forest. I didn't get a picture because I was driving and Hubs was too tired to get the camera out. Trust me, it's beautiful.

We took off on Thursday morning earlier than we intended. I think we were all so stinking excited to see our dear friends, that none of us could sleep. We were on our way with smiles, snacks, and drinks to get us through the LONG 8 hours ahead of us. It all went downhill FAST!! We got about 1 hour from our house when going down the highway at 75 mph our front passenger side tire BLEW!!! Talk about scary, I was horrified. Now if you know myself or Hubs then you know that neither of us know NOTHING about cars. Hubs has changed a flat before, in our garage with the help of our neighbor (who we were on our way to see). Now here we are on the side of the highway, loaded down with luggage and our two precious girls. We are about 1.5 feet off the highway. Not much room which made Hubs even all the more nervous. You see and hear about people running into the back of cars on the highway so our adrenaline was running high while we read in the auto manual how to change a flat tire. Oh and I forgot to mention that my lovely oldest child who has tons of FEARS and HIG ANXIETY is FREAKING out inside the car. (not helping us). My youngest child thinks this is all pretty cool. We finally get the jack out from under the seat, get the spare tire down, and start loosening the lug nuts. Let me remind you that this whole process has taken us about 25 minutes. Finally, by God's doing a trucker stops on the OPPOSITE side of the highway, crosses over to see if we needed help. Thankfully he did because we couldn't get the tire off. He had to run back across the highway to grab a hammer out of his truck. Im praying that this man doesn't get hit running across all 4 lanes of this popular traveled highway. We finally get the tire off, spare on, and put all the "tools" away. We're finally back on the road.

We had planned on stopping by and checking on our house in Keller but then decided it would be more important to stop and get a new tire just in case we should blow another we would have our spare. We spent another hour waiting for TWO new tires to be put on. We are running WAY behind schedule and I don't like it at all.

Thankfully the rest of our drive (last 5 hours) was uneventful and smooth. We finally made it to our friends house and everyone was beyond excited.

Madeline and Rachel seeing each other for the first time. In the background is Hubs and Mark.

We unloaded the car and decided to go eat. Well, all the girls did. The boys stayed and watched the OSU vs. A&M game. It was SO good to see Kristie and catch up. I really miss her.

We stuck around the house for the rest of the night. Friday, we got up and went shopping, had lunch, and took the kids out to swim and ride the golf cart while the men went to play golf. It was a beautiful day. Friday night was football night. Colby (their son) plays for the varsity team.

Girls ready to cheer on the Bulldogs!!

Our Best Friends!!

Our Family!! Go Bulldogs!!

Scoreboard before the game. We wont show the end result!!

Go #20!!

Saturday we got up and went to the Fall Festival in town. Mind you this is a very small town and it took us longer to drive to the festival than it did to walk around it. There were booths of people selling crafts, companies advertising, food, and a few games for the kids. The girls loved the DARE car.

Posing with the DARE car.

That afternoon we went to watch Rachel cheer on her football team. They were so cute and she did a great job.

Go Bulldogs, GO!!

Rachel after the game!

Once the game was over we convinced the guys that since we had the kids the past 2 days that it was their turn to keep them and we (Kristie, her oldest Kaleigh, and her sister Kim) were going to Lufkin (closest town with a mall) to shop. We had a great time. We laughed a lot and got lots of good buys. It was nice to just get to hang out. However, I knew that Sunday was just a few short hours away and it was going to be time to say our goodbyes. I had been looking forward to going to Jasper for a month and at the same time dreaded having to say those goodbyes again. The first time was hard enough.

Sunday came and we packed and loaded the car. It was time!!! We put it off for as long as we could but then with LOTS of tears, long hugs, and lots of I LOVE YOU'S we said goodbye and vouched that we'd see each other in December or January. I don't know if I can make it that long. I told Hubs on the way down there that I really didn't like there being EIGHT hours between us and his reply was me either but it makes it harder for us to just get in and drive here. I would trade the hurt of saying goodbye 100 times for the fabulous time we had together.

So that was our trip to South East Texas. Till next time.