McLane Stadium

We had the opportunity to tour McLane Stadium shortly before it opened to the public last month and, y'all, it was sooooo fun. We had been working on projects surrounding the stadium for so long that it was easy to forget about how amazing and exciting this venue is for the Baylor family. And what it means for the University family as well.

So here are a few of my snapshots from the big day. :)

The Bears' locker room...

...where the managers were loading in gear for the first scrimmage. Yes, that is Bryce Petty's locker.

And I may have made a point to find our favorite British player's locker as well.

Standing on the field - particularly with that giant screen at the other end - will make anyone feel tiny, I think.

B-Tack and I snapped a quick pic for posterity's sake.

The recruit room is, well, ELECTRIC.

The President's Suite has some amazing views. And, aside from the comfy chairs, food spread and air conditioning, we pretty much have the same view. Ours is just across the stadium.

Our friends in Baylor Vision have new, swanky digs. :)

And Baylor Club is pretty sweet.

This is the view from Drayton McLane's Founder's Suite. Yes, my former boss.

And in the underground parking garage where this girl will NEVER park.

All in all, it was such a super fun experience. It was really hot by the time we were finished but well worth it. The sun was certainly shining on the Bears' new home on this fine summer day. 

And, hopefully, will continue to do so for many days ahead.

Sic 'em!

Super Hot Stock Show

So, we're still recovering from an incredibly busy (but fun) weekend. Last week was really crazy at work because we were days away from opening a little building called McLane Stadium and the weekend was jam packed. And did I mention Tonto was diagnosed with pneumonia last Thursday? Yeah, it was one of those kinda weeks. :)

By the time Friday evening rolled around, my brain was mush and we ordered pizza because an EARLY morning was looming. Like, we left the barn at 6:30am, y'all.

What we did not realize is that sweet Dottie - who celebrated her first birthday on August 21 - had gone into heat the day before we went to the show. And apparently that makes a heifer (and any other women - let's be honest) quite cantankerous.

As you can probably tell form her posture, she was just extremely excited about the upcoming showmanship competition.

She went into the ring and, the girl who is already the loudest heifer at the barn, proceeded to SCREAM the ENTIRE time. Taylor was absolutely mortified and her hot pink Magellan shirt was a sweaty mess by the time she got out of the ring. As you might guess, she was not AT ALL happy with her cow.

Beefmasters were the first breed to show so it was time to show in Class 2 very soon. And the girl went from distraught to super excited because she was her first BLUE stock show ribbon. Yep, FIRST in her class!

Now, these classes weren't large (many heifer shows don't have big classes) but she got a blue ribbon, a payout of $38 and a big boost in confidence. Which is really the main thing we were trying to accomplish, to be quite honest. When she reentered for Champion Drive, the judge told her "this heifer has a tremendous future and I hope to have the privilege of watching her progress."

Um...WOW!!!

Granted, each judge likes something different but sweet Taylor - and Dottie too probably - needed some sweet encouragement. And I'm so incredibly thankful they got it last weekend.

As we waited HOURS for the show to finish up (we didn't get home until almost 5pm) while temps climbed to 100 degrees, I realized something: stock show kiddos - and their parents - are VERY committed. Also, fat does not have a boiling point. Because if it did, I'd be a size zero today, friends. :)

Hello, High School!

So this week brought back structure, routine and the beginning of Miss Taylor's high school career. She was a bit nervous about finding all of her classes at what is a pretty large school but she hasn't gotten lost at all this week. We picked up one of her friends on the way so they could walk in together. From what I hear, most of her crew did the same with someone who lived close by. :)

She was a little on edge that morning and asked if she could take a first day pic at school and send it to me. So here she and Emily are close to the end of the day...and they look 20, y'all. How did this happen???

She has several classes that she truly loves in addition to those pesky core classes. All in all, this has been a really good first week. She's gotten up on time, had a healthy breakfast every morning, got her work done, worked with her animals daily, and had family dinners each night. Since I'm in the middle of McLane Stadium opening weekend projects and Tonto was diagnosed with pneumonia yesterday, I'm just gonna call those basics WINNING because it's been about survival the past few years. :)

She also went to youth group Wednesday night and apparently took some cute pics. Love this girl soooo much and her new love of fashion, shopping and accessories has given me a new window into her likes and dislikes. Love it. Even if it's about to break me. :)

Happy Labor Day weekend, y'all!

Lovin' on Livestock

The end of summer brought a new member of the livestock family. Meet Sprocket, friends. He joined us a few weeks ago and, honestly, came about much sooner than we had anticipated. But it's apparently been a banner year for show goat sales and it became pretty apparent that we needed to get one soon if we were going to get one at all. :)

Our breeder got out of the business this year so we ended up at a place in Rogers that we'd never heard of before; however, the people were so sweet and they take really good care of their animals (and place a lot of importance on genetics and switching on their stud regularly) so I'm sure we'll be back again next year.

Taylor decided to name her next goat Sprocket a long time ago. Like, in the middle of last show season, but it became very clear to me that she had gotten the one that was MEANT TO BE when we learned that his dad's name is Rocket. And he's a pretty good looking goat too. :)

Of course, lots of time has been spent with sweet Dottie throughout the summer months and she's actually going to her second show this weekend. And this time we won't be at a national points show so hopefully that will mean a little less stress for everyone involved. :)

Gotta love the livestock life, right?

Kayaking on the Brazos

The day after we came back from the beach, we dropped Tiny off at daycare and had some more mature fun. Taylor had really been wanting to try paddle boarding and kayaking so we headed to the Baylor Marina where she and Hallie tried their hand at the ol' board.

In fact, Taylor was pretty darn good at it and even managed to stand up for most of the time. Though she will tell you that it was difficult and, while she was happy to check this one off her bucket list, it's probably not something she will try on a weekly basis.

Isn't she cute?

After a while, the girls decided to try something a bit more stable like kayaking.

And, yes, Tonto and I made our way down to McLane Stadium to get a look at the new home of the Bears from the middle of the Brazos River. 

It was a really fun afternoon and it was also a pretty good upper body workout. We will definitely go kayaking again but I'm not sure the girls will try paddle boarding again any time soon. :)

Wrapping It Up

Our very last day of vacation found the girls sleeping in while Tonto and I literally chugged cup after cup of coffee in the hotel lobby because a tiny person - who won't be named - did not sleep well AT ALL the night before. But it's better that it happened the last night than in the middle of the week, I guess. :)

We headed out to Kemah, which wasn't packed at all, and the girls got their ride wristbands. I rode one ride - the wooden roller coaster that was closed when we were there last year - and it was ROUGH. Also, my child may have screamed the entire way. And made some very sad sounding pleas for someone to let her off said ride. 

Clearly they recovered quickly, though, because they were up for silly pics immediately after.

We walked down the boardwalk and the girls fed the fish. Or, rather, tried to feed the fish. Those ducks were vicious, friends.

Tonto carried Tiny around like this so that she wouldn't get a sunburn. Baby girls make some people less tough. Or so I've heard. Just saying'. :)

Pretty sure this is the only pic he and I took together all week. My photos, in general, kinda lack this year BUT I had a really good reason. And much less time on my hands than usual.

The girls rode a few more rides...

...and then we headed to eat at The Aquarium. None of us had eaten here before but the atmosphere was amazing. The food was ok but the aquariums made up for it.

The girls spent a lot of time like this...kinda typical, I guess.

This dessert looks amazing. I know. I had high hopes. And it was just kinda ok. Which was disappointing. But, in my defense, I didn't choose it. Personally I would have gone for the creme brûlée. :)

Once back outside, we took a few more pics...

...and I'm kind in love with this one, honestly...

...before the girls did a bit more souvenir shopping.

They had plans to ride a few more rides before heading home but things got much busier while we were eating and they were tired so we set out for Waco. And Tiny proceeded to SCREAM until we got to Bryan and stopped because, well, SOMETHING had to give. Thankfully, Tonto got her to sleep and she remained that way until we got to the house.

And that wrapped up Tiny's first vacay. One that was super sweet, filled with fun memories, saw its share of good fun, was a great balance between beachin' and activity, and brought us yet another week closer to Taylor starting high school.

But that's a different story for a different day.

Sweet Summer Saturday

We usually try to avoid tourist-y attractions on weekends when we're on vacation but this year it kind of couldn't be avoided the way things worked out. That being said, we truly didn't experience much of a crowd at all in Galveston (probably due to the massive seaweed explosion) so it really wasn't an issue this time. :)

After a very lazy morning, we headed to Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Always a must-do and always super fun.

Tiny loooooved all of the animals and water. In fact, our server was shocked that she was so good and didn't cry. Apparently that doesn't happen often. Clearly she's a prodigy. Ha!

Unfortunately, Tonto did not enjoy the mattress at the hotel the night before and was having some relatively major back issues. Which explains why he and Tiny, who was taking a nap, hung out at the picnic table while the girls and I played mini golf.

Taylor cracks me up when we play because she is super serious or super not. And it changes from hole to hole - you just never know what you're gonna get.

I'm not sure why I find this pic so funny but it makes me laugh every single time.

And here's the one when she actually looked. 

Hallie, on the other hand, was intent on kicking our behinds on this particular day. And, well, she most certainly did. 

After our 18 holes, we went up the road and tried our hand at go carts. Taylor gets nervous about driving period so she was really cautious. And her greatest fear is being spun around, stuck or causing a wreck. So the look on her face when Hallie spun her around and both of them got stuck - because Taylor was taking the turn too cautiously - was priceless.

I, on the other hand, grew up on a go cart track (southern Louisiana has its perks, y'all) and I totally lapped everyone. At least once. Pretty sure Tonto has never been more proud. Seriously.

After wrapping up some souvenir shopping at Wings (also a must), we headed over to Seabrook for the night. Our plan was to hit Kemah the next day (we tried to go ahead and do it that night but, hello, major crowd) so we had dinner at Mario's Flying Pizza. Y'all. It's sooooo good. We happened upon it last year and were intent on trying it again.

After dinner, we headed over to Pelican Path (different pelican statues are spread throughout Seabrook and it's a super fun element) and I remembered how much I love this shirt. :)

The pelicans are really bright and shiney, which is right up Tiny's alley.

The girls also found them to be great places to pose.

At the end of the path, there was a nice fountain. Not only did Tiny love it but - you guessed it - it totally put her to sleep. Again. Clearly we need to give up the radio in her room and invest in an ocean sound machine instead.

Once back at the hotel, we just lounged and were lazy. Tonto, Tiny and I watched Fast and Furious while the girls went to the pool for a while. The baby did NOT sleep well that night and it was rough for everyone. But Kemah was up before we headed home... :)