Jan 22
Uncle John and Aunt Robyn had a truly outstanding time seeing family and friends in Texas over the holidays. Our highlights were around seeing our 5 1/2 month old niece, Alexis!
Her Christmas dress was precious:
Santa brought Alexis a cool horse that makes noise!
Alexis loves to smile!!
It was fun to see Alexis again – since the first time we met her, was when she was just born in July.
Love being an Aunt,
Robyn
Our hotel room door opened and my breath was taken away. John had outdone himself. Deep reds and orange hues decorated the room. It had a spacious living room and a huge dining table. One entire wall of windows overlooked the Riverwalk. I’m convinced it was one of the best views in San Antonio!
I quickly observed the only bed – a massive King bed with a stunning canopy overhead. It was something I would imagine royalty to have in their castles.
I had a million thoughts running through my mind. Was I Julia Roberts in “Pretty Woman”? What did John have planned? What was expected of me? Yikes!
I was determined that despite the drastic change in how I envisioned the trip to go, it was going to be more amazing than I envisioned. My kind, innocent Texan was attempting to sweep me off my feet.
John suggested we go for a walk and explore the famous Riverwalk. I was relieved that I had bought a dress earlier that day, that I could ’slip’ into. After we freshened up we went exploring.
Happily Married and Living With Passion,
Robyn
P.S. Check back later this week for another chapter 
Happy New Year!
If you’ve missed a chapter of this love story
Dec 21
John and I are SUPER excited to be Texas bound on Thursday morning. Only 3 more sleeps…
It’ll be fun to be part of our niece Alexis’ first Christmas.
John had a blast wrapping Alexis & Sloan’s Christmas gifts. His thought was that they needed something easy to grab and tear open He left it open, loose, and saggy like this!
Have fun sharing the joy of life with others! Merry Christmas.
Jul 13
I not only survived the Calgary Stampede – I’m feeling fantastic. I often get quite exhausted and the stress takes a toll on me from an intense short term contract. However, I came into this 12 day contract with a different attitude. I had a blast and am excited to escape with my amazing husband for a few days.
We’re Texas bound this morning! John and I are headed south for a hot summer visit. We’ll see family, friends, and soak in the rays. John has been reading lots the last couple weeks…
Today, he was enjoying The Starbucks Experience. It seemed rather fitting because I won a bet and he bought me Starbucks for breakfast!!
We normally fly to DFW directly, however this trip - we tried Continental Airlines. They were fantastic! You actually get meals included for free – so we were offered breakfast. You also get FREE movies. We would highly recommend this airline.
We connected in Houston and enjoyed Mexican food!! Surprise, surprise
Pappasitos, true authentic Tex Mex - love Texas fast food experiences. (You may recall that we ate at another location last trip). 
We picked up our car and the temperature gage said 41C (105F) – yikes!
Despite having a fabulous week at the Calgary Stampede, we crashed when we arrived at our hotel and caught up on some much needed sleep. Tonight we met up with my girlfriend Kattie from University.
Our preference for dinner – Mexican of course We had a fantastic feast at On The Border.
After stuffing ourselves with amazing cuisine, we went to Wal Mart to walk our dinner off. I love that its open 24 hours a day. Can you believe that it is still 38C (100F) at 10pm at night?
Night time – big day tomorrow at the waterpark!!
May 23
Hope you find inspiration in making a fun breakfast AND take away a few ideas on how to ramp up your presentation when doing everything in life! Food always tastes better when it’s presented fabulous and your mouth waters before you even take the first bite.
Make sure you grease the inside of the cookie cutter
I thought I was so clever…until it was time to flip it and the “nice” side of my pancake an inverted shape of Texas!
So I followed the 4H motto ”learn to do by doing”, and made a second attempt!
Ta da…
After my final touches, my impressed spouse exclaimed, “That is the difference between a $4 and a $10 breakfast!”
I’ve always had a travel bug and was excited to explore Texas at every opportunity! I had visited with some new girlfriends about taking a trip to San Antonio for a weekend. The date was set, so I researched what the attractions were and looked into accommodation that fit into my college budget! I was so excited to head south the first weekend of October.
Then conflicting commitments came up for my travelling partners! However, I was bound and determined not to let that affect my plan – I was going with or without!
During one of my riveting American government study sessions with Mr. Texas, my upcoming adventure to San Antonio came up! John expressed interest in travelling down with me for the weekend! WOW – I was surprised and excited, a new male companion didn’t faze me. I was an extremely independent woman that had just spent the past two school years travelling with a team of guys. I looked forward to the trip – to have someone familiar with Texas to accompany me and make the drive more fun!
I was packed and ready to go! John asked me to meet him at one of the dorm parking lots where we left his vehicle. He was insistent that his car was out of sight of his roommates, because he was a very private person and it was none of their business what he did on the weekends (I later learned that it was very out of character for John to be this spontaneous and travel with a woman!). I wasn’t concerned, my roommate, a couple girlfriends, and my parents knew that I was going on a road trip with John!
Oh just thinking about this road trip sends butterflies through me!! To be continued…
Happily Married and Living with Passion,
Robyn
Mar 16
Hey ya’ll!!
Hope you’re doing amazing!! Just got back from our fabulous trip to Texas for the wedding and going on a mini road-trip! I’ve been thrown back into reality and have a full schedule this week HOWEVER whenever I can, I’m going to get a few more pics up and details from our getaway!
This was my hubby and I’s first trip since I’ve started blogging! He is slowly getting used to me snapping pics of everything! He doesn’t quite understand why I can’t just enjoy the scenery and experiences (like I usually do – because often pictures of gorgeous things don’t do the situation justice), I keep telling him I am, but I want to share my passion with others also!! He he…this is going to be a journey and process, I realize!!
Thanks again for all your fabulous posts about what I should capture by photo – it was a huge help and inspiration!
The first thing we did when we arrived in Texas was EAT!! he he…I thought about posting a pretty picture from Texas as the opening photo of this post, but it wasn’t fitting! My hubby and I LOVE Mexican Food (well…the proper description is probably Tex Mex!) – so we wanted to enjoy as much we could while we were south! Mmm…fresh chips and salsa!! AND yes – I did enjoy the feature Margarita – the Horny Toad! This amazing meal was enjoyed at Pappasitos!
We drove south in the rain – yes, there wasn’t a lot of sunshine, rainbows, and lollipops! However, we enjoyed the drive and our amazing visit to Fredricksburg, Texas in gorgeous Hill Country, east of Austin! Most of the stores had lovely signs that said NO pictures or drawings of what you see! Well…I was sneaky and captured a few pics by turning off my flash – yikes!
We saw beautiful countryside, enjoying the diverse geographic areas of Texas – from cacti to the plains! I managed to sweet talk my hubby into stopping a few times on the side of the road to take some pictures of the beautiful rock, cactus’ and my favorite – Bluebonnets - the official Texas flower!
THEN the whole reason for going back to Texas this trip – the WEDDING!! I don’t know that I mentioned it was going to be in a barn and would be a bit Redneck! It was SO much fun and perfect for the couple! Here is a glimpse of my new sister-in-love! We are SO excited for the newlyweds!
More pictures and details to come from our Texas trip…PLUS I have to report back with pictures of all the requests!! Make someone smile today!
Mar 9
John and I are headed to Texas on Wednesday for his brother’s wedding this weekend! (SO excited to escape this wintery weather – I’m still convinced that Mother Nature is confused!) While visiting Texas I’m going to capture pictures of our travels and post them, so you can see how amazing Texas is and just why I love it so much!
I can’t promise my photos will be postcard quality since I will be taking them with my trusty generic compact digital – but I know they will have Robyn flair and make you smile!! One day I would love to take a photography class…that’s on my bucket list! Anyhoo…back to my point…
I’ve decided to make this a CONTEST! A fabulous way to kick off a Monday morning and new week! What do you think I should take pictures of? What would you like to see? I’m going to GIVE AWAY a $10 Starbucks Gift Card randomly to one lucky person that comments on this blog entry! Write away…and let me know what you’d like to see!! Who doesn’t LOVE winning something either! Oh, I love surprising people!
Entries will close at 12 Noon MST (daylight savings time!!) tomorrow (Tuesday, March 10), so I can get the winner’s coffee money in the mail before I leave (unless of course the winner is a US diva or dude – then I can pick-up your prize while I’m south of border!) PLUS I’m going to sweeten the pot and let the winner Pay It Forward…more details tomorrow. Hope you’re having an amazing day!
THE WINNER IS….drum roll please…..Shelagh!!
Congratulations!! I’m guessing the fact that you have 4 kids and that children energy – helped – because the little guy next door drew your name out! I spotted him when I was cleaning my walk and needed someone else to do the honors! Hip hip horray for you! Please be sure to check out the Texas Bound Twist entry – so you know to Pay It Forward with the 1st Starbucks Gift Card you receive!
