Hico...mmmm good!

First of all, I will apologize for doing a terrible job of blogging this semester! It was a long and tough semester for me-extremely busy- so I will be much better at adding posts now.

I'll start of with my Dad's birthday last Saturday. We went to Hico, Texas for a steak festival! It was amazing! Hor dourves were served starting at 10:00, there was a wine tasting from 1:00-4:00 and a steak dinner at 5:00. I highly recommend it if next May if you can go!

 Dad, me & Jordan

 No this tattoo is not real-it's a temporary one that is a logo from one of the groups that was making steaks!

 Mom and Dad at the wine tasting

 Jordan and me at the wine tasting-they were all Texas wines

 Please excuse my dorky hat-it's my pool hat and it sure was hot and sunny so I didn't really care what I looked like!

 Dad enjoying his steak dinner

All the groups lined up along the square in downtown Hico-they were competing for best hor dourves and best steak and we enjoyed it all!

HAPPY EASTER!

Giada!

Wednesday, Giada De Laurentiis came to Dallas for a book signing of her new cookbook. She is my favorite on the Food Network, and I watch her all the time so I was really excited! My mom and I reserved our cookbooks in advance to secure our spot to meet her a few weeks ago. It was way more crowded than I thought at the book signing! We waited for 2 hours, haha! But we had a great time!After the book signing we went and had sangria. mmmm.
Waiting in line. It was beautiful weather, thank goodness!
The line! These pictures don't really do it justice-it's a very long and winding line!
The line.

Happy 1st day of Spring!

In honor of Spring, I planted a container garden today. I'm attempting to grow tomatoes, jalapeños, chives, basil, and rosemary. I've been trying to upload a photo but I'm having a lot of trouble so maybe I can get it to work later.

The Color Run!

Sunday Jordan and I ran a 5k called the Color Run. You run through different stations of color until you are covered in rainbow colors! How often do you get to be all crazy-looking like this?!!!

Before the race, all clean and in the car trying to stay warm

Our team of 6 before and after

Sunday Jordan and I ran a 5k called the Color Run. You run through different stations of color until you are covered in rainbow colors! How often do you get to be all crazy-looking like this?!!!

Spewing Beer!

My parents took us to the Franconia Brewery in McKinney as part of Jordan's birthday present. It is a small brewery that we had discovered so we thought a tour would be fun. Well, something crazy happened while we were on the tour! Here's the news story from WFAA:

McKINNEY — Two people were injured Saturday in an explosion at a small brewery in northeast McKinney as a tour was under way.

McKinney Fire Department spokeswoman Stacie Durham said a tank exploded at Franconia Brewing Company, 495 McKinney Parkway, shortly after noon.

The blast propelled a cylinder through a wall, injuring the two people.

"My husband and I were there!" said Erica Overton Osters in an online comment to this story. "It was really scary!"

One of the victims was airlifted by helicopter ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas for treatment. According to a statement posted on the Franconia Brewing Company's Facebook page, she was treated and released in good condition.

The other victim went by ground ambulance to Medical Center of Plano. The company said that person sustained "some injuries" and "exact details" are not known.

Witnesses said both of the injuries were sustained by employees of the brewery.

Durham said the cause of the explosion was under investigation.

The Franconia Brewing Company Web site says it currently produces three varieties of German-style beer.

Anyways, it was quite the explosion. I'm glad the 2 injured people are okay, and we are thankful the tour was at the point it was at when the tank exploded. About 15 minutes prior, everyone was in the room that the tank propelled into. The tank blasted through a wall and we could see the metal that had been completely warped from the tank so 15 minutes prior would've been a complete disaster! We luckily didn't get too drenched in beer, but many people were covered head-to-toe in beer from spewing beer!

Before the explosion.

Notice the black barrels with yellow writing behind us. Now look at the aftermath picture below this. Those yellow barrels are behind the people in the picture. Some are on the floor. This tank that exploded ended up right where we had been standing about 15 minutes before!

I grabbed this picture from WFAA. This is the tank that exploded through the wall.

Pre-Christmas in Florida

As you can see, I'm trying to catch up a little with my blogs!

Before Christmas, we went to Tampa, Fl and then to Clearwater Beach, FL to enjoy the Florida sun!

At the airport in our Cowboy gear! The first thing we did in Tampa was go to the Cowboy v. Tampa Bay football game.

At the hotel bar before the Cowboy game that night.

Tailgating before the game

My mom has always wanted a picture in front of the ship at their stadium. Easier said than done. It's very crowded over there!

The next day in Clearwater Beach.

Travis and Jordan enjoying a cigar off of the balcony. There are a ton of cigar shops down in this part of Florida! They even got some that were being hand-rolled right there at the shop.

There's nothing like a tropical drink at a bar on the beach!

This place was right down the street from the resort we stayed at. They are famous for their Grouper Sandwiches. It was delicious!

Putt-putt

Our last night we ate a Guppy's, which my dad had discovered many years ago (he travels to Florida for work some). It was delicious!