Jumbo marshmallows and watermelon seeds

We celebrated Memorial Day weekend at the Smith’s lakehouse in Granbury. Previous to meeting the Smith family I had only been out on the lake roughly four times. Even though I lived in Granbury until college, going to lake was not a Tabor pastime. I must say, it’s starting to grow on me.

Gilley loves riding the knee board with Jordan......



....and the jet ski.

We used jumbo marshmallows to make these smores. They were awesome!

When Gilley isn't skiing he rides up front with me.

Memorial Day 2011

"Tornado Central, this is Hannah speaking..."

Generally I don't write about my childhood. No particular reason why I just don’t. But as I reflect back on my evening last night I am reminded of a day roughly 22 years ago.

As I was sitting in my bathtub covered up with pillows, blankets and the dogs, I listened to the tornado sirens going off. It made me think back about the last time I was in this same situation. 1989 a huge tornado came through Somerville County. I was about 6 years old and mom had my brother and I safe and secure in the middle bathroom of our old ranch house. The news blaring and mom yelling at my father for running back and forth from each side of the house on "look out." I remember mom letting my brother and I peak our head out once just so we could see what a tornado looked like in person. By the grace of God the tornado missed our house. However the hay barn and our blue mini plastic swimming pool were not so lucky. The tornado moved the hay barn a couple pastures away and demolished it. As for the pool, it's still MIA. Come to think of it mom and dad never got us another one to replace it either. I digress. So the more things change the more they stay the same, right? Last night I was still camped out in the middle of the house in a windowless room just like before except this time I was alone. No TV blaring because the cable had gone out but watching the storm come in via WFAA’s interactive radar while talking to my mother on my cellphone and Facebooking. Ahh, technology!

cinco de mayo de graduación

On cinco de mayo my youngest, coolest, favorite and only brother graduated college!!!! Ben has been living in San Antonio for a couple of years while going to school at the University of Texas at San Antonio. It hasn't always been easy and it hasn't always been fun but his dedication and hard work paid off. It was so great to be down in San Antonio with my family to watch Ben graduate. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. This was by far the coolest graduation I have ever attended. The ceremony ended with music by the UTSA Mariachi Band. Very impressive!

It brought back memories of my own college graduation-minus the mariachi band. What a fun and fearful time that was in my life. So excited to finally say I’m finished with school, but at the same time having no clue what the future holds for you as a "big kid." I don't know what the future has in store for my brother. What I do know is that it will be great. He's got amazing talent, a great attitude and has never met a stranger. He's one of those guys that when you meet him; you immediately want to be his friend, which is handy because he already considers you one. I'm so proud of him for all he has done and for what is to come. Best wishes Bubba!

“Hello California! Sure is strange to be here today.”

For those of you that actually read this, I apologize for being gone for so long. Life gets busy and our ambitious goal of documenting it gets overlooked. I won’t even try to recap, there’s just been too much. We’ll start this blog off with one of my all-time favorite vacations with my favorite person.

Jordan’s job has him travelling all the time these days. Luckily most of it is in state. However for the month of March he was based in Bakersfield, California. I would be joining him there for a little mini-vacation halfway through his stay.

I flew out late on a Thursday night; two flights and a different time zone later I arrived. Friday we spent the day around Bakersfield seeing the sites (which didn’t take long) and looking at all the places Jordan had been working on. We ended up in Los Padres National Forest. Below are a few photos from that brief visit. At dinner that evening we decided that the next morning we would venture towards San Francisco. Neither one of has had been there before, in fact this was my first trip to California, and we wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge while we were so close.

Now, San Francisco is about four hours north of Bakersfield.With map in hand we took off. No plan, no reservations, and a lot of anxiety. First, stop, the Golden Gate Bridge for some great photo opts…..we thought. See it started raining that morning on our drive in and only stopped during part of our Fisherman’s Wharf visit Sunday before we left. We went to the bridge in the pouring cold rain and wind. Snapped a few bad photos and loaded up in the truck onward to our next stop.

Muir Woods National Monument is located a little outside of San Fran in Mill Valley. This was one of our favorite stops on the trip. This Redwood forest is amazing and my photos cannot even begin to do it justice.

After our trip to the forest we went back to the hotel. Once we were dry and had thawed out we headed out to a local restaurant that was on the San Fran Bay and only a few miles down the road. I would highly recommend The Spinnaker to anyone, and I mean anyone. Good service, great food, glorious view. Fruity drinks to celebrate a great trip? Yes, please!

We had great intentions of roaming around Mill Valley some more but the crazy storm that blew in that evening changed our plans.

The next morning, thanks to the hotels recommendation, we got up early to watch the sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge. Feeling adventurous and having some time to kill we tried a different road. Doing so lead us to the top of this cliff where we parked and ate our dry cheerios watched the bridge from a different angle and without any other spectators.

Though it was cloudy and the sun never really came out we did get to see the moon (largest it had been in 20 years). It was an amazing site to see the city so still and quite. Of course once it started to be daylight the boats moved in and the traffic picked back up….ahh, San Francisco.

We finished our San Fran visit at the Fisherman’s Wharf. Walking around the Bay, staring at THE BRIDGE, and eating a lot of seafood. Yum!

This was one of those trips “luck trips”. You know, where you just stay lucky the entire time. We met the nicest lady at the first hotel we stopped at that pretty much helped us lay out our entire trip. The Spinnaker required reservations, which of course we did not have, but we walked right in and they had an amazing table there with no wait. Now it could have been a little luck but I have no doubt that God had his hands in this trip. He was definitely helping make the memories of this trip special for Jordan and me.

Jordan Smith, thank you so much for an unforgettable and wonderful trip. And I promise, I will always get up early to watch a sunrise with you.

Big State Fair of Texas Weekend...

"Howdy, Folks!"

Sunday morning, Jordan and I loaded up in his pickup and headed north to Dallas; where I made my first trip, as a spectator, to the State Fair of Texas. I had been once before a couple of years ago but never made it passed the cattle barn. On this beautiful fall day we toured the grounds, enjoyed a classic fair food lunch; corn dogs and cotton candy. We even venture out and tried the Fried Frito Pie, which I highly recommend. I enjoyed it so much that I would almost drive back right now and stand in another long line for the fried goodness. Later in the day we met up with his sweet family to watch the Limousin show and walk the fair some more. Now, I’m not a fan of crowds and though there were a jillion (yes, I counted) people out due to the lovely weather, I had a blast. I highly recommend going at least once, or once a year, and enjoying all the offerings of this big as Texas event.

Of course, you can’t leave the fair without seeing Big Texas.

Luau of Love

Saturday evening we went to Flower Mound to celebrate in the marriage of my sweet friends Katrina and Brandon. Brandon and I met several years ago when I lived in Electra. Katrina and I became immediate friends my first day at TSCRA. These two make a wonderful couple and i'm thankful to call them both friends. Congratulations you two!

TSCRA girls

Jordan and I

The happy couple

Me and K

Road Trips, Refreshers and Realizations

As I am winding down from a long 7 days on the road I thought I would take a little advice from a fellow colleague and friend and write down a few thoughts.

I started my travels last Tuesday in east Texas at some TSCRA hosted educational programs. We had a wonderful and unexpected turnout for the events. So much so that we ran out of lunch one day. Thank goodness for good caterers who came to our rescue. It was a great opportunity to visit with producers and sponsors alike-the reasons I love this job so much. It is events like this that remind me of the passion I have for this job and industry. Sometimes in all of the hustle and bustle passion can become cloudy and skewed. I find that God always provides me with a little reminder when I need it the most. And while I forgot to get my picture with the mini Eifel tower in Paris, the trip was worth every additional bead of sweat. My goodness east Texas is hot this time of year. Hello humidity, ick!

The later part of the week had me in San Antonio for the Texas Wildlife Association Convention. This, my friends, is what I like to call a job perk. See my brother currently lives in San Antonio. Those of you who know me already know that Ben is a major part of my life. So essentially I have a free trip to see one of my best friends. This week also happened to be my brother’s birthday week. To celebrate his 23 years, Saturday night Ben, Matt and I loaded up to go see one of our favorite singers, Slaid Cleaves. Some of you may know that I had already seen Slaid play once that week. I know you are wondering if he is that good and the answer is YES! Do yourself a favor and catch one of his shows. We spent the evening in downtown San Antonio at Casbeers, an old church turned music venue. Very cool!

Last night, after a wonderful steak dinner and too much cinnamon butter from Texas Roadhouse, Ben and I parted ways. I spent the rest of the evening in my hotel room, sulking and wishing that I lived in San Antonio and could spend more time with my sweet brother. Being restless I, of course, slept horribly. I finally decided around 4:30 to just give up. I pulled out my current book, Crazy Love. I highly recommend it thus far. At the end of my reading I closed the book and had a little visit with God. I say it was a visit because I wasn’t the only one talking. God put a big realization on my heart this morning that brought much peace to my restlessness. See I am caretaker. It’s in my nature. It’s my way of expressing love. Even though I spent most of the week/end working and tired I still rushed home to Ben’s to clean and try to get all of his laundry done. Did he ask me to do this? No. But I just can’t help myself. I feel the need to look after and take care of him. Which in turn is where my desire to live in San Antonio stemmed from. Irrational thinking: If I just lived here I could look after him.

I digress, back to my memo from the Lord. In my quiet time and prayer this morning I realized that I would only be hindering Ben if I lived there. He needs to grow into his own person and he can not do that to its full extent with me there in his shadow picking up after him and trying to protect him from everything. God has a plan for him there. A plan that will mold and grow him into the man he is suppose to be. A man, which I am sure I will continue to admire and be in astonishment of. I reflect back on the 23 years I have already known him and how fast that has gone by. Though I am the older sister, I look up to Ben’s passion for life and the joy he continues to extract from it. Who am I to interfere or limit who he is still becoming?

I later took this thought and mulled it around over some coffee. What a wonderful weekend I got to spend with my brother. What a joy to understand my roll in his life from a different perspective. I am not his caretaker. I am his sister and best of all; I am his friend. For that I can never be more grateful. It’s amazing what God will lay on your heart if you just give him a little of your time.

Happy Birthday Bubba-here’s to many more!