our trip to White Deer (in pictures!)

Forgive the length of this post, but it was a wonderful, jam-packed weekend in one of my favorite places in the world, and we took a LOT of pictures. 133 to be exact. But, to save you all the grief, I'm only posting the REALLY good ones :) If anyone reads this the whole way through, I'll be truly impressed...First of all, let me preface with this: Although I was really excited to go back to White Deer, I was also a little nervous about how emotional I would get. I hadn't been back since my grandmother's funeral 4 years ago, and every memory that I have from White Deer involves my grandmother in some way, shape or form.

This is her, by the way:

So the whole weekend, I was constantly trying to "find her" in all of the memories that I used to have. Like, I wanted to bake blueberry muffins because I used to wake up to her baking them in the mornings. Or, I wanted to make homemade ice cream because we used to do that together in the summers. I was so desperately trying to make everything the "same" as it used to be so I could really show Ryan what it was like to grow up there. But, as I should have expected, things had definitely changed because she wasn't there.


With that said, the trip was REALLY great despite my sentimental, emotional side. :) Here's the story. We (mom, Ryan and I) left right after I got off from work at about 2 on Friday, and we set off on the 7-hour road trip. We all took turns driving so it really wasn't too bad, but our stop in Vernon to visit my grandmother's Aunt Ferne took a little longer than expected so we didn't get to WD until about 10 (which is way past Papa's bed time). When we were just about 5 minutes outside of town, we were driving down a pretty steep hill and saw about 8 deer in the middle of the road! We had to screech on the breaks in order to not hit them. True to their stereotype, they had the "deer in headlights" look and just stayed in the road looking at us. Once we finally got the idea to take some pictures of them, they decided to run away. But, it was still cool!

the wide open plains... for 7 hours... :)

Fun pecan shop on the side of the road...we came back on the way home too!

Yawn.
Beautiful Texas sunset...
Deer!

When we got to WD, Papa was SO excited to see us, and it was SO good to see the house again. I gave Ryan a brief tour, and then we got to bed fairly early. But Ryan and I didn't sleep very well-- It was our first attempt at sleeping in a full bed. Wow. We are so spoiled in our King! It was maybe the most uncomfortable night of my life. But oh well.;)

The next morning, instead of blueberry muffins, Papa offered us Snickers ice cream bars instead! He has obviously turned into a little bachelor because that freezer was STOCKED with those! "They're delicious!" he said. After a good laugh, we had some cereal, and then Ryan and Papa went golfing. While they were gone, my mom and I took the opportunity to clean up Papa's house for a while. Mom tackled the toilets while I fixed his bedroom curtains and made the beds. After the boys were done golfing, they brought us some amazing Dairy Queen, and then we set off on our tour of WD :)

Golfin' boys...

First thing we did was show Ryan the main street and deer monument that have been there for forever... We had to dodge a LOT of traffic to get that picture in the road... (kidding) :)

Next, we showed Ryan the wind farm. I had forgotten how HUGE each of the windmills were... Just the engine was the size of a school bus. Crazy! We had some fun playing around there and taking pictures.

Then, we went to see all of Papa's farms and land. I was hoping to show Ryan all of the big farming equipment that I used to play in, but Papa had sold most of it since he just takes care of the land now instead of harvesting it. But, it was still fun to show him all of the barns and grain tanks that were very entertaining back in the day :)
This was the grain tank that I cut my leg open when I was 8 and still have a rather large scar on my left leg. Ahhh memories :)

In one of the barns, Papa went to open the main garage door, and we heard a lowd screech and saw a big owl flying out from it. Then, we saw a TON of feathers all over the ground...so we came to the assumption that the owl had been living in there for quite some time. Then all of a sudden, Ryan gasped and pointed in the corner of the barn where there was a baby owl!! It was really cute and let us take pictures of it, but after a while it got a little pissy and started hissing at us... So we quickly made our exit but it was really cool.
After driving around and seeing all the farms, we came back home and made homemade ice cream...butterfinger homemade ice cream! I hadn't had that in probably 5 years, and it was SO good!
Then, mom went to her high school reunion while the men went out to Papa's putting green in his backyard. Yes, that's right. He built a putting green--complete with 9 holes and slopes so he can practice. :) So cute.
The next morning, I woke up early to make blueberry muffins for everyone and then eggs & bacon for the husband... I felt very domestic. :) After breakfast we went to the White Deer memorial, church, lunch and then hit the road to come back home!

We had a GREAT time, and even though it was emotional, it was good to be back in White Deer. That will always hold a special place in my heart :)