bucket list

my friend jenn.
she has been by my side since the seventh grade.

i don't know what i'd do without her

(well, that's not true.  i know that i would've never swung on a trapeze.)

she is full of spunk and adventure.  she craves new experiences and loves to push herself.

our personalities are quite different.  i prefer meeting friends on a patio and very sedentarily drinking cold beers/margaritas.  while jenn likes these things as well, she prefers to spend time with her friends flying through the air attached to tiny ropes and yelling profanities (wait, that was just me).

when a night of dancing to celebrate her birthday didn't work out with everypone's busy schedules, she instead decided to celebrate turning thirty-six by strongly encouraging us to join her in a trapeze class on a sunday afternoon.

we stupidly agreed.

when was the last time you have ever been truly afraid?

or the last time you physically felt adrenaline course through your body causing you to shake uncontrollably?  those feelings don't happen often in one's lifetime.  and because of my precious jenn, we were able to cross something off of our bucket lists that we never knew was there to begin with.

{me. scared.}

{me. flying.}

 {christy}

 {emily}

 {kelly}

 {to prove to my kids that momma can be brave.}

jenn, i am so thankful for you.

thanks for pushing me outside of my comfort zone and for being my safety net for the past twenty-three years.

you're keeping me young, guuurrrl.

it's exhilerating.

happy birthday!

skyline trapeze

**pics by marcy :)

greatest hits

a peek into my brain:

i should really start thinking about christmas cards.

don't forget the water bottle for crosby.

for being so annoying, bubble guppies is actually pretty cute.

google bed-wetting.

i need to go to the gym.

i don't want to go to the gym.

halloween candy.  lots of it.  need to buy.

pay our discover bill.  like today.

i am going to blame my brain for my blogging slackerdom.  i just uploaded pictures from my camera to the computer, and lordy, there's a bunch.  i can blog and sing bubble guppies songs in my head on repeat at the same time.  it takes talent, but i can manage.  let's play catch up, shall we?

(in no particular order)

1) it must be noted, if you live in dallas and have not eaten at cosmic cafe yet, put it on your calendar.

it's all veg, it's all delicious.

this is my okra pita.  yes, i said okra.

sounds odd, but it's soooooo gooooooood.

2) jenn and i finally got it together enough to plan a lunch outing for our kids.  we've been trying for like, forever.

we went to greenville avenue pizza company for a slice and then over to steel city pops for dessert.

the kids ran around in circles and life was good.

3) we went to another wedding!  we're setting records up in here!

cassie and frank tied the not.

we were able to spend time with some great friends and danced the night away.

craft beer, food trucks. perfection.

congratulations!

4) i went on a nature walk for half a block with a very uninspired ninja and a squity-eyed sword-fighter.

5) the arboretum has pumpkins! we went on a weekday morning and it was packed.  cannot imagine what the weekends must be like.  the kids perched on some pumpkins, chased some birds, ate a picnic lunch and were d-o-n-e.  overall, a very successful couple of hours.

{this can't be safe}

{cinderella and prince charming.  ha.}

6) at crosby's school's back-to-school picnic, ben got to mack on an old classmate and cros got to hang with his best bud in the whole wide world.

7) we cheered on lake highlands hs with our friends, the browns.  it smelled like teen spirit.

8) national night out was held at ben's school.  shenanigans.

9) the state fair of texas has come and gone.

10) our sweet friends hosted a pumpkin carving party.

{he's a zombie, btw}

{i was a creep and snapped this pic in their kitchen.  i love it.}

whew.  thanks for supporting my photo dump if you've even made it this far.

looking forward to ben's fall carnival AND swinging on a trapeze for jenn's bday.  details to come.

how was your week?  what are you looking forward to?

love,

coco

acl awards 2014

the week leading up to this year's austin city limits music festival was nothing short of dramatic.

ebola hit dallas.

as in, a couple of miles away from my house.   

not stressful at all.

then we learned that some siblings at ben's school had been exposed at some point to the dallas ebola patient and were asked to stay home from school for the next twenty-one days.  

time to panic?  possibly.

the day before the festival a storm hit dallas and downed a million trees causing major power outages for daaaaaays (which affected eveyone i was going to austin with).

then, as if to send me on my way without a worry in my heart, ben threw up the morning i left.

school was cancelled.  the lights were out.  

ebola, ebola, ebola.

gord lord in heaven, the universe made me work hard for this weekend away.

but with the support of my husband to push my mommy guilt aside, i hopped in the car with three of my best girls who had also packed in the dark.

bye, dallas.

hello, my favorite weekend of the year.

(i didn't bring my camera this year and barely took any with my phone.  so these pics are random and most likely stolen from friends).

best road trip partners: 

em, kelly and marcy.  this ain't our first rodeo.  i probably can't count how many times the four of us have been in a car together on a road trip.  we've got it down to a science.

kelly brings chex mix and everyone's happy.

this year's joke was that if one of us came down with ebola, we would all have to be quarantined to marcy's car for twenty-one days.

best in show:

OUTKAST, OUTKAST, OUTKAST.  

that show alone was worth the price of my ticket.

love.

worst college gameday experience: 

that moment i realized our aggies were gonna lose the same time i realized i drank too many bloody marys.

double ouch.

(this is what thirty-five and hungover looks like)

best new-to-me artists:

it's a tie, childish gambino and turnpike troubadours.

one rap, one country.

this is the main reason i love a music festival.

best decision of the weekend:  

it's often hard to make a good decision after spending all-day with your friends, watching aggie football, cooking out, throwing back beers and bloodys.  but we (chance, jason, em and kelly) win a prize for a) deciding take our drunk butts to the festival for the avett brothers and b) hiring uber to take us there and back.

viva, uber!

best bad decision:

a top-of-our-lungs group sing-a-long to hits from the nineties in the wee hours of the morning.  we were outside.  becky's next door neighbor has a baby.  party foul.  a really fun party foul.

best duo: 

it's a no-brainer that big boi and andre 3000 win this award, but the runners-up are hands down, rebecca and joni.  best friends since the dorms, these girls traveled from mcallen and denver to austin to see each other at acl.  all is right with the world when they are together.

best laughs: 

provided by jason.  that is all.

best hostess: 

as always: becky.  we don't want for a thing when we stay with her.  i can only wish that guests at my house feel half as special as we do at becky's.

i've been doing this acl thing for many, many years now and this year is tops.  laughter, music, friends, laughter, laughter, laughter, music, beer.  

f*&$ ebola.

love,

coco

p.s. past acl awards here and here.