weekend in texas

i spent the long weekend in texas- dallas, waco, and austin, to be exact. it was so perfect. i got to hang out with life-long best friends, see dave play TWICE, score some free "secret sauce" from common grounds in waco, meet fun new people (shout out to sarah and russell), play with adorable little girls, eat some amazing food, and end it all with a 16-hour ride back to nashville :)




here we are with ridg, dendy, and millie...and little raney on the way :) dave and dendyb were flirting BIG time- she wanted to be his girlfriend. i was a little jealous.

we took the girls by to see the guys during sound check- i was amazed that the girls were able to stand all that loud noise. reed quickly contributed it to taking them to saints games as babies. lets go saints! who dat!









the whole crew of us went to reed and caroline's favorite breakfast joint on saturday morning. here we are from left to right...nathan dugger, daves guitar player, dave, me, ridg, dendyb, sarah and russell lindsay, millie, reed, drew and ellie holcomb, paul mabury, daves drummer, and de-la, dave's bass player. we took over the restaurant and had the most amazing breakfast! loved me some oatmeal pancakes with granola and scrambled eggs!






this is in waco- caroline and chad and i met for the afternoon there so they could hand me off and we could hang out.
dave and paul were trying to make caroline feel better about her bump. i think it worked.





then its me with dave, caroline ("ridg") and haley ("chad"). these girls are what i call life friends- they have known me and loved me forever. i should give them a trophy or something. most of you nashville friends dont know how mean i used to be. thankfully, the Lord has been gracious because i am different now, i hope.

**sidenote confessional** i remember in the 4th grade when chip overton called to ask me to "go"...i told him that i hated
him and hung up. he's probably still in counseling for that.

and in 6th grade, i intentionally dropped my history book on aaron lemasters' head. he probably still has a bump. i could go on, but for the sake of trying to keep this concise, ill leave the rest to your imagination.

all that to say- chad and ridg remember it all (along with some more of you), and they still love me. we have watched eachother grow up and i cant tell you how truly PROUD i am to call them my friends. they are freakin awesome. they have both married amazing guys and i just love being with them. its such a blessing to still have them in my life- and its not easy. things change as you get older, but i think the secret is, allowing eachother to change and being honest about it. i realized that you cant expect your high school friends to be the same people they were in high school, or the relationship will never grow- and you will never know them for who they are.
you have to learn who they are becoming- and be willing to share it with eachother...and thats why i love these girls so much. i LOVE who they are, who they are becoming, and i am thankful to be a part of it. i love you guys.



and finally, here we are backstage in austin...just hanging out. all the shows are great. drew and ellie holcomb are opening right now and they are just awesome. everyone's having a blast being together. if you get a chance, you should try to go to one of their shows this spring. fun times...