Fall, Family, & Reflections

This week has been heavy on the photos. I'm sorry, I'm not sorry. It's just SO much fun to relive some of the moments from the past few weeks. As evident from the slew of images, Missouri was good for my soul. Time spent with family has the ability to make wherever you're at feel like home. I think we needed a reboot before making our way to Texas. We needed to be surrounded by the people we love the most. We needed the fall air, wide open spaces, a reason to put on a sweater, and we needed to laugh so much our sides hurt (possibly even snort, oops!). It's not often that we get to have all of our favorite people in the same state, so we divvied up the days and made the most of our time together. It was wonderful, and I hope now that we're back on the Mainland we do it often. 

There was a lot of eating and imbibing. I got to brag about having a leisurely lunch with my sister on Facebook — we always dream about the day we get to do that more often and we're envious of those who see one another regularly. Her boyfriend made me the most DELICIOUS gin cocktail called The Lovelady. In fact, I think I need to get him to come up with an original Type-A(shley) concoction. Perhaps it could be a blog exclusive? See, now I'm getting giddy again! We did a little shopping in Kansas City (Hello, Anthropologie!) with my in-laws. We enlisted the help of my father-in-law when we set out to buy the Jettawagen. Can you believe they made me promise to not say anything about my love for VW? I played it coy and never said a peep about my past with The Black Flash. Victory car-nitas, anyone? I apologize, sometimes I'm too corny for my own good, but we did celebrate with Chipotle! I got to hug my mom and dad; I mean REALLY hug them. It's funny how change can make you feel so vulnerable again, like a kid on her first day of school. I honestly don't know what this next chapter entails, but their embrace and big smiles said they believed in me and reminded me that everything would be okay. My Grandma even made a pit stop in Missouri from Iowa and attended a Taylor Swift themed birthday party for my dad and Flyboy, all organized by my sister and her beau. Who knew that buzzing like cheap speakers with Grams might just be the highlight of the trip?!