My comical car accident

Yesterday morning on my way into work I had a little bit of an accident! Everything is totally fine but the story of it all is way too funny not to share! I was driving down Harry Hines headed to the hospital as I do every morning when a Dr Pepper truck made a U-Turn a red light. The truck turned into his own lane but I guess when he loaded up that morning he didn't secure his door well and his load shifted and dumped out of his lane and into mine. Pallets of soft drinks went everywhere and exploded! (The truck driver never even noticed any of this happening.) My car got "jack knifed" up on 4 pallets of Diet Dr Pepper, 7-Up, Root Beer, and some other citrus drink!!! I was totally stuck and there were cokes spraying all over my car. I got out and started pulling drinks out from under my car one at a time until a wonderfully nice construction worker finally pulled over to help. He crawled under my car and got everything else out and I was able to go on into work. My absolutely incredible fiance then came and got my car from the hospital and took it to be washed off! (I love it when he can rescue me!!!)

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the cokes after we pulled them out from under my car.




The city workers called to clean all the cokes off the road


The side of my car before Gregg took it to be washed

A few pictures!

Here are a few pictures from our Engagement Photo Shoot.

Engagement Pictures

This weekend Gregg and I flew to Lubbock to have our Engagement Pictures taken and spend some time with our families! It was a very busy and eventful weekend for us. We flew into Lubbock around 9am Saturday morning. We were a little rushed getting to the airport that morning since Gregg had worked Friday and didn't get off till 6:15am Sunday morning. Gregg dropped me off to get our luggage checked in and he went to park. I checked us in and got our luggage checked and was waiting in the security line when he got to me. We boarded our plane and headed to Lubbock. When we got to Lubbock and went to get our luggage only 2 of our 3 bags had arrived. My bathroom bag which had all of my make-up and jewelry in it had not made it onto the plane in Dallas (I know that I shouldn't have packed that stuff- especially the jewelry in the bag but I just wasn't thinking)! I panicked of course since we had to be ready to take pictures in 1 hour and I had only put on foundation that morning! Mom and I went to Ulta where I bought all new Bare Minerals make-up and the nice lady took pitty on me and gave me a make over! After that when we were leaving the house to head to Tech Gregg got bit on the cheek by a mosquito and that swelled up terribly (the mosquitoes are apparently terrible in Lubbock right now since they have had so much rain lately)! But we made it to Tech on time to meet our photographers and the rest of the day was really fun! We spend almost 2 hours with the photographers, changed clothes 3 times, and took pictures at 4 different places around Lubbock. We started at Tech and took pictures outside of the Chemistry Building, at the Seal, and at the Fountain. Next, we moved to McKenzi Park, across from the fair grounds, and took pictures in this wooded area there (again the mosquitoes were terrible and so we had to rush to avoid being bitten more). After that we went to some random building that was painted red and shot some really fun pictures (Gregg got to run and jump over me)! Our final stop was in downtown Lubbock where we took pictures in this alley behind an old building and on an old fire escape. Gregg especially loved the fire escape and has already said that he would really like to go there again for more pictures! My Mom went with us to be our extra set of eyes and make sure that everything looked perfect. It was fun to have her there and for her to get to share in such a special moment with us. There are a few of our pictures that have been posted on our photographers main website www.memoreebarrett.com. The rest are password protected but once I figure out what I want to buy I will post some of them on here!

Jeeping

On Sunday, our last full day in Lake City we took Jeeps out and traveled the "Alpine Loop" to cross the mountain from Lake City to Silverton and then took "Engineers Pass" back to Lake City. It was a lot of fun and pretty scary at the same time since part of the roads were very narrow and it was a VERY long way down to the bottom of the mountain! The trip took us about 8 hours total (and we only traveled about 60 miles) and by the end of it we were all covered in dirt! We saw some of the most beautiful sights and for part of the trip it even snowed on us. Here is a slideshow of pictures from our journey!

WIne and Music Festival

Saturday was the 8th Annual Lake City Wine and Music Festival at the town square. The people who own the BBQ place here that my parents are friends with had a Texas Bar B Q stand at the festival and we served Brisket Sandwiches, Turkey Legs, Sausage on a Stick, and Sausage Wraps. We brought the sausage and tortillas to serve with us from Lubbock so it was good! We flew the Texas Tech flag at our stand and even had the game blasting on FM radio when it came on. There were actually a lot of people here from Lubbock so we drew quite the crowd to our little "TTU Tailgate Party"! At the festival there were different bands that played all day long and over 100 different wines set up to try- you got an arm band with your entry ticket which allowed you to get a "pour" of wine at a time with unlimited visits back to the bars! (I tried a couple too many different types of wines!!!) Overall the day was a lot of fun and something that I can't wait to come back for next year!

Seth and Mom cooking sausage

The festival usually attracts around 2000 people

There were some rather interesting people at the festival!

This lady was pouring me a glass of my new favorite wine "Pink Truck"

The wines were separated into 6 different categories

Mom and Roxa modeling their new hats

Hutch and me celebrating the end of the day!

Shopping and Burger Cook-off

On Friday Mom and I spent the morning walking around Lake City and doing some shopping! We had a great time together and I got some Christmas shopping done! It is is peaceful and beautiful here. The city is just so laid back and the pace here is completely different from in Dallas! My parents talk about how they want to retire here and I haven't ever supported it since it is so far away from me but now that I have spent some time here I love it and totally support them!! Later that night we helped some friends of my parents host a Hamburger Cook-off. It was held out at this outside ampatheater here and there was a band that played all night. We served 3 different hamburgers- a Chipolte Burger, a French Onion Burger, and a Italian Burger and then there were 6 differnt Sutter Homes Wines that were served with the purchase of a ticket plus we had a full bar set up that served other beer and wines. The Chipolte Buger won the contest and so that recipe is now being entered in the Sutter Homes Wine Burger Cook-off and hopefully will be picked for the Championship Contest to be held in California next summer. Here are some pictures from our day.

They call this "The Postage Stamp" (these are the 1st trees in the area to start changing colors)

Of course, I had to visit the local Fire Department!

Seth, Mom, and me getting ready to cook burgers

All the kids behind the bar

This is the couple that own the restaurant and ampatheatre (Hutch and Roxa) and 2 of their kids (Hunter and Neeley)

My family

Final Stephens Family Vacay

Gregg has gone to Galveston as part of a relief team for the Galveston Fire Department (pictures to come once he's back) so I decided to fly to Lubbock to meet up with my parents and take a impromptu mini vacation with them! My little brother Seth's wife has gone to Colorado City for the weekend with friends so, our "original" family- Dad, Mom, Seth, and I- have come to Lake City, Colorado to spend a few days together. The city is having a burger cooking contest tomorrow and the annual Wine and Music Festival on Saturday so we are going to participate in those fun activities while we are here and then on Sunday we are planning on renting a jeep and touring the area or renting 4 wheelers to go play around here! Here are some pictures from today and I will post more pictures as the weekend progresses.

The Aspen Trees are changing colors right now and are so pretty!

The mountains

These are the mouth waters of the Rio Grand River

Seth and I posing for a picture in front of The Rio Grande

Mom and Dad

Lake San Christobal on the outskirts of Lake City, CO

This is our cabin