Day Trip: Waco, Magnolia Silos

Just like any warm-blooded Texas girl... I love me some Joanna Gaines.  I also love what that family, and that show, has done to the sweet town of Waco!  I spent a lot of time there when I was in college (no, I didn't go to Baylor... but my boyfriend in college lived there!)

When I watched the construction of the Silos on TV... saw the pictures online... heard the stories from my friends... I knew we had to make a trip out there. 

So, we scheduled a stop for lunch when we were planning our most recent road trip from Dallas to San Antonio... and it did not disappoint!

We went with absolutely zero expectations - it was really, really hot... and we had two little ones with us.  So if we could only handle 20 minutes... we were going to spend 20 minutes at the Silos!

Parking was... rough.  So plan for that. 

The line to get in the actual store was... long.  So for this trip, I just had to skip it.  Next time (and yes, there will be a next time) I will plan to get there a bit earlier and wait!  I do like that they only allow so many people in the store at once, I'm sure that makes for a much more pleasurable shopping experience...

The first thing we did once we got there was find something to eat.  I was on a pretty restrictive diet at the time, but we decided on the crepe food truck.  It was delicious (even though the 1-year-old and 2-year-old didn't really eat at all...)  I loved all the options... and it was my first time at any sort of "food truck park"!

We took some pictures, let the girls run around on the lawn, played on some (ridiculously expensive) bean bags... and then headed back to the car.  It was actually really quick and totally uneventful... but a blast.  I think if it were a little cooler, I didn't have my kids with me, and I had a good game plan... it would have been really cool.

I'm glad that we stopped, but really it just got me excited to go back!

Texas State Fair with Toddlers

I like, really love the fair.  I'm not even sure why... I'm not super big on fried food... I don't like riding rides that make me want to puke... and I suck at carnival games.  But there's just something about walking around the fair that I adore.  So - we try and go every year.

The past few years it was just survival.  I was usually pregnant, hot, and annoyed... until last year when we had two under two and all I cared about was keeping dirty things out of their mouths.  

This year?  This year was a little more fun.

We like to get there right when everything opens in order to have a corn dog for breakfast.  Fletcher's.  No substitutions.  The mister put mustard on the top half, ate it, and then split the rest of it between the three of us.  

After that, we really just do a lot of walking around.  We went over to the Kid's Boardwalk area for a little bit... listened to Mother Goose sing some songs... and the girls got to go color on a big community coloring wall.  Evelyn was excited for the pink marker.  Olivia still had a mouth full of corn dog.

We went over to the Midway to ride some rides... and let me tell you... that part was a beat down.  I was excited to see how excited my 3 year old was about the rides, until we realized that she couldn't ride most of them... even the ones geared towards little kids.  We found one ride that she was tall enough for, and as long as I went on the ride with her - the little one was tall enough too!  But - warning - they charge the tickets per head.  So it was probably the most expensive 90 seconds we've experienced for a while... 

After the rides we went and got some lunch.  While I do get excited seeing what wins each year, I'm rarely excited about trying it...  we got the kids some mac and cheese and Brandon and I split a chicken salad sandwich.  (although later in the day we DID get a fried s'more...)

The part of the fair that the girls were most excited about were the animals.  We spent a good amount of time watching & feeding different animals.  (Pro Tip - nobody ever uses all of their food!  We had about 3 different people give us our leftovers!)  I think Evelyn was most excited about the baby pigs, and Olivia loved the giraffe.

We did our regular amount of random shopping... lots and lots of walking... and since we went SO early this year, we're already talking about perhaps making one more trip back!