appreciating Houston.

In addition to the much craved quality time with loved ones, the lucky folks who have been able to visit us in Houston so far have been an integral part to David and I discovering some of our favorite things about this city. So far, those visitors have consisted of my brother, William, and this past weekend - Mike Davis and Melissa Eller. (Both sets of our parents have trips planned for April). We try to maintain an action packed weekend of home-cooked favorites, restaurant adventures and Texas firsts. This past weekend was no different and luckily I have the talented Meezio's pictures to share along with my weekend commentary.

Mike and Melissa flew in early Friday AM, giving me a great opportunity to take the day off of work! We indulged in some Shipleys' Donuts, hung out at our apartment a bit, I gave them a little driving tour of our neighborhood and then picked David up to head downtown for lunch in the tunnels!! Mike joked that these mysterious tunnels were probably just something native Houstonians tell the newcomers, but after a good 30 minutes searching for them, we finally this extensive web of tunnels beneath dowtown Houston, providng a wide range of dining options! Our tunnel adventure culminated in our lunch of beef brisket at Otto's (a favorite of George Bush, Sr.).

We spent the afternoon exploring some cool shops in the Heights, where David found this incredible doggie snuggie and Melissa and I found the cutest sewing store, called Sew Crafty. It was so nice to have a GIRL in town to shop with! And I can't wait to finally take those sewing lessons I have been talking about for over a year!

That night, we splurged and had dinner at the original Carrabas. It was truly an amazing meal (which David and I were lucky to enjoy a second time on Sunday thanks to large portions and leftovers). After dinner, with our smidgen of leftover energy, we took Mike and Melissa to Cedar Creek, our all time favorite hang out.

On Saturday, we had a lazy morning and then ventured out to the Saint Arnold Brewery to indulge in some taste testing. For only $7 we got a St. Arnolds glass to take home and 4 beer tokens. Given that it was the middle of the day, we didn't use all of our tokens - so David and I can't wait to go back! It was a hilarious place - think beer garden filled with picnic tables, pizza boxes and guys playing Jenga. Although we had to yell over the crowd, we still had a great time.

Saturday afternoon, we hung out at Central Market (the most amazing grocery store ever!), showed off David's office cubicle, and all fell asleep watching the Olympics. But in our defense, we did have to rest up for what the rest of the night held in store....

This is one of my favorite pics from the weekend! so cute!

So, what did we do Saturday night that required so much energy, you ask??? Well after fueling up on endless chips and jalepeno dip and tex-mex at Chuys, we headed over to Wild West to do some Texas two-steppin'! A friend of David and I's from church came with us and despite her "lessons" we still looked pretty bad on the dance floor! Melissa though had an endless stream of guys - both young and old - escorting her out to the dance floor. We really did have a lot of fun both people watching and trying to dance, and David and I plan on doing lots of practicing at Wild West in the future!

Sadly, the weekend drew to a close rather quickly on Sunday, with a quick trip to the Kolache Factory (a must for all visitors) and church at Grace Bible Church. My favorite quote from that morning was Melissa saying, "So this is what a church would look like if it was decorated by Anthropologie!" Just one more reason to love GBC! We rushed off to drop them off at the airport right after church and rested for the remainder of the afternoon.

See, isn't it fun to come visit us?? I promise posts will be more frequent in the coming weeks - David has a trip to NY next week, Orlando the week after, then I head to Atlanta for a few days. In the midst of all of these travels, we will be partaking in the annual highlight of Houston's social calendar - the RODEO! We have tickets to both Rascal Flatts and Lady Antebellum and can't wait to see what all of this craziness is all about. Stay tuned!