Our first trip to the mountains for school!

Whew…so it might be a little delayed…but I wanted to share all our fun from my first weekend of Grad school! **This is a LOOOONG post with A LOT of PICTURES!** 

We had an AH-mazing time!!! And once again…my little traveler did AWESOME TOO!!! Some pictures are from my phone so you will have to excuse the lower resolution!☺

This is the moment when we finally started seeing the mountains in the distance!

And then…over 3 hours later…we arrived on campus!!!

I  don’t know that I’ve ever been more excited…or more sick at my stomach about being on campus! The sweetest part about being back at my Alma Mater…is my sweet little guy on campus! When I was working on my BA…I certainly never thought I would have this amazing little guy!!! Pretty CUTE!!!

He actually thought we were at a park…and RAN EVERY WHERE! And I was on a tight schedule…I had to get BOOKS and my ID and PARKING STICKERS…and my stinker-pot wanted to explore. We did manage to get it all done.

And then we went to eat some yummo FOOD!

And then finally to our cute little Antelope Lodge!

The Antelope Lodge is now our NEW FAVORITE place! They are the most precious people!!! We felt so at home and loved. If you are in Alpine, I highly recommend you stay with them. They have cute cottages and you simply cannot beat the price, experience and customer service you experience while there! Love them!

My Mom and I also drove around and took pictures of the gorgeous scenery. We took pictures til the sun went down!

I couldn’t stop thanking God for allowing me to be there…and for having a nice camera to finally take pictures of the place I loved so much!

Did I mention I love the scenery there? LOL!

This one is too cute. See my sweet Mamma walking to get a GOOD SHOT??

The sun went down…and we went to our cottage!

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And then……came my first morning of class! Talk about sick at my stomach. I was a wreck. I was so excited…but so freaked out about it. I couldn’t sleep the night before. I kept telling myself “what are you doing here? Pack up and go home! You can’t do this!”

But as I drank my coffee and got dressed…I felt like maybe I could do it! Here’s me on my first day of GRAD SCHOOL! LOL! Pretty FUNNY! I can’t wait to have that one…next to me in my GRADUATION GOWN so I can remember the journey from beginning to end!

The first morning of class was AH-mazing! I have a Thoreau seminar with one of my favorite professors. I couldn’t stop smiling. As I sat there…I knew…I was right where I was supposed to be!!!

We even did nature walking and writing…..this was my spot on campus. Isn’t it beautiful. Yes I was being  a rebel…I took a quick picture on my phone to capture the moment! LOL!

Every second of class was just thrilling. I loved having the discussions…and talking with like-minded people on the same goal-path as me. There were a few people who drove just as far as me to be there.

After class…I was pretty blessed to find out that the Antelope Lodge wanted to do a little partnering up on business to help me grow my photography business…in ALPINE! And I had a session booked!! WOW!!! (Isn’t God amazing!!)

To celebrate we decided to drive around and find a groovy place to eat. Oh boy…did we hit the JACKPOT too! The most fun of traveling is finding neat places to eat.

La Trattoria! Halleluiah we love you!

Not only was it a NICE restaurant…and relaxing atmosphere…but they had LEGOS for Jaxon so we could wind down and he could enjoy himself. It’s the little things that people do that mean the most I think.

Hello beautiful food!

I had the Chicken Parmesan.

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My Mom had mushroom ravioli – I don’t remember the exact name…but it was divine!

And then ladies…look at this dessert heaven! This was my slice of heaven…Tiramisu….

And my little Mamma had Italian Cream Cake….

with a Cappuccino of course!

It was a marvelous experience and evening. Splendid for a small Texas town in the mountains. And the funniest part is when I pull out my BIG MAMMA camera the looks I get. Not everyone knows about blogging and I know they were wondering why I was taking pictures of my FOOD and DRINKS! I think it’s hilarious!

Jaxon made friends at our cottage/lodge…and had the time of his life! Which made me happy too…I wanted everyone to have a great time on our little trip and it meant the world to me that my Jaxy was by my side through our new experiences.

My Mom had a blast too. She has an amazing camera too and took some really neat photos of the hummingbirds and scenes around the lodge area. Pretty awesome!

Here’s a couple of my favorite random photos from around the lodge and town! I’m pretty much smitten with these rocks.

And me and this store are totally destined to be BFFs!!

LOOOOOOOVE IT!!!

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On our way home we even stopped at a road-side veggie & fruit stand for some famous…and might I add…delicious Pecos cantaloupe and other goodies.

Our drive home smelled like FRESH cantaloupe….it’s was SPLENDID!!!

You can tell that Jaxy played his heart out…he was wiped out….

We were too!! But when I got home…my TO-DO list was waiting for me…and it’s been non-stop ever since. No rest for the weary!!!

Our first trip was BIG SUCCESS! Just look at my cute little Sul Ross LOBO!

 

We will be back down there in 2 weeks! Not for class but for an AH-mazing photography symposium weekend. Some of my photography was picked to be in the Sul Ross Student show for the “Shooting West Texas” weekend so I get in for (free) for the whole weekend…

plus have a seat in this HDR workshop…

Holy cow right!! What a BLESSING!! God continues to open doors and bless me with ways to grow my knowledge and business…which of course…blesses me and my Jaxy. I’m stunned daily by the amount of blessings I have been experiencing. God is SO GOOD!

I will never…underestimate the power of miracles and God’s love.

That’s all for our Alpine updates for now…but stay tuned…we are just getting started! God has beautiful things in store for us!!

Hope you all are having a SUPER Tuesday!!!

XoXo