The Kennedys come to Austin

This past week was good for two reasons: I finished school AND my dear friends, The Kennedys came in town to visit. I have known Joel and Katherine for several years now. We met way back when when the Macon YoungLife group shared a bus out to Colorado with the Griffin YoungLife group (believe me when I get to say you get to know people really well on a 24 hour bus ride from GA to Co). Katherine and Joel were the leaders of the Griffin YoungLife group at the time, but a few years later they moved to Macon and headed up YoungLife there. Katherine and Joel have two precious children: Mary Kate (4) and Ford (2.5) and I have watched these two go from crawling to walking to talking to being everyday kids. They are some of the sweetest kids I know and I love them dearly. Katherine and Joel are true servants and mean so much to me too! I love this family and I am so glad the Lord put them into my life.

They arrived in Austin on Monday night, however I did not meet up with them until Tuesday morning. It was SO nice to see familiar faces in Austin and show them around this city that I adore. Tuesday morning we met at Zilker Park and played on the playground for awhile and took a ride on the train, or "choo-choo" as Ford calls it.

Ford and Mary Kate

Sweet MK

Love these two

After the park we made a trip to Allen's boots to get some boots for the kiddos. We then grabbed an early lunch at Hopdoddy, a burger bar, which I must say was DELICIOUS. After lunch I left to go take my last final, and the kids home to take a nap. We met back up after nap time and headed out to see the University of Texas. Getting around was a little tricky since Mr. President Obama decided to grace Austin with his presence on Tuesday and had the whole freeway shut down to make his entrance, but we made it. Somehow Joel got on the football field, and we decided to get out of the car and walk around the campus a little bit. I enjoyed this too because I had never done that before. It is a gorgeous campus, not near as pretty as Oxford, but nothing can beat that great place. We made a visit to the football museum in the stadium (on accident, but it was fun) and then we stopped in the UT bookstore and the kiddos got some Texas gear. I think both Katherine and Joel wanted to kill me for buying them UT gear! (Sorry y'all!)

Sweet siblings

MK doing her hook 'em horns

Hook 'em Horns

After fighting the Obama traffic, we made it to Chuys and it was all fun until the "finger smasher" gave MK a visit. She was a trooper though and was back to her normal self when the delicious cheese-dip arrived at our table. Ha. Apparently when we were on the phone a while back I said something about the cupcake place to the kids, and ever since they arrived in Austin, that's ALL they both talked about. Oh how kids remember ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you say! So, as promised we made a visit to Hey Cupcake, despite the pouring down rain. On the way back to the house where they were staying, we actually passed some of the President's motorcade, I was kind've glad he was leaving Austin, so we wouldn't have any more traffic craziness (we already have enough). I dropped them off at their house and sweet MK and I drove back to my apartment to have a slumber party. We watched Tangled and then went to bed (I actually fell asleep before her). Ha.

A visit to Texas is not complete until some yummy Tex-Mex (Ford looks like a true Texan- in his UT shirt and cowboy boots)

All Smiles, even after the fingers got smashed in the door

Wednesday, we woke up early and fought rush hour traffic to meet Joel, Katherine, and Ford for breakfast at Magnolia Cafe. We enjoyed some eggs, blueberry pancakes, and much needed coffee. After breakfast I said my goodbyes and I got so sad. It was so fun to have them in town for a few days and I am so thankful for the fun times that were had by all.

Happy Saturday!

-Morgan