Last weekend felt a lot like pure summer bliss, y’all.

The weekend started off with a mini road-trip to the in-laws’ place in New Ulm, Texas. Their house always feels more like a vacationing retreat to me. Many of my best weekend getaway memories come from this abode, and I always look forward to making more lovely memories with some of my favorite loved ones.

This time my moments included breakfast at the Texas Star, watermelon and BBQ eating, coffee-drinking and back-porch book reading, and feeling awestruck at the sight of a nest and bird eggs sitting atop a wreath on the front doorframe. So beautiful were these little eggs that I couldn’t even quite believe they were real.

Also included on this trip were pit-stops at an adorable winery for a quick tasting and later sipping on the wine purchased (because duh I bought wine) up in the in-law’s tree house. In three weeks’ time I’ve had coffee in a treehouse in Lafayette, Louisiana and wine in a treehouse in New Ulm, Texas. I guess you could say I have a thing for traveling and treehouses. And coffee. And wine.

My daughter also realized that she likes to purposefully carry baskets the size of her body around the house and that she has very mixed feelings regarding the swing.

We ended the weekend with my blood kin back in the Austin area, with yet another BBQ and pool party to boot.

I end this post with a note on love. On Saturday night my cousin called me while I was still in New Ulm. She asked if I knew the whereabouts of my brother. The weather in Texas has been a little insane as of late, and on this particular night we were experiencing some intense flash flooding in Austin. I hadn’t talked to my brother that day, and was a little worried when she told me that a dude cousin had expected him hours before at my aunt’s house. Justin is one to lose track of time, but given the weather I was a bit concerned. Flash forward to an hour later and my entire family was in a panic. My mom crying, my dad out searching for my brother in the midst of the storm, and my grandpa calling the cops to see if any accidents have been reported. I too was in tears at this point, and by that I mean sobbing in front of my in-laws. My husband, bless him, held and comforted me and had the genius idea of texting my brother’s best friend. Brother’s best friend promptly texted back something to the effect of, “Yeah man, he’s over here.”  My heart felt light with relief as I talked to my brother for a moment, told him he was a dead man and proceeded to let the rest of my family know that he was alive.

I went to bed thinking that my brother was dumb and that my family did not deserve such nonsense. The next morning my mother-in-law told me, matter-of-factly, “I would have been so irritated if I was your brother.” I was immediately defensive but eventually took a moment to step back and look at the situation from her, and his, point of view. Here is a twenty-three year old adult who lost phone service during a bad storm and stopped at his buddy’s house to stay safe and hang out for a while. Next thing he knew he was told that his father was searching the streets, his grandpa had called the cops and that his entire family was just about planning his funeral. How annoying, right? But that’s just how we do things in my clan. We care too much and we love too hard. We have each other’s backs, even when it’s unwanted or completely unnecessary. We love so big, it’s really annoying. I’ve been on the receiving end of this love more than once, so I can tell you firsthand. We are all so very lucky to be surrounded by such irksome endearment.