Girl's Trip - A Slow Crawl To Visit Family.

As an educator, Summer is the time of year where things should slow down. However, my children seem to have turned into young adults without me even knowing it. This in turn makes me think that time rushes forward, and I haven't done very much to slow things down and just enjoy. For this reason, I chose to take a small road trip to my parents. GIRLS ONLY! I thought it would be fun to stop the night in Denton and take time to reminisce about my Denton years. We started at the square downtown. The girls enjoyed taking in a few of the shops and grabbing some super cute vegan pins. We then searched for a place to eat. As we were all hungry. We settled on a Mexican resteraunt, Agua Dulce, that served up some amazing Jackfruit Tacos. Since we couldn't check into our hotel until 3, we decided that it would be a good idea to grab a cup of joe and a donut from Hypnotic Donut. Time was slowing down. We arrived at the hotel a bit early for check-in. It was really a blessing as the hotel didn't have our reservation through Hotels.com. The manager of the hotel was incredibly helpful and everything worked out in the end. We ended our evening in Denton having dinner with a friend from back in my college days. 20+ years has passed since I graduated from college. It seems like just yesterday. This is the trick of time. It moves forward sweeping us along with little knowledge of what is happening. We stand on the other side desperatrely wondering where the time went. We believe that we can change it all. However, time it moves forward. We can't stop the movement. However, we can take more opportunities to be present and not lulled by it's ebb and flow. This concept is something I have really been thinking about a lot. We finally returned back tot he hotel and enjoyed an evening of sleep.

* Insert here my love of selfies. I will admit it. I love a good selfie. I get embarassed for about a second when I give my camera to someone to take a picture only to have them ask, "How do you turn this off selfie mode?" I knew I had a problem when I was about to take a picture of an amazing landscape and was confronted with a mirror image of me staring back at myself. So I just decided I would embrace it. I would love my selfies and enjoy getting others to join in on them.

Our final two days of our vacation were spent at my mom and dad's house. Since my parents apartment is a little small, we opted to stay in a local hotel with an indoor pool. Yes I did throw on my full cover bathingsuit and enjoyed a good float in the pool. While we were there we took an opportunity to celebrate Father's Day (belated) with my dad and my mom's 73 birthday. We made time to take in downtown Wichita Falls. They are working to re-vitalize it. It appears they are doing a great job. The main street was dotted with cute antique and consignment shops. There were a few boutiques that really made our heart sing. My oldest fell in love with a cute little cat that greeted us as we walked into a store. My mom and I had an amazing lunch at 8th St. Coffee House. Next time we visit, we will take in the farmer's market (stocked by local farmers) that happens each Tuesday and Thursday morning. We would also like to check out a play from one of the two local theaters in the area.

I found that while I was more mindful and present on this trip, time still moved forward. I feel though that I did a better job of enjoying the moments. I didn't feel as rushed and this definitely reduced stress. In a few weeks we will embark on our trip to California. Since we will be adding my sweet husband to the mix, I pray that we can all slow down and enjoy the gift of time we have together.

#TRAVEL #FAMILY #Time