Alice in Weinerland

No, this is not a duplicate post. If you are a steady Ben and Elena blog follower, these pictures might look a little familiar. It was the annual Buda Weiner Dog festival again this year, and Ben and I couldn't miss it! Adrienne wasn't there this time around, and Grant didn't want to go because he was too tired, but Ben and I still went with my mom and dad. The theme this year was "Alice in Weinerland". Lol. Some of the dogs' names were hilarious. My favorite was "Red Log".

Latest Gillis Happenings

It feels like these last couple of months have gone by so fast! Ben has been super busy with school, and I have been keeping on top of work, school, basketball, etc. I know it's been awhile since I blogged, so here's an update on us. The weekend of April 15th, Ben and I went to Dallas to visit his parents and grandparents. We went to White Rock Lake with Cynthia, which was absolutely gorgeous. I got a tad bit sunburned, but it was worth it for the fantastic view.

Whenever we go to Dallas, we stay at Daniel's house, and Ricey likes to climb to the very top of the kitchen cabinets and observe the action going on down below. Here's a good shot of her just chilling up there:

Daniel and Ben made these wooden cutouts about 15 years ago, and Ben said they would always display them during Christmastime. Daniel, Ben, and I are all huge Calvin and Hobbs fans.

We went to dinner at Uncle Julio's Mexican Restaurant, which I have been dying to go to forever. The food was really really good, and it was super noisy because it was so busy.

On Sunday we went over to Ben's grandparents' house, Millie and Dean Walden, where we played scrabble, ate Easter cake and ice cream, and got to visit. We got to see photos of Millie and Dean's cruise to Hawaii. They are frequent cruise goers. When I can convince Ben to take me on one, I know who to go to for advice on the best cruise! We always have so much fun visiting Dallas and it's so nice to see family and get away for awhile.

Dallas February Road Trip

At the end of February, Ben and I went to Dallas to visit his parents and take a weekend away from work and school. One of the best parts about the trip was getting to see my friend Jessi from freshman year at BYU. Her family lives in Dallas and we've been trying for the past couple of months to pick a weekend where we're both in Dallas and can see each other. Finally the stars aligned. We had a great time driving around in her dad's fancy car, eating at Jason's Deli, and just catching up on life. She and Erik are expecting a baby boy in a few weeks, and I am so excited for her. Jessi and I got married within a week of each other, we're both from Texas, we both have dark hair, etc, etc. I love this girl and was so glad I got to see her!

While in Dallas Ben and I went to the Dallas temple with his mom Cynthia and did an endowment session. The Dallas temple is not as pretty as San Antonio on the outside, but I am liking it more and more every time we go. After the temple, I tried to get this little kid to take a picture of us all together, and this is the best photo we got. Yep. Oh well. Cynthia took us to this great Italian place and we had a nice time catching up.
Later that day we went to the Dallas nature preserve and walked around and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We really wanted to go to the zoo, but it was way too crowded and would have been chaotic. The nature preserve has this spot where you can go up to the top of a building and see the landscape from up high. It was quite windy, but such a nice day for February. Here are some shots of the nature preserve:

Me, Ben, and Ben's dad Daniel.

Ricey giving me the stink-eye. She loves Dallas because she has the reign of the whole house.

On Sunday, Ben and Daniel brought out this map of the world that he and Ben put together when Ben was little. It was all made out of cardboard and colored and cut out by the two of them. We had a fun time putting it together. I managed to do South America, but I don't quite excel in the geography department. We had a great time and are excited to go again soon!

Indiana Trip

The weekend of Jan. 21st I went to Indiana to visit my older sister Natalie, her husband Trevor, and their new baby girl Madelyn Emery Hedman. I added all of my pics to my facebook page, but here are just a few for fun:

Trevor, Natalie, and Maddie

Me and Maddie

Maddie smiling at me

I had such a great time in Indiana and enjoyed getting to catch up with Natalie and Trevor and spend time with Maddie. It was hard being away from Ben for a couple of days, but it was worth it to take a break from work and get to meet my new niece. Due to the large amounts of snow in Indiana, I can definitely say I wouldn't want to move there any time soon, but it made me wish Nat and Trevor lived close by so I could see them more often.

Dallas New Year's

Ben and I went to Carrollton, TX for New Year's which is where Ben grew up. I brought my camera with me, but unfortunately did not take too many pictures. With a sister-in-law for a photographer, it's a little intimidating. Of course I got plenty of good shots of Ricey.

We mostly relaxed and hung out at Ben's house, which was fine by me! Here's a candid of Daniel.

While we were there, Andrea did a sort of mini-photoshoot with us. Here are some pics I pulled from her blog.

This one was just too cute not to post.

Ut Memorial Museum with Cynthia and Andrea

We were very lucky to have Cynthia and Andrea come visit us in Austin. While we were showing them around the UT campus, we checked out the UT Memorial Museum, which Ben and I had never been in before. Here are some pics from that:

Outside the museum with the mustang sculpture.
This ancient horse-creature that used to dwell in Texas.
We had a great time, and we both really appreciate that Cynthia drove her brand new Lincoln all the way from Dallas to Austin, and then back to Dallas with us and Ricey in the car. You're the best, Cynthia! We love you!

Christmastime

Ben and I got to do a lot of fun things this December. We spent a lot of time with both sets of families hanging out, watching movies, going to museums, going out to eat, the usual. Here are some pics of us with my family minus Nat and Trevor and Maddie.

Every Christmas Eve we go out to dinner at Johnny Carino's. It was delicious!
After finals, Ben went to Utah to visit some of his good friends.
We went to "Main Street Bethlehem" in Burnet, TX. It was super cold but totally worth it.
With the whole fam.
Petting the camel with Alli. My next post will be all about the fun things we did with Ben's family!