I’m Officially a Texan

You know those awkward questions? The ones that are supposed to be part of small chat and really only a one-word answer is expected but for whatever reason you have to give a long story of an answer? The one that gets me every time seems so simple, but is so hard for me.

“Where are you from?”

At least in Dallas, it’s a little more common to have a longer answer. I imagine in smaller towns, or different cities you are from where you are—how else would you get there? In Dallas there’s a lot of transplants, or perhaps someone is “from” another part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and will just lump it in with Dallas.

I grew up nowhere near Texas. We moved around a lot—I lived in Mississippi, New York, Maryland, Iceland (yes Iceland! And yes it is cold and icy regardless of what they tell you about Iceland being “green” and Greenland being “ice”…pffft. Lies 10 months out of the year!) and Virginia before landing in Texas when I was in middle school.

In fact, I remember coming to visit my cousins that were living in the panhandle of Texas when I was about 10 or so, and telling my friends when I got back to the East Coast how weird Texas was. How they had the shape of their state absolutely everywhere, how there was a place called Dairy Queen that everyone raved about and how slow and big everything was.

I still chuckle about that memory, but now Texas is my home. I love it here. There are wide open spaces and there are kind people and there are more restaunts and stores here than maybe anywhere else in the world? Okay, maybe not but I challenge you to find a better BBQ or a better brunch or a better Tex-Mex restaurant—you just can’t.

Even though I have lived in Texas for half my life now (minus the college years in Oklahoma), there was one Texas tradition I hadn’t done yet.

The Bluebonnet field photos.

 

It’s like a right of passage. For about a month or so each year, these blue flowers pop up all over Texas in really random places, like the grassy patches next to the frontage roads. And it’s totally normal to pull your car on the side of the highway and take your family’s/whoever’s pictures. No biggie. 🙂

When I found out that there was a city an hour-ish away from our house that was world-famous for their bluebonnet trail, I knew we had to go. Ennis is a cute city that I had been to a few times for the drive-in movie theatre (so fun!) but this was seeing a whole different side of it.

Luckily our friends Dan and Volta were game for a little road trip action and they picked us up and we all headed to Ennis together. Volta and I were staring out the window exclaiming in delight “look at that field!” “look at those flowers!!!” “can we stop yet?!?”. Volta happens to be a total kindred spirit who loves art and travel- she also happens to be a SUPER talented watercolor artist- check out this link here to see her work!

Finally, we got to a field pin-pointed on a map as photography friendly from inside the field. Meaning you could walk in it and sit in it and take photos. Swoon.

It was stunning.

Bluebonnets sprinkled with Indian Paintbrushes and tiny yellow wildflowers stretched back for miles it seemed. Look at all the color!

 

I made this flower crown especially for the bluebonnet pictures. Tutorial coming soon, of course.

We even stopped at the local winery, Sugar Ridge Winery, in between fields. They have the most incredible lemon wine I have ever had. It tasted like lemonade…which is quite dangerous for wine. There may have been several bottles opened during the day.

Then back to the fields we went for more and more and more photos. Such a fun day with such amazing friends. How cute are they???

Of course there was a lot of photography discussion going on and random dog friends who managed to find us.

My heart is full. And now I can consider myself a true Texan. 😉 I absolutely ADORE these photos Volta snapped for us. It’s pretty rare that Scott and I get nice photos together, so it was really fun to be on the other side of the camera. 🙂

I also made Scott model for me and played with the remote timer function on the camera- it gives you 10 seconds to get from pushing the button to the front of the camera. There was intense running/sliding action happening, trust me!

So glad I have a photography friend who enjoys pictures as much as I do! 🙂 Scott and Dan came after us when we wondered away after a beautiful field caught our eyes–isn’t this very Darcy-esque of him? Coming for his woman with his long cape (blanket) on? Swooning.

What about you guys? Does your state have fun traditions? Are you “from” somewhere, or are you like me and have a long story? I want to hear it! I like long stories. 🙂 I also like sitting in fields of flowers…I could get used to this!