For my birthday this year Justin and I went to Waco, TX to visit my brother Stan. Most of you know this already but for those of you who do not, Stan and I are twins and we have never missed a birthday together. So when Stan told me that he would not be able to come home this year I planned on going to him. We had a great time. Justin and I had never been to Waco before so it was a new experience for both of us.
We started out our trip on Saturday morning. At the last minute we decided to take Jack with us. We had planning leaving him at the vet but after thinking about him being in a small crate for 5 days we thought it was be better to just take him with us. He did well in the car.
Last summer we went to visit Justin’s Dad who lived in Houston, TX and while driving out there we noticed that Texas has a lot of doughnut shops. Soon after entering Texas we saw a doughnut shop, so we thought we would keep a count. The grand total of doughnut shops we passed was 16. Maybe this is common for all states but the few times we have been in Texas we seem to see them on every corner.
To keep from repeating things I am going to break down our trip by days.
Saturday:
Stan's House
We left our house around 11:00 a.m. and made it to Stan’s around 6:30. We had to make a few more stops then normal because Jack came with us. After arriving at Stan’s we unloaded some of our things and then went to dinner. Stan brought us to a great restaurant called Ninfa’s. It was a little loud but other than that, it was a good experience and the food was really great. After dinner we went home and planned what we would do on Sunday. 
Sunday:
We went to church with Stan that morning. He goes to UBC (University Baptist Church) where, as the name indicates, most of the members are college students. That morning at church David Crowder led worship. He is the normal worship leader for that church but because he tours he is not always there. After church Stan took us to Austin. We did some shopping and drove around the capital. For dinner we found this little Italian place thanks to Urban Spoon call The Grove. It was good and the atmosphere was very nice. Please enjoy some of the pictures of the day.
Monday:
Stan had to work in the morning so Justin and I hung out at the house. We met Stan at work and went to lunch at a place called Homestead Heritage. Homestead Heritage is a community of Christians located just outside of Waco. In a way, it’s somewhat like an Amish community in that the people of the community live off of the land, including growing their own crops and raising animals, as well as making their own furniture and pottery. They are not quite as primitive as the Amish are, as they do use electricity and cars (I believe).
After eating lunch there we walked around the community and saw a few different buildings including the place where they make pottery, where they do woodworking, and the “gristmill” (essentially where they make bread from scratch). Overall, it was a really neat place and the people there were very kind.
Tuesday:
The Ice Cream Cake Justin got for us.
This sign was in the Dr. Pepper Museum.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME AND STAN!!!! Again Stan had to work so Justin and I took this opportunity to shop around Waco and we went to the Dr. Pepper Museum. Ok - after living in Atlanta and visiting The World of Coke I had some high expectations for the Dr. Pepper Museum. Boy was I wrong! The place was a little creepy and Justin and I were the only people there. We didn’t have a good experience. To top it off, they didn’t even have samples at the end! I mean, the World of Coke has a whole room with all the different Coke’s from around the world that you can taste.
After running out of the museum we went to Baylor (where Stan works) and walked around campus. They have a very nice campus. Part of Stan’s job is to lead a group of college students that cooks dinner each week for over 100 international students. Stan goes shopping for all the food and leads the group in cooking the meal. Justin and I got to eat with Stan and the 120+ students he cooks for. The food was great too. Towards the end of the dinner some of Stan’s co-workers surprised him with a cake and everyone sang to him. After dinner Justin and I went back to Stan’s and waited for Stan to come home. Justin had gotten Stan and I a star-shaped piñata and filled it with lots of candy. It was really fun trying to break it. I do have to say that it was harder than I thought. We had a blast trying to break it apart. Justin also got us an ice cream cake. So after the cake and piñata we opened our gifts. Stan got me one of the best gifts ever…The Michael Jackson “This Is It” movie, which we watched that night (well, not all of it but part of it).
Stan cooks for all these people every Tuesday.
The real Baylor Bears.
We had a great time trying to bust the pinata.
The trip home!!!
Jack traveled well for us.
We had a great visit with Stan and are looking forward to our next visit.
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