I'll bet you've never ironed underwear at 6:45am in a hotel.

...but I have! Add that to my list of weird things I never thought I'd say. More about that later.

Earlier this month, I told you about this award Samuel received. Yesterday, we got the privilege to travel to our state capitol city and attend a state level awards ceremony for this same award. The ceremony was this morning. It was pretty cool.

We left yesterday afternoon about 4:15 and embarked on a 4 1/2 hour drive to Austin. We were met with a very nice (looking) room. There was a sitting area with a fold-out couch which Samuel quickly claimed. He loved it. He felt like he was staying in his own hotel room. Sadly, the fold out couch was broken, but the couch was pretty cozy, so he put his pillows & blanket on the couch & slept there anyway. Sarah decided that she wanted me to sleep with her, so Larry got a bed all to himself.

At 4:30 am the pranksters who stayed in our room last got a laugh I'm sure. That's when the clock radio alarm went off. Grrrr! I got up & turned it off, but it still woke all of us up. Luckily we were able to go back to sleep. At 5:45, I heard Sarah bumping around between the bathroom, the vanity area, our suitcase & the closet. Apparently she went to the potty & didn't quite make it in time so she was digging around for clean undies. When I woke up & realized what she was doing, I told her to just sleep commando for the last hour & we'd find them when we got up! :::yawn::: I'm not sure she really ever went back to sleep because I don't think I got any real sleep after that either. At 6:30 I gave up & got up to start getting ready. After digging through the suitcase, I discovered that Sarah didn't pack any extra undies, so if she was going to wear any today, I needed to wash & dry the wet ones. The bar soap at the sink wasn't quite what I had in mind for hand-washing my delicates, but hey, whatever. After a few minutes on top of the air conditioner didn't seem to be drying things quick enough, I pulled out the iron. I already had a couple shirts that needing ironing anyway, so I iron-dried her undies, too. ha ha!

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading out to early morning rush hour traffic in a big city. I'm glad we left super early. We arrived in plenty of time even after getting lost once. Thank goodness for local folks who can point you in the right direction.

The awards ceremony went great! We got to walk through some exhibits outside the ballroom where the ceremony took place & picked up some really cool little trinkets made from recycled products and earth-friendly stuff. Who knew that they make recycled tire key chains?

We went to a Texas history museum nearby and enjoyed an IMAX-style 3D presentation about the great state we call home. Afterward, we stopped at a drug store to pick up a couple things & then headed toward home. It was after 7:00 when we got home tonight. Whew...what a whirlwind past 24 hours!

It was a fun whirlwind, though!

And ya know...maybe on our next trip I'm give the blow dryer a shot on a pair of jeans! Or perhaps I'll try ironing a dress by pressing it between the mattresses. Hmm....what's that saying? Necessity is the mother of invention. I think a mom must've written that one!