Well, it’s official. We love Texas! We’ve been traveling around the country this year, speaking with a wonderful women’s organization and each stop just keeps getting better and better. We get so many questions from readers about what it’s like being a part of Time Out for Women, so I thought I’d give you a little behind-the-scenes peek at a typical travel weekend.
Kate and I travel to cities all over the US. Besides getting to meet amazing women and reconnect with our TOFW friends, the best part is actually getting to hang out with each other. Many people don’t realize that we live on opposite sides of the country, and speaking events and book tours are the only times we actually get to hang out in person, so that’s one of the highlights for us! Our husbands are amazing and completely take over at home, holding down our respective forts while we’re gone. I headed off at the crack of dawn Friday morning. Actually, who am I kidding, it was well before the crack of dawn. Want to know my favorite part about plane rides?
Some people have to make sure they have their laptop and neck pillow. For me, it’s all about magazines and M&M’s. Every flight, every time. By the way, in one of my magazines, I found the perfect workout for Kate. Not that she needs a workout, pregnant women really shouldn’t be exercising, they should be eating ice cream. But if she were to want to work out, she should try this:
Yes, my friends. That is a Hunger Games Workout. Perfect for those of you who ate one too many District 11 rolls. Sure it must be performed in a forest, while wearing lace-up leather boots. But just think of all of the wonderful things it will prepare you for, like shooting long distance bow and arrow targets and being able to scale trees to cut down hacker-jacker nests. That’s why it’s important to have magazines on plane rides.
I arrived in Dallas late afternoon and was happy to be greeted with warm, spring weather. Thank you Dallas! I’ll skip the part about how I took the wrong shuttle, which took me to the wrong hotel, in the wrong part of town and pretend I didn’t have to waste 3 hours and a $50 cab ride to end up in the right spot. Apparently I need a babysitter. I finally did find the right hotel, in which my room had a view of Six Flags out one window and Cowboy and Ranger’s Stadiums out the other. Not gonna lie, I was a little tempted to skip out on the day’s events and head to Six Flags; I’m a sucker for roller coasters!
By this point, Kate and I were starving so I used the Local Scout feature on my Nokia Lumia 900 to find a place to eat. I use this feature a lot when I’m at home around town and need to find something quick (a craft store, a grocery store, an I-need-a-cupcake-NOW-or-I-might-die store) but it’s seriously my favorite feature when traveling. It immediately picks up everything around you from restaurants to things to see and do, and gives you reviews, ratings, directions, and more. We picked a place to eat judging entirely on distance from where we were standing at that very moment. For the love of GPS. If you could see Kate’s poor swollen, puffy, preggo feet, you would know exactly why! Lucky for us, we were practically right in front of a great restaurant, and the fact that the maître d’ spoke with a thick French accent made me think that everything in the place was instantly delicious. And it was.
Time out for Women is a weekend event, which starts with a Friday night program and then goes on for most of the day on Saturday. We don’t speak until Saturday, so we get to just to watch on Friday night. There are both musical guests and speakers on both days. So after our dinner, we headed over to the event center. I was so happy to get to run into one of my dear friends, Amber from Her Notebook {aka Be Sassy Classy}. Amber and I met in college and I can’t believe it’s been over ten years since we’ve seen each other in person! Honestly, with Facebook and blogging, it’s like we haven’t missed a day!
The Friday night program was great, and afterwards, Kate and I headed back to our rooms.
Saturday morning starts early. We have to be dressed and ready, and in the event center at 7:30 am for sound checks. It takes a massive audio-visual team to pull off an event like this. There are anywhere from 2000-3000 people attending each event. Here’s just a portion of the seating in this venue (before doors were open!) Once those doors open, it’s like Target on Black Friday. We actually saw women scaling over chairs like ninjas trying to get as close to the front as possible. That’s when we hide.
There’s a stage up front with two huge jumbo-tron screens on each side. This is Tyler, working all the details from backstage.
And this is Rod, who got us all hooked up to our microphones. This man works wonders, because I broke a cardinal rule and attempted to wear giant dangly earrings (they’re peacocks! And they match my owl!) and instead of promptly telling me to take them off, he worked magic and made the over-the-ear microphone work while letting me stay fashionable. I love you, Rod.
Kate told me I wasn’t allowed to post any photos of her, but how CUTE is that tummy?!Our presentation is about 35 minutes long. We laugh, we joke, we cry, we tell funny stories about how ridiculous we are. It’s a blast. (Look, see the owl ring? I told you
it was awesome.)
(above photo by Macy Robison Photograpy)
And the moment we get off stage, my heels come off. Oh, the things we do for fashion.
Each event has a different line-up of speakers and musical guests and this was our first event with this little lady. Doesn’t she look so unassuming? Just a sweet southern belle?
Her name is Mary Ellen Edmunds; she’s an author and public speaker, and I am not exaggerating or being overly dramatic when I say she is quite literally one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life. She could win a stand-up showdown with any famous female (or male!) comedian.
We’ve also done several events now with these gorgeous girls, recording artists Mercy River. Words cannot describe how much we love these ladies. If you haven’t heard their inspiring music, check it out. They sing like angels!
(photo credit: mercyrivermusic.com)
At intermissions, our favorite part is meeting all of the great women who have attended the event that day, and signing cookbooks, too! It’s so fun for us to meet the people who are reading this blog and cooking our recipes; honestly it’s the highlight of our weekend.
Check out this gift- she had a great idea that I should start collecting potholders from every city we visit. I love it!
It was such an amazing event full of inspiring messages. As a parting gift to our beloved Texas, we joined with some of the other presenters to leave you with this masterpiece of musical composition.
I know. Don’t say it. I should definitely record a CD.
After all was said and done, the flip-flops went back on and we headed out for some authentic Texas BBQ (Holy YUM!) To top it off, we stopped at the store so we could all try the famed southern Blue Bell Ice Cream. Kate has been talking non-stop for years about Blue Bell so I was excited to finally see for myself what all of the fuss was about. We bought just a few. Ya know, to sample.
I’m not that big of a pig. Okay, I kind of am. But I shared. We made a ridiculous mess and people stared. And the ice cream was just as amazing as everyone says it is.
After one more good-night phone call to my kiddos and an ice-cream induced sleep, I woke up once more well before any normal human should wake up, to catch my flight home. More magazines and M&M’s got me through layovers and hard airplane seats.
It always takes a few days to get back into the groove and schedule back at home, but that’s all we have, because we do this all over again starting this Friday, when we head to see a sold-out crowd in Harrisburg, PA! We’ll also be making stops this year in Denver CO, Phoenix AZ, and Logan UT. Hope to see some of you there!
Questions & Reviews
Kate & Sara…Thank you so much for coming to TEXAS! It was so fun meeting you in person! (I was the one who made the comment that I felt like we were already friends!) My Sis, SIL and I had the best time and loved listening to you both!
And I have to agree about MEE too! I could listen to her all day! Oh, who am I kidding, ALL of the presenters were amazing and exactly what I needed to hear!
Thank you so much for coming and glad we could share a little piece of heaven (blue bell) with you! Ya’ll come back now, ya hear! 🙂 lol
If there was a “like” button, I’d click it for this comment. I’m glad you spoke up, Hilary. 🙂 And I’m with ya, you guys rock, Sara and Kate!
Ditto!!
I wish I could have gone!! I was at Six Flags instead. 🙂
I love you 🙂 Thanks 😉
That was my first TOFW. It was fun. I think I started crying I was laughing so hard in the beginning of your guys talk…flowers the size babies faces, yoga pants, feather beds in forests! Seriously, crying. I tried to reenact it for my husband…didn’t have the same effect. It was fun to meet you gals during the lunch break, thanks for taking the time to talk with us locals!
Sounds like a good time!
As for Phoenix, I hope you are visiting/conferencing in the late fall, because it is already in the nineties here. For the love of a banana, it’s hot. Do you know what sweats when you hit those triple digits? Everything. Everything sweats.
Oh what a small world! I grew up with Amber. I thought she looked familiar. I love your recipes and blog. Keep up the great work!
I am so excited you will be in Logan, for the TOFW. I have never been to one and decided that since my kids are finally out of the stage of needing mom 24/7 I am planning on coming! Your post made me way excited:)
You were both ADORABLE!!! You made me laugh and cry! You said all the things I needed to hear! I REALLY enjoyed listening to both of you. Thanks for your uplifting words!
Hey, I saw that you guys are going to NYC in June for Book Expo America with Deseret Book! I can’t wait to meet you there and snag a copy of your new cookbook!
Yes! I’ll be there and I’m so happy you will be too! Definitely some and say hello!
Yes, MEE is a total riot, and Mercy River rocks! Did they sing the song again about putting the kids to bed, Bye Bye Bye? That’s the funniest thing I have EV-ER heard. Glad you had a good time!
I was a disappointed that your TOFW schedule didn’t include Idaho Falls but it is a wonderful program, not matter who shows up! I love that you share your lives with us, because a love of food ties people together. It’s your blog, you post whatever you want! You go girls!!!
Are you guys comign to Las Vegas anytime this year?!
I wish you were travelling to Northern California so I could come to Time Out for Women and meet you guys! Have fun on your journeys! 🙂
Looks like you gals had fun! 🙂 As a Texan myself, I’m so happy to hear ya’ll love my home state! 🙂 And yes, Kate’s tummy is adorable! Glad you got a shot of it! She looks radiant, too! 🙂
I was there! It was my first TOFW & I loved it. Since I moved to Texas 5 months ago, it was my first day sans kiddos! I loved hearing from you & Kate. I have your cookbook, bought it last year for mothers day and haven’t had it out in awhile so I pulled it out to make some cooking plans. I think one of the ways to improve TOFW is that all you girls that dress so cute & stylish can tell us ‘who you are wearing’. I loved your top on Saturday, but didn’t have the guts to come up and ask about it. Also Mercy River was dressed adorable and wish I would have asked them about the lace slip & top! I have scoured the internet looking for those 2 pieces. Anyway, sorry to ramble. I loved this post. Thanks for the behind the scenes!
Guess what? I can help you out! My top is just from Maurices, and I loved Brooke’s slip that I asked her about it at our last event! lol I have the same blue dress that she wore and I needed it too! It’s from a cute Utah boutique. They don’t have on-line ordering, but if you call the store, the owner is SO nice and she’ll have one shipped off to ya! I ordered two and love them. They run a little small though, just FYI, next time I’ll order it in a size up (because I’m going to order one more in black too, lol!) You can find the number here:
http://www.rockpaperkarma.com/
And Soni’s lace top was so cute too, right? Just ask on the Mercy River FB page and I’m sure she’ll tell you where she got it!
I live right by this Utah Boutique and it’s actually called “Karma”. I shop there a lot … it is so very cute and the owner there is amazing … darling and so sweet! They have great stuff, one of my favorite little shops!!
LOVE Time out for Women! Thanks for sharing your amazing talents and time. And also a big thanks for a behind the scene peak of TOFW, how fun! The one thing I would change about TOFW, start at least an hour later! It’s the one night we have to be away with our girlfriends and they make us get up so early!
are you ever coming to st. louis or kansas city? would love to see you and possibly meet you two! great pictures…looks like you and everyone involved had a blast! a sidenote…if my daughter ever makes a recipe that flops, my son-in-law tells her that he knows she didn’t get it from OBB!! we’re all fans 🙂
I will be seeing you this weekend in PA!!! I am so looking forward to it!! You two are the reason I am going. I have been fans of yours since the beginning. I was also on the LDS Baby-center board when you two “met”! I was so excited to see a TOFW post today, It makes me even more excited!! See you SATURDAY!!! 🙂
Awe, way back on BBC! Love it! Come say hi this weekend!
How do we find out when and where you will be in Utah? And do we need to get tickets? Me and my sister would love to go!
You can find all of the info on the TOFW Website!
YEAH! I’m going to TOFW in October in Logan, UT.
When is the trip planned for Utah? Logan is about 3 hours away, but I’d love to be there!
The weekend of October 12th. We’d love to see you!
Oh man, that picture of you with all of the blue bell ice cream makes me want to cry. I used to live in tx and always had some in my freezer. I miss it so much! Luckily my inlaws still live there so I am not completely deprived. In fact, I always peruse the list of seasonal flavors at least a month in advance of visiting so my mother in law can have those harder to find flavors waiting for me in the freezer. I’m basically obsessed.
So excited to see you in Harrisburg this weekend! Thanks for taking the time away from your family to do these events. 🙂
Just wondering when you are headed to Phoenix?
We’ll be in Pheonix the weekend of November 2nd!
travel tip: Buy an ipad. they are amazing for flights since they have a 10 hour battery! movies, music, games…..
I SO wish I was coming to Harrisburg. But a nursing baby makes it hard to do an overnight trip, even if it’s only 2 hours away. Tell the Time Out schedulers that we want to see you in Northern Virginia next year!! Good luck with all your trips!
Ellie, just so you know, they let nursing babies into the conference. I went last year with my nursing baby and it was no problem. Very easy!
I think I did know that, but my baby isn’t a very easy one and it wouldn’t really be worth it to have to take her. Another time! I just hope I’m not missing my only chance to see Sara and Kate.
I’m looking forward to seeing you in Harrisburg!!
Yay! I’m glad you’ll be there Kelli!
Oh my word, this makes me love you guys even more! We Texans are pretty proud and you sure know how to butter us up! I’m so sad I had to miss out on TOFW this time around. I seriously almost bought me a plane trip to Dallas just so I could come meet you, but the weekend just didn’t work out for me to be able to make it. LAME-O! Anyway, I am curious about your phone. My husband and I are FINALLY joining the world of smart phones when our contract is up next month and we have been debating about what kind to get. Do you REALLY like this phone more than others you’ve had, and are there any cons to it, compared to what you’ve used? Can it do all the cool stuff while still being EASY to use? My husband and I are both a little retarded when it comes to all things techno, so this is a must for me. I was curious through the whole post, but then when you said we could ask you any questions, I figured now was my chance to be annoying! I’m glad you had fun in Dallas. Come back again another year when I can make it! And yes, isn’t Blue Bell the BEST?
What a blast you had – felt like we were along for the crazy ride! Yes, the owl ring is awesome, though that phone is pretty cool too!