I moved from Phoenix, Arizona in 2009 to a small, little town in Illinois called Mahomet. I attended Mahomet-Seymour High School, and met Ashley and Taylor. These two have been my loyal friends since day one at the high school – we all now live in separate states, two of us are married and one of us is in grad school, but we never allowed all those changes to pull us apart. This past weekend, Taylor and I were finally able to take a trip from our home states of Tennessee and Missouri to visit our friend Ashley in Waco, Texas for a reunion trip! It had been several years since the three of us had been able to spend more than a few hours together, so it was so great to have an entire weekend to hangout, catch up and see where our friend Ashley had been living the past several years.

As many of you know, Magnolia Market and Bakery is located in Waco! My husband and I are avid Fixer Upper watchers, so it was super neat to be able to go and see one of the projects that Chip and JoAnna Gaines had done! It just so happened that the weekend we were in Texas, they were having their Spring at the Silos event! They had a bunch of little vendors, live music and so much more. Ashley, Taylor and I went on Saturday to the Silos and it was so crowded! We even met a girl that had driven all of the way from Florida – that’s commitment. Since it was so crowded on Saturday, we didn’t stay for too long or wait in the forever long line to see inside the Market store (don’t worry though – Taylor and I went back on Monday and really looked around!). Being a photographer, I can’t ever pass up an opportunity to take some pictures, so naturally I took my camera with me on our Waco adventures. I took a couple of images on Saturday at Spring at the Silos – but when Taylor and I went back to visit there on Monday, I snatched a million images of the entire area. If you haven’t already been to the Silos, you’re about to feel like you visited it yourself from all of the pictures below!

As I said, Saturday was spent at Spring at the Silos and a bit of walking around downtown Waco. On Sunday, my friend Ashley told us that the ‘thing to do’ in Waco is take pictures with Blue Bonnets. When she first said that, I thought she was talking about Little House on the Prairie type bonnets! But, I was way off – Blue Bonnets are purple flowers that grow in Waco and look like Lavender plants. So in true tourist fashion, the three of us headed to a field of Blue Bonnets to snap some pictures of each other with the flowers.

On Monday, Taylor and I headed back to Magnolia Market and Bakery to truly get a taste for what everyone raves about – the market store and bakery cupcakes. Here’s where you’re about to be jealous – I took some pictures of my Shiplap Cupcake (vanilla cake with vanilla frosting) and my ginormous cinnamon roll for you to salivate over. Man, was the cinnamon roll sweet! I could only handle a few bites before I had to save it for later. The cake part of the cupcake was a lot more dense than I expected, but super delicious! The frosting was so sweet and very creamy. Mm mm good. Are you jealous yet? (My millions of Magnolia pictures are located near the bottom of this post!)

We then headed into the mass chaos that was presented to us within the store. People were everywhere! I was surprised at how large the space was – though there was a lot of people in the Market, it didn’t feel overly crowded. It was so fun to look through the decor, t-shirts and fresh flowers. After Taylor and I bought a couple of items (mine included a green Magnolia baseball hat!), we headed outside to check out the famous swings. Friends, I would have stayed on that small, wooden swing all day long if there weren’t little ones waiting for their turn! We had a blast. We then moved over to the fun, striped bean bags that were placed throughout the lawn. Once we enjoyed the comfy chairs for a bit, we headed out after having experienced all that Magnolia Market and Bakery had to offer. It was such a great time. And no, we didn’t meet Chip and Jo (so many of our friends asked us if we did!)

Enjoy the pictures I snapped and prepare yourself for extreme jealousy towards my cupcake.

With love,

Allison

(More Magnolia pictures are near the bottom!)