In Pioneer Country

Long before I started writing my own blog I read blogs. One of my favorite blogs is ThePioneerWoman.com In short, Ree Drummund, the author, was a city girl who met and married a cowboy and her website is all about how she is making her way through life on their ranch with their four children. It's funny, heartfelt and makes me want to marry a cowboy. Ree wrote a cookbook a few years ago called "The Pioneer Woman Cooks" and recently published the story of how she met and married her husband and their first year of marriage. "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" is one of those books that reads like a fiction book, but is a real life tale of love and a few other things.... ;)

Ree is currently on a book tour and was visiting a city about an hour from my hometown. I have a cousin that lives in said city so she and I made plans to meet and attend the book signing together. Seeing as the city of the book signing is quite a bit larger than my tiny town I drove up about three hours before the book signing. This gave me plenty of time to shop around the shopping center a bit(visited Pier One-in love) and then drop by the bookstore to pick up our line letters which told us when we  would be getting our books signed.

The bookstore had a lovely little bistro offering a special Pioneer Woman cooks menu that evening. I found a table for one(my cousin had to work late and then pick up her two girls so she didn't make it til late) and promptly ordered the Pioneer Woman tomato and basil Pizza. And I took a picture of it.

Oh.My.Goodness. This was seriously one of the best meals I have ever had. I only ate half of it at the restaurant...and then ate the other half of the way home. No shame here.

After dinner I grabbed a raspberry smoothie(delish) and waited for the signing to start. Ree came out and stood on the gorgeous staircase of the bookstore and spoke for a few minutes and then took questions. She was hysterical! I loved her humility in openly admitting her nerves. She seemed very down earth and just lovely.

My cousin didn't make it to hear Ree speak, but she did eventually make it just in time...to wait for us to be called to wait in line. Lots of waiting! Melissa brought with her her two girls. I knew that they would get a bit impatient waiting in line so I headed to target on Friday morning and picked up some little gifts and made them these adorable gifts boxes.

Sometimes I just really love the target dollar aisle. They had little coloring things, stickers, a tiny stuffed animal and fruit chewies. Cute! They looooved them! The perfect distraction for little girls.



My cousin's daughter,Mia. Such a sweetie! Mia was adopted from China about four or so years ago and I was actually at the airport when she came home. It has been so sweet to see her become such a fun little lady.

The last time we had our picture taken like this we were in the airport and little Mia was still a baby!

 Well, we finally were called to get in the line to get our books signed. It actually went really quickly and before you knew it we were there! Ree was even sweeter up close. We talked about...her nail polish. Seriously, ya'll. The color was gorgeous! :)





Way to look at the camera, Han.

After getting our books signed we went to Starbucks and talked for a few hours. It was great to spend time with Melissa! The evening ended on a slightly..off note. Tune into later this week to read the rest....

Hannah.