Austin Blues

This is about the only time of year (for maybe a few weeks or few months....it depends) that I really don't like Austin. It gets really hot and stays really hot....for months.  Admittedly this summer hasn't been as bad (until this week) compared to past summers but I'm already tired of it.  So, at times like this, when it's 106 outside, I need to remind myself of why I love Austin. So here goes (in no particular order):

1. Mexican Food
2. Margaritas
3. Fresh (made-to-order) guacamole
4. Town Lake Trail
5. Winter temperatures
6. Local farms and veggies
7. Chickens allowed in my backyard
8. Sense of community
9. My friends
10. My nieces
11. My job
12. My life

Yes, overall, I love my life here. See - I just needed to take a moment and think about all the great things that Austin has brought into my life. I'll just be much happier, when the temperatures cool off, which hopefully happens in less than 4 months.

Buster's LIfe

I'm sure you all wonder (as I do when I'm not at home) what Buster does all day.  Besides sleep of course, I've captured some images of some of his favorite and oddest things.

Lately, he's begun to jump up on the coffee table to get a better look out of the front window. He'll often bark at walking by neighbors, horses, stray dogs, mail men and really anything that goes past the window.

He has many toys but his favorite has always been Ellie, his small blue elephant. It was one of the first toys I bought for him (over 3 years ago). Funny story about Ellie....Buster must have been playing with her one time my dad was visiting and somehow the toy ended up in my dad's suitcase.  A few days later I got a call from my dad who asked, 'Is Buster missing a small blue bear?'  Yes, he was! I had no idea Ellie had travelled so far from home. I just thought that Buster hid her under the bed, which he sometimes does. And, since her trunk came off awhile ago, she does look more like a bear now and often times we find her in random spots all over the house. In this picture, I found her under our covers when I was getting into bed.

Something else you should know about Buster is that he doesn't like thunderstorms or fireworks or the sound of flies in the house.  He'll crawl under the bed or, on severe occasions, jump into the bathtub.  He is clearly well prepared for a tornado if one ever occurs here.  So, one night, Carl and I came home and found Buster under the bed but evidence that he had jumped into the bathtub at some point during the rainy  night.

I know I am biased but I think Buster is pretty hilarious and adorable. Thanks for letting me share some of his best moments with you.

Three L's and an A

Last weekend my mom came in town at the last minute. Chris and Missy had a Southwest voucher that was about to expire and were in desperate need of a mini vacation. So they flew my mom into town to watch the girls while they went to San Antonio for the weekend.  It was great timing since I was in town all weekend and Carl had projects at the land. 

On Saturday I invited Jen and her girls, Larkin and Layne,over for a backyard play date.  The girls are all within a few months of each other so it's adorable to see them interact.  They all got in the pool (although not all at the same time), played on the swings and blew bubbles.  While there were some tears, they were quickly alleviated by dragging the girls back to the bedroom to try on my wedding dress for them.  How easily they are distracted by pretty things....just like me.

After pool time we went to Mandola's for lunch. Lucie loves it there and we always go there with Larkin and Layne so as soon as she knew they were coming over for a play date, she asked if we could go there. Audrey is still pretty agreeable to anything and since Lucie is in a pretty bossy phase, we were off to Mandola's. 

The rest of the weekend was spent entertaining the girls in between naps. We had bath times, errand running and even drove out to the land where we'll get married to show my mom the progress that Carl has made. Lucie and Audrey are both adorable and exhausting but I'm so glad I got to spend time with them.

My mom is now back in DC working on addressing our wedding invitations!  She has amazing cursive thanks to a lifetime of Catholic school!

Mini Vacation

Carl and I spent a lot of 2011 traveling. And while we'd love to do that this year, we're saving up most of our vacation time and money toward our 2 week honeymoon in Europe. But we decided it would be great to take a few long weekends here and there, when possible. Due to the fact that summer typically starts in early May in Austin, we wanted to go somewhere north and get out of the heat.  We chose to go to Denver and Breckenridge over Memorial Day weekend. After a rushed start and fears of being late to our flight (only from me; Carl has no fears), we made our flight and started our trip that Friday.

We flew into Denver and drove to his friend, Wes's house. Wes lives in Evergreen, CO, a beautiful small town in the mountains outside of Denver.  We went with Wes and some other friends of Carl's to dinner.  These were all friends I hadn't met before - people Carl had gone to college with and/or run with - and it was great to get to spend time with them.  Like me, Carl values his friendships a lot and is great about staying in touch with people, especially when he travels to cities where they live.

After a night with Wes in Denver, we packed up and hit the road for the 2 hour drive west to Breckenridge. While typically known for its skiing, Breckenridge is a cute little town. We stayed in walking distance of most everywhere we needed to be and really relaxed for 3 days. We slept in, ate good food, drank bad wine, watched movies in our room and took a yoga class at the hotel we were staying at (it was more of a stretching class but I was proud of us for getting up early on vacation to do it).

We also drove to Buena Vista, CO for a day of white water rafting (well the rafting part was only 3 hours but the time to drive there and back, take a bus to the drop off point and back, etc. took all day).  While the temperatures the day before had been amazing (high 60s), a cold front had moved in over night. The outside temperature when we got back into our car at the end of the day was 42 and the river was less than 40 degrees.  Yes, we had wetsuits on. No, I never went in the water. But it was still pretty cold!  My hands and feet were numb from so much cold water exposure that it took the entire drive back that night to warm up. It was a fun rafting trip - we'd both only been once before. But due to limited snow this past winter in Denver, the river levels are pretty low. So you spent more time avoiding rocks then riding rapids.  But when in Rome....

We also spent one afternoon in Vail. We drove over the mountain to the next ski town and walked around, ate a snack outside and enjoyed the warmer sunshine that day.  Vail is much more upscale then Breckenridge (which is more my speed). It feels more European but I'm still glad we ventured out and saw some other place.  Later that afternoon, we drove into the mountains near Breckenridge.  We packed some snacks and wine and enjoyed the beautiful view.

Carl lived here for a summer, in between his freshman and sophomore year of college. It's also where he learned to rock climb!  So he has good memories here and hopefully even more now that we've shared it together.

While that was the end of our mini vacation it certainly wasn't the end of our travel. I had to be in Boston for work the rest of the week and Carl went with me and worked in the hotel.  Despite some delays getting there, Boston was fun, too. We went to a Red Sox game one night; ate delicious Italian food in the North End one night and drove to see where I used to live on our way out of town.  The weather was beautiful and I got to enjoy one last run in cooler temps for the season.  At the end of the work week, we drove a few hours west to see Leslie, Scott and meet their new (well, he's almost a year old) son, Joel.  They were great hosts and, despite rainy weather there, we had fun. Leslie is going to officiate our wedding ceremony so it was important to me that she got to spend more time with Carl.

After 10 days on the road (and together) we finally came home. I was ready.  We had a great trip and I was so glad to get to spend so much time with Carl as well as friends but I always enjoy coming home, too.  Sadly we didn't take many pictures on our trip but hopefully this very detailed, long blog post makes up for that.