Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend started Thursday night with a girls night at Pinot's Palette.  My friends from high school, Mallory, Annie, Sara and Jenny got together to have share some conversation, painting, pizza, and wine.  Considering most of our painting experience comes from painting Tri Theta banners in high school, I have to say that our bluebonnet canvases are not bad.  

I worked from home on Friday so that I could do laundry and pack us for the lake.  Austin went to school and I rushed around the house doing laundry, answering emails, and packing the family.  We picked up Austin at school around 3pm on our way out of town.  The once 3.5-hour max road trip (pre-child) to the lakehouse was a 4.5 hour trip with a stop at Bucee's (where Savannah proceeded to throw up in the front seat of the car while we were inside).  David cleaned it up (thank you) while I watched Austin eat a "hummus and pretzels" snack pack.  We eventually arrived in one piece around 7:45 after Austin asked multiple times "out, yes" "out, yes?", "out, yes, pees?".  It was so cute (especially with the please).  I wish I could have let him out of the carseat straps because even I was getting antsy.  

Family photo (look familiar?- we took a similar picture on our way back from Jackson Hole in 2009, pre-Austin of course)

Let me OUT!

Mommy is funny, sometimes

We put Austin to bed in his pac 'n play in the closet in our room (no, we are not child abusers; the closet is fairly large and we left the door open). He did not like this at all though.  This was the first time since 8 weeks old he has put up a fight at bed time.  In all fairness, we arrived after his bed time and expected him to feel comfortable going to sleep in a place he had only spent about 15 minutes with new people (Cecile, David and Andrew McAllister - the family we share the house with).  He eventually went to sleep and the adults had dinner.  Saturday was a rainy day.  I was able to run on the roads that were under construction (blessing in disguise - dirt path for my knees/joints!).  We just relaxed around the house and the guys managed to get in a round of golf late in the day after the rain had moved out.  Austin practiced learning everyone's name- David, Andrew, Cecile, Amanda, Stephen, La-La, Will, and baby Paige.  We finally went on a short boat ride around 5pm.  Austin protested the life jacket at first but warmed up to it after realizing how cool the boat is!  We went to eat dinner at the Rigney's house that evening.  It was fun to get to see Sara (childhood friend from SA) and her girls, Sarita (almost 5) and Anna (almost 3).  Austin even stayed up until 9:15 that night without getting grumpy at all.  He was wired after loving his whole ear of corn on the cob that he ate all by himself.  

Now that is happy boy!

Taking it all in

Sticking close to mommy while Daddy drives fast

Austin and all the girls - Sarita, Sara, Anna, mommy, Amanda and baby Paige

On Sunday, the guys played golf in the morning.  Lauren, Will and I went out on the boat early to get a good ski and wakeboard in before the holiday crowds came while Austin stayed with DiDi.  That afternoon, we had some very special visitors.  The Crabbs family came to visit.  This is the family that I babysat for throughout college.  Jack was the ring bearer in our wedding when he was 4 1/2.  I started babysitting Jack when he was 6 months old and Reagan was not yet born.  They currently live in Lakeway so they drove out for a few hours to meet Austin and swim/boat.  Jack is now 10 1/2 and finishing 4th grade and Reagan is 8 1/2 and finishing 2nd grade. Wow!  I AM OLD!  The last time I saw them was 3 years ago when I was in Austin for Lauren's college graduation.  It was so fun to catch up with Kim (their mom) and see how much they have changed and grown.  They loved playing with Austin and he loved watching them swim and tube behind the boat.  Jack's hair is still SOOO curly!  That evening we enjoyed a sunset cruise and had a wonderful fajita birthday dinner for Carolyn Spurgeon and me.  On Monday morning, David took me skiing one last time while Austin stayed behind with DiDi.  We packed up and hit the road (traffic back to Houston on holiday weekends can be rough).  Austin proved that he is growing up since he napped only 30 minutes in the car on the way home thanks to Bastrop traffic disrupting the steady car motor noise and was still happy as can be throughout the car ride and when we got home.  I wish we could just stay at the lake and escape reality forever.  At least we will be returning on June 21 for another lake weekend!!  

Enjoying a peach yogurt popsicle

Watching the funny big kids 

Post swim snack with the Crabb kids

Swimming with Daddy, the pool was still quite chilly

Watching for boats

Sunset cruise with baby Paige (her first boat ride)

Curly top

Austin got his first haircut on Sunday. We took him to a place called snipits. We were the first people there at 11 when they opened. Good thing because there was soon a line of about 7 kids and only one stylist working. He did not like the idea from the get go and started to cry the minute he was put in the chair. Soon after, he spotted the animal cracker dispenser on the counter. These kept him happy the rest of the time. The stylist said we would find out if his curls were just baby curls or if they would return and he would be curly headed kid. The curls are still there, just shorter so it looks like he will have curls for now. Here are a few pictures from the milestone event.

Spotting the animal crackers

Shoving animal crackers in his mouth - this isn't' so bad!

Such a big boy!

At least Monkey could come to keep me safe from the scissors

Mohawk.  (This picture reminds me of Kevin from Home Alone - AAAHH)

Post haircut curls - helping Mommy make a "grid chez"

Worthy of its own post

Austin's first encounter with Blue Bell....

Checking it out....My very own?

Cousin Summi can't have MY Blue Bell

Diving right in

Digging in now that it is soft enough

Perfecting the spoon.  He ate the whole thing!

Denver visit!

 Last weekend, David and I went to Denver to visit friends.  It was a "get-away" weekend that was my Christmas gift and our anniversary in one.  We stayed in the Brown Palace hotel downtown as a treat.  We left Austin in MiMi's care for the weekend.  (thank you Mary!)  My Aunt Carrie also came by for a few hours to give Mary a break on Saturday.  He had a blast with MiMi and playing with cousins Ben and Summer.  Mary said every once in a while he would pause, look around, and say "MaMa" and "DaDa" as if he was wondering when we were coming back.  I wish I could have seen this.  We definitely missed Austin so much, but at the same time, it was so fun to go back to the place we called home for almost 5 years and hang out with friends there.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and made our way from the airport to our old neighborhood.  Our house looked the same and the neighborhood did too.  We forgot how small the houses look (since they all have basement space) compared to the houses in our new neighborhood. That's not to say our new neighborhood has huge houses but they are more spread out and on bigger lots.  We headed to our hotel, checked in, and changed for dinner.  Kelly and Ryan Puckett met us at the hotel for a drink before heading to Amato's Ale House for dinner.  This was the last place David and I went on a date before moving to Houston.  It has a great view of the city (although we didn't sit outside this time since it was 40 degrees).  After that, we headed to the Yard House right by our hotel and had another drink.  It was so fun to catch up with Ryan and Kelly since the last time we saw them was in October at their wedding.  

On Saturday morning, David had an early tee time at Cherry Creek with his golf buddy Reid.  It is crazy that the city got 5 inches of snow on the Wednesday just before and there was no sign of it by Friday and David could play golf.  That is "spring time" in Denver for ya!  I took my time getting up and headed to my favorite running trail (Highline canal) for a run in the cool, crisp air.  I would have gone to Wash Park but I noticed on the news that the "Furry Scurry" race was there that morning and there were 12,000 people expected.  I ran for about 8 miles and enjoyed the mountain view.  I even saw one of the guys from my old company, Archstone, who I was on a company Marathon relay team with last May. I headed back to the hotel to shower and then went to meet my sweet friends, Michelle and Pippa, for lunch at Root Down.  It was fun to catch up with them.  Pippa had just had her 2nd baby girl 10 days before but she left the kiddos at home with her husband.  I miss seeing these girls at Bible study each week!  After David finished golf, we went to Adam and Rachel's house and an early dinner with Veronica, Ryan, Christina, Brandon, and Anna-Lisa.  We got to meet baby Garrett (Brody's little brother) who is 3 months old.  I think he looks so much like Rachel and so different from his brother!  They are both precious.  Thanks for hosting a fun get-together! 

Right after that we all went to Red Rocks for the Chris Tomlin concert.  It was about 35 degrees so we bundled up with coats, scarves and hats.  At least it didn't rain or snow!  The amphitheater setting is already so majestic and it made it even more awesome of a night that we were worshiping our creator God surrounded by towering rocks and the mountains as a backdrop.  I am so glad all of our friends decided to go too!  

The next morning we slept in (til like 8:30 - woah!) and headed to the airport for a noon flight.  I already can't wait to go back, but next time it will be with my little guy since he was missed.  

I really do love this trail

Rachel and Christina pre-concert!

 

Burning Lights Tour

Drive to Red Rocks

Thanks Veronica for letting me borrow a coat

Miss these friends!

We got to come back and see this little guy!!!

Cooking (with Bear in hand, of course)

Little chef - he loves to make eggs

Homeade quesadilla for Cinco de Mayo dinner

Every time we pull in the garage Austin says "wa-wa".  His mind is always on "wa-wa", either from the hose, or his water table or his new baby pool (thanks to MiMi!)

Daddy is the tickle monster