Austin for Thanksgiving

We miss spending Thanksgiving with our families, but it really is fun to celebrate with friends! Our first Thanksgiving here in Texas, Troy and Jazmin Owen came up to Dallas from Houston to feast with us and our friends Kalie & Spencer Knaras. This year, we decided to meet in the middle. We booked a VRBO in Austin, TX. The Owen's brought some of their friends from Houston, then last minute, the Knaras's couldn't make it. So, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Austin with the Owens (Troy, Jazmin, and 1 yr old Jaxon), and the Hansens (Rob, Gentri, and their 1 yr old Caleb.) I'm glad we made it happen!

Stopping at Buc-cee's on the drive down, of course!

The place & the people...

Owen pretty much refused to be in any picture. While we were taking this picture, Owen fell down the stairs and scratched up his face! Only Owen would fall down a spiral staircase!

I love being in new places and finding fun things to do and see! So of course I took advantage of that opportunity.

We visited Hamilton Pool, which was worth the hype!

We also rode the Zilker train. We could have spent all day at this park. Hopefully we come back to Austin soon and can do more here!

Austin's slogan is "Keep Austin Weird." Unique food places are a big part of what makes Austin Austin! For the sake of experiencing it, we went to Loro and Gourdough's for our girls night. Loro is the product of "the best bbq" and "the best Asian" restaurant in Austin... so yah... a mix of smokey barbeque and fresh Asian... it's unique! Gourdoughs deep fried donuts topped with any mixture of fruit and frosting. I wish I would have taken pictures of the food!

Also worth noting from our Austin trip is that Owen bonded with the VRBO neighbor's cat.

We have so much to be thankful for, and had so much fun celebrating Thanksgiving this year!

February 2018

February was a month full of little adventures. We didn't do anything big or exciting, but we stayed busy and entertained. Lacrosse season started and I coached Hockaday Middle School again. The girls are such cute, good girls! Lots of talent on the team too! It's been so fun to work with them!

We found plenty of indoor fun

At the mall storytime and yoga,

At Home Depot's free kid's workshop,

At church playgrounds,

Entertainment Spaces

and Rec Centers

We went out for an embarrassing amount of treats! But I hit 20 weeks in my pregnancy so I had a good excuse to eat a lot (though maybe I should have used those extra calories for something healthy)

A PB cup doughnut from WOW, an ice cream doughnut sandwich from Milk & Cream, and of course, Steel City Pops. I'm pretty sure Cheesecake Factory desserts were in there too, for valentines day, but I didn't take a picture. Dang.

I had a few girls nights to celebrate birthdays and Galentines

I hit my halfway mark in this pregnancy. Pregnancy is freaking rough. 

But it's better when you have a lot of friends going through the same thing!

The three of us are due within a week of each other!

We found a little bit of outdoor fun!

We went to one of our usual parks in Carrollton.

and found a waterfall in Fort Worth.

Just for personal journal/records sake... our car needed a major repair this month... a new engine. It was a huge financial blow to us and caused a lot of stress. But I guess if that's the worst of our problems, we've got it pretty good.

January 2017

Crazy that it's 2017 already! What?! Gavin had to return to Texas the first week of January for work, but Owen and I stayed in Utah in order to attend a wedding and take advantage of the the snow!

 My family the Provo City Center temple, enjoying my cousin's wedding.

Owen was the best dancer at the reception! I'm not biased, right?

The picture above is my sister and I enjoying some fresh powder on the slopes. snowboarding is my happy place! 

 We went on a snowy adventure to Potato Hill. I loved having my mom, aunt, and sister join!

The winter is, in my opinion, the best time to visit Hot Springs. Since Texas doesn't have any (at least that I know of), I needed to get my fill of hot springs in. I have awesome, adventurous family members who were willing to make the trips to Meadow Hot Springs, and Mystic Hot Springs.

By the end of our long trip, it was hard to say goodbye. 

Coming back to these friends made it easier though:

I'm thankful for my loving home, and also thankful for my growing Texas family!