Staycation in SA

I realize I am that girl who didn't post anything for over a month. My apologies. Rather than feel overwhelmed at the idea of going back to recap our summer I decided to start fresh with the most current event which is our vacation to Texas!
In case you didn't know, we became an Aunt and Uncle again when my brother and SIL had their second baby in July. We welcomed a tiny Mattie Lyn weighing in at 6lb 1oz! Above is a pic of Poppy feeding Mattie. We all took turns doting on her last week.

Here is Easton the Cowboy. He insists on wearing his cowboy outfit everywhere he goes and it must be "just so" before he is ready. The ensemble includes: ATM rain boots, wearing them on the correct foot is only an option, a fur vest, it must be backwards, a cowboy hat and his gun. Once each item is in place, Easton is the cowboy and therefore ready to ride anything that can be ridden.

Originally, we decided to take a vacation to San Antonio to enjoy all of the perks it offers. We made plans to take Easton to Sea World, maybe Fiesta Texas. We hoped to do an adult only trip to float the river in New Braunsfels. We knew we wanted to shop and eat out a lot also. BUT, plans changed after my parents sold their home and Matthew tore his ACL wake boarding. Suddenly, this trip became an opportunity to help move my parents and support Erin as she had been taking care of a newborn and a bummed-up husband. We couldn't have been happier with the way things turned out. With the heat the way it is in San An, it was better that we relax and lounge around inside all day.

We bought some food to grill out on the deck a couple of nights. We went swimming in the backyard and enjoyed the summer breeze. We howled at the coyotes too.

We took an evening to drive up to Austin to eat at Contigo Austin. It's an amazing restaurant that one of our long-time family friend's recently opened. It can be defined in three words: Quality. Fresh. Barfood. I could summarize it in one word - AMAZING!

We tasted fried green beans, ox-tail sliders, white bean dip made with goose fat. We had fancy grilled cheese sandwiches, rabbit stew, homemade pigs-n-a-blanket and homemade ice cream! The ambience is amazing; I'm so jealous of all of my Austin friends who have a new, cool place to get together once the weather cools off.

Mattie tagged along for the fun!

The trip was well worth it as we got a chance to catch up with our friend/owner Ben and taste some delicious food. We'll definitely be back!

Another fun part was getting to see Mattie's nursery. I had a friend make her a wall painting to match the material Erin picked out for her room. It turned out perfect and everyone was really pleased with it.

The rest of the trip was filled with shopping at La Cantera, eating (we did a lot of that), and relaxing at Matthew & Erin's house. We found land for my parents to build their next home. I anticipate the next few trips to SA will be full of looking at house plans,

watching them build and eventually moving them into their home. I was also able to bring home the furniture I used all growing up. We are using it in our guest bedroom upstairs and it looks phenomenal! I also found a few other treasures that will be stored in our attic until I can determine what I really want to do with them.

We took the big, black, Barkley dog with us and she did great! She didn't have one accident inside the house for the whole week

It was so fun to spend time with family. That was the longest we have ever spent with our family since we got married. It was so relaxing and so fun to be a part of their lives down there. We got to interact with Easton and Mattie a ton and I left feeling like they will actually know who I am, even though I don't live there and get to see them everyday. I'm looking forward to my parents being significantly closer b/c it will make it so much easier for us when we come to visit. All in all, it was a fun trip and a great "stay" cation!