Sunday, June 16, 2013

Beach Trip 2013

My dad and Sheila took us on a wonderful trip to Orange Beach, AL the first week in June. Helen and Jeremy flew in to join us for the week and Shelby and Josh were there too. This was Perry's first beach trip and it was so fun to see his enthusiasm. We stayed in a fabulous house on the beach, which was so convenient with young kids. We got a lot of beach play time and I even got a good bit of relaxing time on the beach while the kids were napping. It was such a great week!

 Perry was a little timid at first, but quickly became comfortable with the water.
 Perry and PaPa
 trying to stop the waves
 our set up with house in background (big green duplex)
Mills was not a fan of the ocean or sand, so he spent most of his beach time in the baby pool. It was the absolute best idea! He splished and splashed while I sat near him in my chair...success!
 Perry and Daddy played a lot
 Nice pose, Alex
 PaPa and Nana with boys the night we went out to dinner


 We spent one morning at the pool when the ocean was too rough.
Perry flying a kite...you can hardly see the kite way up there! He let go of it seconds after I took this picture and it took me quite a while to get it back.


 cute boy!
 Alex and Perry having fun in the waves

 PaPa and Mills
Mills inspecting PaPa's beer 
Mills warmed up to the water on the last day, but gave a little "oooo" when it came near him.
We went crabbing one night. Perry loved chasing the little crabs around, but when PaPa caught this bigger one, he wasn't too fond of it.
 The soon-to-be parents with our boys

 Silly!
There were many highlights of the trip, but there's ONE thing that will forever impact me. We saw sharks! Not the little sand sharks....real, people-biting, sharks. Two of them! And they were only about 30 feet out...right where some of our crew and others had been in the water. We saw the entire figure of the sharks as they were swimming along in the waves. FREAKY! I'm just so glad no one was in the water at the time. I know there are sharks and other things in the ocean, it just hits you in a different way when you see them up close.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Austin, TX

In early May, Alex and I took a five day trip to Austin, Texas. I've been wanting to go to Austin for a long while, so Alex planned the trip to celebrate our anniversary (six years on May 26th). We soaked up all that we could while there--exploring downtown, South Congress area, food trucks, amazing food (Uchi was unreal!), night life, Whole Foods headquarters, Hill Country, and kayaking. Here are just a few highlight pictures:
the most amazing doughnut at Gourdough's
heading out to dinner
We stayed at The Driskill Hotel. A beautiful, historic downtown hotel.
Dinner at Guero's with the LaBordes

Kayaking with LaBordes
We took a day trip to Fredricksburg and drove around the Hill Country. It was a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city. I was glad that we saw some great wildflowers too.




We searched out Cooper's (in Llano, TX) on our Hill Country journey. They have a pretty good reputation in the world of bar-b-que.
You may notice me wearing the same blazer in most every pic. Well, I packed for warm May weather, however, there was an extreme cold front that came through unexpectedly the day we arrived. Alex and I both had to purchase new jackets in order to survive the chill; and I wore mine almost all day every day.
There is just way too much I could say about our trip. I recorded our happenings and it totaled three pages. It was truly an unforgettable time!