An Austin Wedding

We saw this mural on a wall in the morning after breakfast one day, so I had to take a picture. I was sort of bummed that we never came across the Daniel Johnston mural though.

A terrible photo of the state capitol building. This thing is HUGE! It makes the one in Arizona look downright sad and dinky.

Bubba tried out the bed in his grandma's hotel room. She stayed at the Hotel San Jose. They had these really cool, minimal, zen type rooms with fantastic concrete floors and Bertoia chairs tucked into corners. They had the fanciest stuff in the minibar too. I wish I had taken a photo of it. The door to the bathroom was a giant one hanging on a track. So cool.

I loved the curled up fronds on this fern in front of the hotel. I can't remember if it was in front of her hotel or in front of the Austin Hotel down the street.

More plants from out front.

We had dinner here the night before the wedding. It was a great casual way to meet everyone before the big day. I ate a meal comprised of several different types of meat. The only thing I ate besides meat was the slice of bread I shared with the baby. It was kind of strange, but VERY good.

This was also where they passed out the best wedding favors ever, so not to have to deal with it the next day. Pretty clever.

My sister in law preparing to come down the steps for the ceremony.

The wedding was held in the courtyard of a club in downtown Austin. It was really nice. After the ceremony, the party moved upstairs to a private loft above the club. In order to get in and out of the venue, you had to go back down those stairs and cut across the courtyard of the bar to get to the parking lot. The next day when I saw on Twitter that someone I follow who was in Austin as well that weekend saw a baby in a bar, I had to wonder if it was my baby. If so, I had a good excuse! LOL!

Right after the ceremony - the new Mr & Mrs! I made the bouquet. She wanted a bouquet made from succulents, so when they were in town over Christmas we went to the wholesale faux flower shop where she picked out a few different faux hen and chicks and also the leaves that were around the edges. I added some Spanish moss and lots of hot glue to the mix and came up with this. I wrapped the handle with terra cotta satin ribbon and lots of little teal blue pearl head pins down the back. I don't think it came out half bad for my first attempt at something like this!

One of their friends climbed the tree in the courtyard to get a better vantage point for photos.

Close ups of the flowers.

Apparently, I like to photograph flowers!

The Bubs was looking mighty dapper, if I do say so myself.

He had no problem keeping himself occupied before the ceremony started.

There were lots of places to use as racetracks for his little cars.

One of the other guests had a little girl who was two months older than Bubba. She was just the cutest thing!

Bubba followed her all around during the ceremony.

He tortured her by offering her his cars, and then when she would finally reach out to take one, he'd snatch it back. My son is a booger.

Hanging out with dad.

The groom's brother is a set designer for movies and plays, and he did the backdrop for the ceremony. It was really cool! He filled it with all sorts of small succulents that they bought the day before. My sister in law told me that he had actually listed it on Craigslist that morning, and someone bought it before the wedding even happened. Not too shabby!

Photos of the bride and groom. They had the cutest little simple bunting hanging up everywhere that you will probably see reproduced here sometime soon.

I loved the bar inside the loft. This is a terrible photo, but you get the idea.

The wedding was awesome. Simple, but fun, which are the best kinds if you ask me. We had heavy hors d'oeuvres instead of a sit down dinner, and everything was delicious. The loft space had comfy leather couches and matching ottomans which were very handy when some little man decided to take a nap on my shoulder. There were great speeches (including a fantastic one where a friend read an email that my sister in law sent her when she first met the groom over three years ago) and dancing and great conversations.

I'm so happy that we were able to take part in their special day and meet all their friends and relations!

The Road to Austin

As I mentioned in my last post (over a week ago, yikes!) we headed out to Austin last week to attend my sister in law's wedding. Being the geniuses that we are, we decided to leave at night so that, in theory, the boy would fall asleep in the car and sleep for most of the first half of the 16 hour drive.

Um, yeah. That SO did not happen. He slept until we were right outside of Tucson, maybe two hours and then he was just up for the night. Luckily since we were on the Interstate we had cell reception and internet on my phone most of the way so he was able to keep himself entertained. By the time we rolled into Las Cruces, New Mexico, however, he was pretty much done with the car and wanted out.

We stopped at a rest area for about half an hour so he could run around and stretch his legs. I wanted him to be comfortable for the drive, so I had him dressed in footie pajamas. When we stopped to get out, I just slipped his shoes on over the feet.

My boy - he is stylish! Just so you don't freak out, that wall is only about a foot and a half high. It just looks dangerous in the photo but I assure you it is not.

We watched the sun rise.

There was this gigantic road runner sculpture off to the side of the rest area. It looked like it was made of garbage. I didn't want to get up close because there were signs everywhere that warned you to watch for snakes.

Looking at birds.

There were a bunch of these cute little bunnies everywhere too.

I must admit, I felt guilty when I saw them because the night before, as I drove, I hit one. I've never hit anything with a car before, and it freaked me out so bad. I was driving, and it was pitch dark, and then all of a sudden there was this ginormous rabbit sitting right in the middle of my lane. When you're going 80 miles an hour there isn't a lot of time to swerve without risking running off the road and getting into an accident. Unfortunately for that bunny, my child's safety was more important to me! He did start to run out of my way, but then he panicked and doubled back the way he came, which ultimately was what did him in. It was a horrible, horrible feeling to feel it hit. I hope I never have to feel that again.

We made it into Texas in one piece.

We got really close to the border - close enough that my phone connected with a Mexican cell tower at one point. I got a text message from AT&T saying that since I had left the country, international data rates of $19.99 per mb would apply. Of course, this was not two minutes after I had checked my email, so naturally I freaked out. I tried to call them, only to get a recorded message IN SPANISH telling me that I had no service. I tried my husband's cell, and of course, that one connected no problem. Never mind that we both have AT&T and are on the same account! I talked to a rep and basically found out that I have no international service, so if I do leave the country my phone will just not work. Since I have no plans to leave the country any time soon, I am okay with that.

We also had to roll through a border patrol checkpoint, that oddly enough, was nowhere near the border. It cracked me up when my very very pale husband panicked and pulled out his driver's license. I was like, Really? Are you serious? I decided to live dangerously and leave mine in my wallet. All the border patrol guy did was peek into the car and ask if we had anyone else riding with us. I told him just the baby, and he was like okay, have a nice day!

Very secure.

I couldn't get over how extremely FLAT it was out there! (Don't you just love the bug guts on my windshield, messing up my picture?)

These guys were riding their bikes in the middle of nowhere. It takes a special kind of crazy to do that.

I don't even remember where Ozona was. All I know was that by two I had been up for 24 hours and I was totally loopy. I managed to doze off and on for about an hour somewhere in the middle of Texas, but it was not good sleep at all.

I took this picture when we stopped for gas in Johnson City. There was a one lane street separating the gas station from this guy's front yard, and he was having a bonfire!

Then, as my husband was pumping gas, this guy rolls in on this. He had a long gray beard, a leather vest, and pajama pants. Check out his little friend on the back of the bike!

We drove through some of the cutest little towns that had flags lining the main street, ready for the holiday, but of course I was a dummy and didn't take any pics. We were so glad when we got to our destination! I passed out immediately. My husband went out to find us some food (thank God for the iPhone, seriously) and then after we ate, we all went right to bed!

Next up - Austin photos!

Home Again, Jiggity Jig

The morning after the wedding we decided to head out for breakfast. My husband did a search of the top ten places to eat breakfast in Austin. Our first choice, the Magnolia Cafe, had a ridiculous wait, so we headed to number two on the list:

We still had to wait 45 minutes, but the food was really good. Bubba had olives for the first time:

He was a fan. Isn't it funny how little kids instinctively know to put the olives on their fingers?

After breakfast we had to take my father in law to the airport. Afterwards we decided to drive around and check out the city. Of course, my husband wanted to check out the stadium.

Then we drove around so I could admire the houses. I loved all of the lovely bungalows, and I really really really want to live on a street like this someday:

SO freaking pretty! Of course, since I live in the stupid desert, the odds of that are slim to none. Ah well.

Everyone I talked to about going to Austin said that we HAD to go see the bats come out from the Congress Bridge. Apparently there are about 4.5 MILLION bats under there, and when they come out at sundown it's quite a sight to behold. So, we joined several hundred other people on the bridge and waited.

There were some people on the grass below, but if you ask me, that's prime real estate for being pooped on by a bat. My vacation did NOT need any guano to be complete, thank you very much! It ended up not mattering anyway, because the stupid things decided not to show. We could definitely smell that they were there. GROSS. We were saying that was the only way we knew that this wasn't just a huge joke the locals play on the tourists.

I realized when I saw the next photo (of my son who is a tech junkie at age 19 months) that I didn't take a single one of the place we stayed!

This guy has two guest houses on his property in Travis Heights, under a mile from South Congress. He rents them out as vacation properties. They're very artsy, and very different from staying in a motel, that's for certain. They were cool, but the humidity and the bugs that found their way in made me kind of grumpy. I do NOT like showering with critters. Also, the shower itself was way too small. I ended up having to hang my leg outside the shower in order to shave because standing up, I could have my front end in the water and my behind up against the curtain. Speaking of curtains, the bathroom door WAS a curtain. Not cool in any circumstance, but especially not cool when your father in law is staying with you.

Ahem.

I would have been okay with it if the weather was cooler, so there wouldn't have been as many bugs, if the shower had been bigger, and if there had been a door on the bathroom. I tried to think of it as just camping in a fun cabin with full electricity and cable, but you know what? I really don't like camping!

The next morning we headed home after breakfast with my mother in law, some of her side of the family, and the newlyweds. We decided to swing through San Antonio so I could see the Alamo.

First off - I was really surprised that it was in the center of downtown. Second - it was WAY smaller than I expected it to be. We didn't get out because the baby was asleep. That, along with the humidity and the lack of desire to find and pay for parking, killed any tentative plans we may have had to check out the Riverwalk. It was after one by that point, so we decided it was best to just hit the road.

After a bit of discussion, we decided to throw caution to the wind and leave the interstate. It was time for some back roads, baby! Can I tell you how freaking AWESOME the map/GPS feature on the iPhone is? That is the only thing we used and we didn't get lost once. There were a couple of times when we were truly in the boonies that we lost service, but for the most part, we always knew where we were.

As a result, we got to drive through a bunch of little old towns that were all decked out for Memorial day. They had the cutest shops!

We saw the heart of Texas. Now when we hear that song "Deep in the Heart of Texas" I can say I've been there.

We were on this little Farm to Market road when we came upon this random cow on the side of the road. Thankfully I wanted to take a picture so we slowed down because as soon as we got close the stupid thing decided to run out in front of the car. I thought it was traumatic to hit a rabbit - I don't even want to imagine how bad a cow would have been!!!

We finally rolled into New Mexico...

And shortly after rolled through another border patrol checkpoint. After the mocking I gave him at the last one, my husband left his ID in his wallet. I'm so mean.

I saw this in a teeny town that was probably a mile long, and liked it so much that I turned around to get a picture. Gotta love creative graffiti.

We drove by these freaky things on another back road. My husband says they're for radio astronomy. I guess there are just some geeks out there that are too cool for telescopes.

I gave my husband the camera when we were getting close to the Arizona border and instructed him to take a picture of the sign. This is what I got. Now you know why I am the photographer in the family.

We drove home from New Mexico on the US 60, which ends up not far from where we live. At first, it was a beautiful drive. I've driven the I-40 to Albuquerque before, and it's UGLY. I kept saying, I don't get why anyone would do that when this is SO PRETTY! Then we crossed the Arizona border and I found out why.

First, you drive on a very winding twisty road along a canyon. It's not the Grand Canyon, but it's pretty decent on the scary scale considering it's RIGHT next to the road. Then, you continue on extremely winding roads along mountains. The speed limits were only 25-35 mph, if that gives you some idea of how winding they were. There were also a bunch of scary bridges. I hate hate hate bridges with a passion! Add to that the fact that the sun was setting, and so now it was DARK on top of that, and you couldn't see more than a few yards in front of you. It just seemed to go on forever!

I'd like to add that I have a very special hatred in my heart for people who do not turn off their high beams when a car is approaching, so that they end up BLINDING you. Common courtesy, people. By the time we made it to Globe, I was so tense, and my fingers were so sore from gripping the wheel so tightly that I could not drive anymore. I let my husband drive the rest of the way home, and even then I was freaking out that he was going too fast on those two lane mountain roads! I probably would have pooped my pants if he had been driving on the really bad ones.

Luckily, we made it home in one piece and I'm here to tell the tale. I'll also NEVER take that road again if I can help it. I'd rather be bored and safe/alive, thank you very much!