Bluebonnets, Berries, and Bunnies

Our weather is quickly heating up, but before spring gives way to full fledged Texas summer I wanted to share some highlights from the past month. We had a good season for bluebonnets this year, so once again I participated in the grand Texas tradition of dressing my child up in nice clothes and then dropping him off on the side of the road somewhere so I could frantically chase him around with my camera. As to be expected with any two year old, I got about a hundred shots of the back of his head as he was running away from me, like so:

Fortunately, I  managed to get a couple decent ones where he was at least facing the camera.

A vast improvement over last year! Next year, a professional photographer may be in the cards.

We also made a little Saturday trek out to Sweet Berry Farms in Marble Falls to pick strawberries in mid-April. More berries probably wound up in his belly (or chucked out in the field somewhere - the boy will throw anything) than in his basket, but we had a great time. We picked enough to enjoy bowls of fresh strawberries with cream almost every night for a week, along with a grilled chicken and strawberry salad, strawberry shortcake, and strawberries in our cereal daily. And we have a big bag of washed and hulled strawberries hanging out in the freezer for some other strawberry treat whenever the mood strikes.

Quality control 

 Not so sure about that goat...

 Nope, still not interested...

Our little farmer

And, a few final pictures from Easter. Nicholas participated in an egg hunt at school and loved it. However, on Easter (after refusing to nap), he was exhausted and could not have been less interested in our little backyard egg hunt. (The lack of excitement and competition from other kids probably didn't help either.) We had to continually prompt him to go find the next egg, basically showing him where each one was "hidden." Some of the eggs contained a couple jelly beans and some contained stickers. He halfheartedly ate the jelly beans out of a few eggs, and then just dropped the stickers on the ground. 

Ready to hunt eggs at school!

With his buddies, Drew and Jack 

After Easter morning service

Eh, stickers

Oh well. He liked his Easter basket, and there's always next year for a more energetic egg hunt.

Happy spring!

Nicholas Turns Two!

Towards the end of January, our little guy turned two! This year, we opted not to do a big birthday party. Instead, I took a half day off work and we brought cupcakes to his class and had a little party for him there.

Several other kids in his class had recently had birthdays, so he was thrilled to take his turn as the birthday boy (complete with birthday crown!), hear everyone sing "Happy Birthday," and share cupcakes with his friends.

Afterward, we headed home for cards, presents, homemade pizza, and of course more cupcakes!

Too busy playing with his balloons to pose for a picture. (Excuse the mess in the background!)

Yummy! Another cupcake -- this time Oreo flavored. (We took a video of him blowing out the candle, but forgot to get a picture, too.)

That Saturday, we took Nicholas down to check out Austin's new children's museum, the Thinkery. There were lots of cool exhibits, including an entire room covered with holes and Lite Brite style colored pegs that lit up when you put them in the wall, lots of water features (a friend wisely recommended we bring a change of clothes), and a full scale farmers market with little shopping baskets and every type of fake fruit or vegetable available for "shopping."

There is also a huge park across the street, so we made time to feed the ducks and take a spin through the playground.

We capped off our excursion with a tasty lunch at Austin's new In'N'Out. Yum. Way to turn two, buddy!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our little golfer! It's always tough to wrangle a toddler, but we managed to get a few good pictures this morning on our way out the door. We're looking forward to his Halloween party at school this afternoon, followed by trick or treating (to a few nearby houses) this evening.

Here's to lots of treats, and not many tricks. Happy Halloween!

A Birthday, an Anniversary, and a Baptism

We've been a busy bunch lately! A few highlights...

I celebrated my birthday at the end of August. The Saturday prior, Jason and I got a sitter and ventured downtown to check out Qui, the new restaurant from recent Top Chef winner (and now famed Austinite) Paul Qui.

We were prepared for a crazy wait and, at two hours, it lived up to expectation. Fortunately, they let us leave during the wait, so we headed down the block to get some appetizers at one of Paul's East Side King trailers behind a local dive bar. Then, we headed back to the restaurant to enjoy some cocktails on the patio. It was a fun high/low Paul Qui experience.

Dinner was worth the wait, and the highlight of the evening was that he came by and shook our hands. He seems like such a genuine, humble guy-- just like he was portrayed on Top Chef. Our seats were at a bar overlooking the kitchen, so we succumbed to our inner tourist and snapped a few (or twenty) pictures of the chefs at work.

My actual birthday was two days later on a Monday, so we celebrated that night with a nice meal at home. Grilled steak, roasted cauliflower, and roasted asparagus, followed by chocolate cupcakes-- a nice way to usher in a new year.

This past Friday, Jason and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. It's amazing that five years have come and gone-- seemingly in a blink! And, looking back, I'm proud of all we've accomplished: a cross-country move, a graduate degree, new jobs for both of us, lots of travel, the birth of our first child, and the purchase of our first home. Wow. I'm tired just typing it. But it's been an amazing ride, and I'm so glad to have Jason as my partner along the way.

And, last-- but certainly not least-- we baptized Nicholas yesterday at our church. He is a little older than a lot of other babies who get baptized, so I was nervous about how he would tolerate it, but he did great. He didn't make a peep when the pastor poured a little water on his head, and then he calmly let the pastor carry him a little ways down the aisle in front of the congregation. It was his first time sitting through an entire service with us (usually he's in the nursery) and he handled it really well. He was enthralled by the music-- so much so that he loudly exclaimed "Yay!" after a very talented soloist sang a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace. Everyone laughed and it was a really cute moment. 

It was a special morning for us, and for Nicholas, and we look forward to the years ahead as he hopefully grows in his spirituality and comes to appreciate his faith.

Vacation Part 2: Seattle and Portland

After we returned from our relaxing getaway to Orcas Island, we spent two more days in Seattle. On Monday, Jason's parents treated us to a trip to the Seattle Aquarium. It's a huge aquarium with all kinds of sea life, and Nicholas did well on his inaugural visit. He loved the touch tank and some of the large sea creatures, including the sea otters. I'm sure he'll love to go back as he gets older.

Since he was too little to reach into the touch tank himself, they took out a sea cucumber and a starfish for him to touch.

Later that evening, we met up with some of Jason's family friends at a Korean restaurant for a delicious meal of Korean barbecue-- but not before a stop at a nearby park in Bellevue to burn off some energy and take some family photos.

It may not look like it in this photo, but Nicholas was fascinated by the soccer field and goal. There was also a team of adult men practicing, and he kept trying to run onto the field and get in the game!

On Tuesday, we enjoyed a low key day at home, followed by a quick visit to Green Lake to see my sister and brother-in-law (we planned to spend more time with them down in Portland later in the week.) We ended the Seattle portion of our trip with a barbecue over at Jason's sister's beautiful new house in West Seattle. We had so much fun that I forgot to take an photos, but we loved checking out their new digs, ate our fill of gourmet burgers, and spent some quality time with Jason's family and our best man and his wife who also joined us.

On Wednesday, we scrapped our plans to take the train down to Portland and ended up with a last minute car rental (more on that in another post-- ahem, traveling with a toddler.) After an uneventful ride, we made it to my parents' house. All three of us enjoyed long naps, followed by a low key dinner with my parents. 

On Thursday morning, we made the short trek over to Luscher Farm to check out the community gardens (impressive!) and chickens. Nicholas picked up an apple beneath and apple tree, and proceeded to carry and throw his "ball" all around the gardens. 

Big fan of the chickens!

On Friday, my parents hosted a big family dinner at our house. My aunt and uncle (on my mom's side) from New Hampshire were in town, so it was a great opportunity to get everyone together-- including my brother Geoff and his wife Brooke, my sister Laura and her husband Mike, and my uncle and his girlfriend. We enjoyed an awesome meal of barbecued Chinook salmon in my parents' gorgeous yard. 

Siblings! (And G&B's baby K, due in October)

On Saturday, we headed over to my parents' country club to enjoy some pool time, followed by another big family gathering-- this time with my dad's side of the family. He has four siblings, all of whom have several kids, and we had almost everyone in attendance, including my grandparents, my aunt and uncle who live in the Bay Area, and most of my cousins. It was a fun evening!

Muggin' with Uncle Geoff's shades

We flew home the following morning, August 4th. All in all, it was a fabulous summer vacation. Fortunately the plane trip back went a little more smoothly than the way out, but it's always tough to leave, especially when we don't have another trip on the horizon just yet. But, I know we'll be back soon, and we already have a Thanksgiving visit from Jason's parents to look forward to!