Cali & Alli

Cali turned the big S-I-X today! So in honor of her birthday we explored a new park in Austin, Walnut Creek. The weather was gorgeous and this is definitely one of our new favorite spots to hike around town. But the celebration didn't end there. We were heading over to babysit Alli and little did we know she had a birthday party in store for Cali. Our pup got spoiled with treats, toys, and a birthday serenade from Alli. What more could any dog ask for ;)

Friday Night Lights

In Texas, Friday nights are usually reserved for High School Football but it's off-season so we've reserved them for Double Dates. Have we mentioned how fun it is to have Sara and Eric as neighbors!

For our first adventure, we followed the Friday Night Lights theme but instead of lights on the field it was lights of the big screen, we went to see Country Strong on Opening Night. We bought tickets the day before expecting a full house but we've come to learn that nothing in Texas is quite as crowded as it was in Virginia.

The following week we had Uncle Bud in town to babysit so we weren't constrained by a curfew. We decided to go all out and have a night out on the town. We started with dinner at La Condesa and then moved on to our newest favorite establishment, the Ranch. We enjoyed wine by the cactus fireside while taking in all the people and animal watching, they have a ton of game covering their walls! Then of course we decided that we needed to check out some of the bars owned by the Bachelor, in secret hopes we'd run into him, and made the quick walk across the street to Dogwood. After a few games of ring toss we started moving our way down 6th St. We discovered a great Irish Pub that is true to it's roots and only serves Irish Whiskey or Irish Beer, nothing else so we kept moving further down 6th to the Historic Maggie Mae's. We made the most of our night out and are enjoying discovering all that Austin has to offer!

UT Basketball

We are huge sport fans and love going to live sporting events so needless to say we were a little concerned when we decided to move to Austin and the city doesn't have any professional sports teams. Well fear no more, UT Sports are better than Pro Sports! For Christmas we got a three pack to the UT Mens Basketball games and boy was that money well spent. We've never seen team spirit quite like this, I can only imagine what football season is going to be like here!

Cowboy Up

What's the first thing you do when you arrive in Texas?!?! Get a pair of Cowboy Boots!!! Just weeks after being in Austin we had our friends from Virginia come visit to ring in the New Year. We picked them up at the airport and immediately went out for TexMex and margarita's followed by boot shopping. A true Texas experience!

We had such a large group for New Years that it took two houses to sleep everyone. The Ford Crew came in from NC and stayed at the Richards while the VA Crew took shelter at our house, it was kids vs. adults ;) The Fords arrived earlier in the week and again our first stop was TexMex and margarita's. We have found the best replacement for Rio, don't get me wrong I'm dying to go back home for it but in the meantime we'll enjoy the Wave at Pappasitos. They even have a DJ in the parking lot to keep you entertained while you wait because this place is so popular!

So what's the next most important thing in Texas besides cowboy boots?!?! Guns! One of Shaun's favorite things about Austin is that there is a shooting range just down the street. I'm not a huge fan at all but thankfully Mike and Shaun share the same hobby, so off they went.

Now that everyone had a true Texas experience, it was time to put our cowboy boots to the test. We started the night off with a pre-party at the Richards but ended the evening with a little Boot Scootin Boggie. That's right what better way to ring in New Years than at a true honky tonk! It was fabulous; two step, party hats, and $7 pitchers!

We kick started New Years Day off with a champagne brunch at home and ended it with Game Night but in-between we managed to venture out into Hill Country. It was a scenic drive that lead us to the best destination in Texas...Salt Lick BBQ. There are definitely a lot of BBQ rivalry's in town but this is one of our favorites!

Then came Sunday FunDay!!! We spent the morning at the park with the kids and then ventured downtown for the Browns Game. Needless to say in turned into a 6th Street Bar Crawl from there. We picked up some friends along the way and stopped for dinner but we made sure to hit all the hot spots in the process. Top Night!

Monday was our day to play tourist. We started off with the grand idea of taking a bike tour around Lady Bird Lake but instead that turned into a walking tour around the city, either one is a winner if you ask me. We checked out Lance Armstrong's Bike Shop, the Lake, Boutiques, and the grand finale was the State Capital, so impressive!

All good things must come to an end but we had one last thing to celebrate before the vacation was over, Virgina Tech made it to the Orange Bowl! We had our own Tech cheerleader on hand to keep our spirits up but I think along with her bedtime went to the chances of a Hokie victory. Oh well, there's always next year!

Thanks everyone for making the trip to Texas! It really helped make the transition to Austin that much easier, it felt just like we were at home!