Family Fun

We've been looking forward to this since Christmas!!! Sarah surprised Peter with a trip to Austin for XMas and we've been counting down the days until our family arrived. Now we just need to convince them to move here ;)

They arrived on Thursday just in time for 2nd Round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. We had a family pool this year so it was great to be able to watch together and have some friendly trash talk and family rivalry. And believe it or not Sarah and I ended up battling it out for first place in our family pool!

We've been lucky to have several visitors already so we have some of the ideal tourist spots mapped out; Salt Lick, 6th Street, Oasis, Lake Austin, the Capitol, etc. And we did hit them all but their trip was perfectly timed with the peek wildflower season so we decided to explore Hill Country to take in all of the gorgeous scenery and wineries they have to offer.

It was the perfect ending to the perfect trip! We started out with breakfast at Round Rock donuts and then ventured on to Hill Country where we discovered the Blue Bonet Cafe and their amazing pies! Then we hit up three wineries and got stamps in our new Texas Wine Passports. After a fun day exploring new territory we ended up at the Oasis for a sunset dinner and finally back to the game room at home for a Rockband Battle!

Rodeo!!!

Rodeo Take Two! We attempted to go to the Rodeo on opening night and boy was that a debacle; long lines, line cutters, and a lot of lessons learned! But we weren't gonna let our first experience ruin it for us as we've been eagerly awaiting the Rodeo to come to town ever since we moved here! I'm certainly glad we didn't give up because the following weekend we headed to the Rodeo and it was one of our best date nights yet in Texas. What could be better than Corn Dogs, Coors Light, and Cowboys?!?!

Cheers!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! What better way to celebrate than with a green beer and a pint of Guinness?!?!

South by Southwest

SXSW attracts all the celebrities to town; Jake Gyllenhal, Jodie Foster, FooFighters, Mike Tyson, the list goes on and on but none of those we're as exciting as having our VA Friends in town!!!

Lucky for us, US Today decided to send Tim and Bursch to represent their company since SXSW is a two week festival that showcases film, music, and interactive media. Between their busy work schedule of schmoozing and networking the boys managed to find time to explore one of Shaun's favorite Texas treasures, Smitty's BBQ. The adventure began in Lockhart, TX the BBQ capital of the state that hosts four competing establishments. They made it to two of the four and found the best brisket they've ever had. Thankfully they surrendered to their meat coma and headed back home for a night out in PTown.

The next day, Meredith and Erika arrived into town to join the party. We spent the day checking out some hot spots in Hill County. We had to take our guests to The Oasis so they could take in the breath taking views of Lake Travis and then we ventured on to some state parks in the area. First we hit Windy Point, which as you can imagine is great for sailing and kite surfing, then we ventured on to Hamilton Pool. This park was so gorgeous, it was just a short hike to the waterfall and you felt like you were in paradise. Later that evening, we rallied the troops and headed out for dinner at Bess. There were no Sandra Bullock sightings but we had an amazing private table that we believe she dined at on New Years Eve. I'll take any connection I can get ;) Afterwards we hit 6th Street and even met up with Erika's cousin who randomly came into town as well.

Saturday was another eventful day. We started the morning out kayaking and canoeing along Lady Byrd Lake, lunched at Walton's Fancy & Staple, lounged at Red's Porch, went boot shopping, and attempted the Rodeo but settled for another night out on 6th Street. As you can see the weekend was non-stop so by Sunday we were all dying for some downtime. The girls managed to squeeze in some shopping but overall it was just a relaxing day which I think we all needed! Our guests had staggered departures between Sunday and Tuesday and each goodbye got harder and harder. We love having visitors but we sure do hate to see them go!

Up Up Up and Away

We've discovered yet another thing we love about Austin, all the festivals!!! It may be the Live Music Capital of the World but Austin has 1,000 other amazing things to offer and one is the Zilker Park Kite Festival! The wind was off and on but the weather was just gorgeous. It was a perfect day to be outside and enjoy the scenery!

Texas Twopeat

That's right, we've already had return visitors!!! Mike and Amanda were back in Austin just two short months after their first visit, thanks to Mike's work! Amanda tagged along on Mike's business trip while the kids stayed home with her parents. So while the kids are away the parents will play ;) We had a jam packed trip with tons of fun; walk around Lake Pflugerville, dinner party, celebrity sighting, bike ride around Lady Byrd Lake, BBQ, Bull Ride, and a Bachelor Bar Crawl. Yes, I tried to sneak in the celebrity sighting like it was no big deal but while we were renting bike's at Mellow Johnny's (Lance Armstrong's store) Lance himself just happened to be filming a Michelob Ultra commercial, lucky us!!!