Texas!

This past weekend, Mark and I flew down to Austin, TX to visit our friends Laura and Edgar (and their new baby, Lucas). Our friend Nicole flew in from Oregon, too, and we got to meet up with Becky, Alex and baby Andy who live not-too-far away. Such a fun weekend!

The flights there were pretty uneventful and when we got there Saturday afternoon we kicked things off the way we always do – by eating. Laura and Edgar took us to a little place in there town and we all got tacos. They were so good! It makes me sad that there’s a lack of good taco places around here.

Saturday night we went to Z Tejas in downtown Austin for dinner.

Laura and Nicole

Becky and Me

Mark, Me, Nicole, Edgar, Laura and Becky

Sunday morning we drove down to San Antonio to meet up at the Riverwalk. It’s this cute area of restaurants along the river. It was a nice stroll and so pretty.

Alex, Andy, Becky, Lucas, Laura, Nicole (and Edgar hiding behind the tree)

Me and Mark

We had lunch at one of the Italian restaurants along the river. And Edgar showed off his awesome multi-tasking skills!

Edgar and Lucas

Becky and Andy

After lunch, we went over and checked out the Alamo. Very cool.

Me, Nicole, Laura, Lucas, Becky and Andy

Our sightseeing trips were punctuated by baby time. We got in lots of snuggling while we were there!

Nicole and Lucas

Monday we went and hung out in Austin. The costume shop was one of the highlights. They had so much fun stuff in there. I’m determined to find a place as cool around here now.

Laura and Edgar

They also had food trucks parked in the area we walking around. I picked up a cookbook of food truck recipes from a local bookstore and we got cupcakes at Hey Cupcake!

Nicole, Edgar and Laura

Laura and Nicole

There were a lot of murals in the area too – this one seemed most appropriate for pictures!

Me, Laura and Nicole

After walking around the city, we drove through some of the outskirts. We got to see Lance Armstrong’s house (which is more like a compound than a “house” it’s so big) and we “hiked” up to the highest point in Austin. I use hiked liberally – it was one set of stairs – but the view was great.

Mark

Laura and Nicole

Our big eating out for Monday was Golden Corral. We don’t have the around here so we always try to go when we’re on vacation. This was, by far, the most awesome Golden Corral we’ve seen. It was huge. They even had a cotton candy machine!

Laura

Monday night was sort of the oh-no-we-have-to-go-home-tomorrow night. We hung out playing games and playing with Lucas. He and Mark both enjoyed hiding from the camera.

Lucas and Mark

Tuesday we went out to lunch at an outdoor mall and then killed time in the stores until we had to go to the airport. I picked up some new cookie cutters that I’m really excited about, Laura introduced us to Charming Charlie and Edgar tried to hide from the world.

Edgar and Laura

We had such a fantastic time. On one hand, it went too fast. I wish we could still be there hanging out with everyone! On the other hand, it was just the break we needed.