My Dreadful Hair and Some Darling Pictures

Seriously, can the little stinker get much cuter?? After we got back from our trip, Zack's family stuck around a few days and we all stayed at the Barton Creek Resort in South Austin. We attempted to eat at the 5 star restaurant located in the resort with the boys. I might add this particular restaurant isn't just a nice restaurant, it is very quiet restaurant...not exactly kid friendly. The boys did pretty well, but Conner did throw one car of his cars down a small set of stairs before jumping down said set of stairs. We mostly took turns playing with them outside. It's beautiful there. This shot was taken shortly after the stair incident.



Silly bands were new to me. Guess I'm old and out of touch with what "tweens" and teens are into these days. Conner was very proud to be wearing the silly band Uncle Eli gave him.



Ok, so now the BIG question.

What to do with my dreadful hair. It used to be curly, but after a wonderful thing called pregnancy hormones, it is neither curly or straight. It is what I call "fuzzy". I have been growing it out for 14 mo now. I think I desperately want to be a long hair person. I love how it looks on people, but maybe my it's impractical. It takes me a long time to fix it nice and it's very hot here most of the year, so up it goes. If I want to wear it down I have to straighten it, which takes a lot of time that I don't have and it usually gets "fuzzy" again anyway. I've thought about perming it slightly to see if the curl would come back, but no money for that. Maybe a curling iron would help, but no money for that either. I'm contemplating chopping it off, which is much easier and cooler, but long hair is so beautiful. What are your opinions about short vs long hair?? I need some input. I feel if I cut it all off, the past 14 months of growing it out will all be in vain.

California Here I Come!!

Things have been pretty busy here since I posted last.

My husband and I had the AMAZING opportunity to go to California ALONE. We went to CA two years ago and both fell in love with the place. We were so excited to get to go back again and this time without any children.

My parents came down and watch the boys the first few days and then Zack's parents came down and finished off the week. We were gone 7 whole days! The boys did great.

Boy is flying sure a breeze without children and SO relaxing too. I actually got to read and listen to music! I read an entire book and half another book and two magazines on that trip! I will tell you though, the two hour time change really got to me. I didn't really feel like I had adjusted to it until the day before we came back. I felt tired most of the trip, but that didn't stop me from making the most of it!

Zack was commissioned to write a piece for the Sacramento Youth Orchestra. A friend of ours from UT is a conductor/coach during the Orchestra's summer program. Since housing/car was provided for, I saved money here and there and tagged along.

We're nerds, so we wanted to see the state capitol. Actually, we really wanted to see Arnold...haha.

I don't especially like this picture of me, but I wanted you to at least be able to see a little bit of my new dress. My Mom knows I never get to buy new clothes, so she gave me a little money. Zack spent all day Thursday in rehearsal, so I went shopping. Armed with Zack's iPhone and our friend's car I was quite proud of my navigating abilities. I found a great mall where I got some cute sandals and then hit Nordstrom Rack where I got this dress. I love the ruffles. Any of you that know me, know that I extremely directionally challenged. I never would have been able to drive around Sacramento by myself without getting hopelessly lost and crying a few years ago.

Saturday the boys went golfing, so I set off for the Davis Farmer's Market. Davis is a mini-Austin. I would be perfectly content to live there. They are known for their year-round farmer's market. It was amazing. I had a warm sticky bun for breakfast and a latte from a local organic coffee place.

Here is my amazing husband conducting a rehearsal of his piece on Saturday evening.

The last concert was Sunday night. Monday we went to San Fransisco. Last time we went there we had a 6 mo old and a stroller. San Fransisco is not ideal for strollers=)

The pasta I had for lunch contained at least 2 sticks of butter...Julia Childs would have been proud. Here we are at the wharf. We ate so much. Since we are on the topic of food, I must report that I had sushi for the first time on this trip. I also frequented a bakery that had amazing pastries. One afternoon as I sat there eating a chocolate croissant, reading Julie and Julia there were two French women sitting behind me chatting away in French. Talk about perfect.

Since we had a stroller last time, we did not get to climb the famous Lombard Street. I needed to work off all the butter I had for lunch, so we headed over.

The crookedest street in the world!

Check out this house!

At last!

It was so worth it. Suck a treat to get to wear a sweater and scarf for the day!!=)

I hadn't climbed enough, so I found some steps leading up to a park and got a few pics with the Golden Gate Bridge int he background.

I want that dark green house. The picture doesn't do it justice.

How do they ever park?

It was so nice to get away and do something completely out of the ordinary. We haven't done something like this in years. After about 5 days I started missing the boys a little. I'm glad we could actually be gone long enough to start missing them and be excited to be with them again=)

Fourth of July Fun

We headed downtown to for the 4th of July celebration. The boys are getting bigger now and we've started to get braver=)




These were the sandwiches I made for our picnic. Notice the basil. It was picked fresh from my own basil plant. I felt like such an amazing homemaker going outside and picking a few leaves...haha!

Our boys are not afraid in the least to explore and wonder off. It kept us quite busy. We had a blast, but to say it was a relaxing picnic would not be true=) It would have been really nice to have a fence around our blankets. Here is Shep (14 mo) contemplating his escape route.

The cookie was a ploy to get him to stay on the blanket.

Notice, another cookie...

An attempt at a family picture.

Take 2...not as successful.

It was all worth it to see the wonder in their eyes. The boys LOVED it. Shep just kept pointing and saying, "Woah!!"

I convinced them that if they laid back in the stroller they could see the fireworks better...haha! Conner kept saying, "Mama, look at that one!!"

"Wooaaahhh!!"

Happy 4th of July!!

Pic from the Past

Our family last year. This picture makes me almost loose my resolve to grow out my hair.

Happy 4th of July! We are going to attempt the fireworks by the river tonight with the boys. They are both napping now and I'm going to let them sleep as long as possible=) We were very sad to miss (at least I was VERY sad to miss) our neighborhood parade this morning. I know I'm weird, but seriously, I'd been looking forward to it since last year! The boys would have loved it.