The parents came!

Mom and John came to visit us 2 weekends ago and we had a blast. I wanted to post the pics forever ago but this whole house business has kept us busy. Needless to say, that's taken care of and we'll close on May 15th! Anyway, the weather was wonderful (not too hot)!.We hiked up to Mt. Bonnell to see some of the largest houses ever in Austin. This is,we think, the Colorado River.

Aren't we cute?

I couldn't resist posting this one. Sorry ya'll. We went to the 'Salt Lick', an old bbq joint 15 mins south. Josh had called mid saturday afternoon to ask about the wait for later that night. The girl said, 'oh, shouldn't be too bad then.' Needless to say we were quoted 1.5hrs and were sat right on time. Had we had known the truth we would have brought more booze; byob thank goodness! I think about these ribs quite often...

The herd of other hungry people, patiently waiting. People actually brought board games and ice chests which left me to mutter, "this wait better be worth it!" And it was.

There was a great band playing and little kids dancing all around.

We found a spot to sit right away and make new friends. Josh, of course, ran into some people he used to wait tables with!

Meat galore!

The ceiling of the capital building. Can you see the star? Texans will not refuse the chance to stick a star somewhere. Seriously people.

Straight from the airport- we went to one of the oldest and grandest hotels in downtown Austin called the Driscoll. We drank some very masculine lemon drop martinis!

Off to a great start! Mom's dream of taking a picture under a longhorn has finally come true! Such good sports you two are! We also had some fabulous cupcakes that came from an adorable silver trailer in a very hip part of town. The business is call Hey Cupcake and may have a website. I'm so sad I didn't get a picture; their vanilla frosting is always pink and they can inject your cupcake with fresh-not-too-sweet whipped cream for free. Looking so forward to the next visit. I'm thinking a Napa visit sometime in July once we get unpacked and settled!

OMG! 1890 feet in texas!

Master bedroom. Paint is cheap, right?
Enclosed patio. Door goes to barbeque area and two doors on right open out to a huge backyard! The bugs are crazy here so screens are so wonderful..
Bedroom for guests; all have fans.
Master bath with JETS!
Master bath. Updates possible not necessarily needed...
Nursery/sitting area that is part of master room. We will most likely enclosed this to make a fourth room someday. There is also a big walk in closet.
View from bed to nursery/sitting room area.

View from extra wide walk ways.
Informal dining, through kitchen to the formal dining area.
Formal dining off entrance.
This is the entry way. To the right is a nice patio with lots of room for a bench and such.

These are a few of the pictures that we have from the house WE ARE GOING TO BUY! This is insane stuff. This house had been on the market for half a day; we placed our offer via fax around 10:30pm and found out that it was accepted this afternoon. The home was built in 2000 and has had one owner that upgraded to another neighborhood in Southwest Austin, as well. The market is so HOT here. I've asked my realtor to show me properties and they are already gone after having been listed a day. CRAZINESS! We are set for inspections tomorrow with a scheduled close date of May 15th. Exciting stuff!! Cross your fingers/pray for us to get this home. We'll have plenty of room for ya'll.

Weekends in Texas!

There were wildflowers all along the highway. It was gorgeous! These are blue bonnets (state flower) and Indian paintbrush (which can get more red than orange).

This was one of the four cats where we stayed. This one liked to drink out of the sink. There were five big dogs too! The

Crawfish boil experience!

Greg, Mark, Don (allison's husband), cousin Allison, and Josh.

Josh and his pops, Greg.

The 'set up'; safe and not too elaborate.

Last Saturday was so much fun. We drove out to Katy, about 25 miles west of Houston for a boil at Josh's cousins house. Uncle Jack owns the set-up and picked up the crawfish which were huge and still alive when they were dumped into the pot. Everyone seems to have their own technique for getting the crawfish tail out the quickest; I think I got pretty fast towards the end. It's a small crisis when you forget napkins or beer (its a spicy mess!).

Happy Birthday Erin!!

Happy Birthday Sister! Hope you are having a lovely birthday in Napa and everybody is treating you like a princess. That's what birthdays are all about, right?! I can't wait to see you to celebrate at the end of this month. . .
This is Josh's new hair; a surprise to me but I think I like it (much better for summers out here). Tomorrow we go to Houston area for our first crawfish boil at Josh's cousins house.