Our little family took a trip to Austin this past weekend. I took a cue from bloggers smarter than I to not advertise when I'm leaving town, because everybody knows there is a lot of awesome stuff to steal in the Richmond-Rosenberg area.
Just to give you a little glimpse into Livingston life, these were all of the snacks packed for one three-hour trip: about 4 bags of those little peanut butter crackers, a bag of trail mix, some beef jerky, a giant can of mixed nuts, three sandwiches, two containers of leftover taco soup, a tupperware of approximately 5 pieces of leftover pizza, and a case of bottled water. For the entire three days for Myla I only had to bring two boobs, some rice, and one tupperware of green beans and cauliflower.
The billboards starting about 70 miles before the actual store had me sold. Obviously, I decided that we should see what the fuss is all about. One short hour later, we arrived. Cue the angels singing. That place is huge (and a little scary). Since we were with the kiddo, we tag-teamed going to the restroom and staying at the car with her. I made the mistake of asking Dave to buy me one piece of fudge while I was in the car feeding the pooper. The typical Dave-phenomenon occurred where he goes in for one thing and spends 20 bucks. Dang it, Dave! Unsurprisingly, $15 dollars of that were for jerky. The most hilarious part, though, was that I read aloud one of the many Buccee's billboards advertising their "Beaver Nuggets," and said sarcastically, "Oh man, we better get some Beaver nuggets for my uncle Frank." I forgot that Dave misreads my sarcasm approximately 50% of the time, so out he came out with a bag of the nuggets. Oh well. We're on vacation.
We first hit up Chuy's takeout with our gracious host, uncle Frank and dominated some chips and various dips.
The main reason for our trip was to attend the wedding of a friend. Riley and I both lived/worked in the Dominican Republic for Makarios at the same time. Because of this, I sometimes refer to him as "the first man I ever lived with." For some reason, Dave doesn't think it's that funny. Since I'm irresponsible, I took only two pictures at the entire event, and they had nothing to do with the bride and groom at all. But I'll just fill you in with wedding details: Christ-centered, beautiful bride, beautiful wedding, yummy food, beer, hilarious toasts, etc.
Oh, and some background about a picture I actually
did take. Remember these poopers?
Well now they're HUGE and 5 years old! They also have no recollection of me, which kind of stinks, but it's ok. I totally prepared myself for that moment. Anyway, here they are with their mama showing Myla something she loves-- a technology toy. I can't decide which thing Myla was more interested in, the boys or the phone. Oh, and Myla was great at the wedding, except for when she spit up on my foot. Thank you, Lord.
Saturday morning =
Taco Shack. Enough said.
We went to lunch on Saturday with some friends to
Mother's. Since I know a thing or two about Austin-y food, I checked out the menu before we went, and then I gently broke it to my carnivorous husband that there would be no meat available there. To make up for it, I picked the most unhealthy item on the menu, the banana-walnut pancakes. They were
awesome. Dave joked that he didn't have enough facial hair to be eating at that place, because it was full of bearded Austinite men (including the hippie harpist in the corner). It turned out to be a really fun meal.
After lunch, we picked up muffins at
Quack's for breakfast on the next day. YUM. I washed down a vegan chocolate muffin with a glass of milk, though. Is that wrong?
Sunday morning we went to brunch at
Threadgill's to visit a friend/extra sister who is the manager. Shout out to Landry for the giant omelet. It was a fun visit! Myla even got an awesome shirt. Thanks, Shawna D!
All in all, it was a lot of fun. We ended the weekend still loving each other, so that's a good sign. I'll close with a few real-life conversations had at some point on the road:
Dave (once we got into the city of Austin): You got us from here, right? What comes next?
Me: Well, we are either going to turn left or right onto some road that's coming up... I'll probably recognize it when I see it.
Dave: Ok...
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Dave: I really wish you would just take a look at this map.
Me: I don't want to. I can't read a map.
Dave: What do you mean you can't read a map?
Me: What, some people aren't good at reading maps! I don't read maps, and you don't read books.
(I did end up reading the map).
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On the way home, I drove for a spell, which means I got to choose the music: Taylor Swift.
Dave: Oh great, I'm going to grow a vagina by the end of this trip.
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(mysterious toots coming from the backseat...)
Dave: Uh, did she poop?
Me: I don't know, check her.
Dave: How?
Me: Just lean back there and sniff her butt!
Dave: Ok.
