Austin IS weird!

HA! We had a fabulous time in Austin visiting with friends and being tourists for a little bit on Saturday. That's where the title comes from... it's amazing how Austin is it's own little culture in itself (much like New Orleans). We saw some crazy things but the winner was when we were at a light on South Congress and I saw a very tan man riding his bike with only a thong on. WOW - wasn't expecting that but I must say he had a very even tan =) Apparently he's well known around town and everyone knows him by name. Tell Lesley "hi" next time you're in A-town.

We got up to Mike and Heather's just in time for dinner. They took us to a well known place called Max's Wine Dive. Super good! No kids! A double date =)

Mike and Heather love their gardens! They have this one and another one next to it.

Jalapenos!

A baby eggplant!

Saturday morning we spent a quiet time reading, Neil played video games, enjoyed our coffee and I mean, it was QUIET! What a wonderful morning! Then we headed to South Congress to take in some tourist action. I ate at the Mighty Cone Trailer - a yummy fried avocado taco!

Neil grabbed a slice of pizza and then we walked around the shops. Such unique places! My favorite was the costume store - I'm thinking we should have a summer costume party =)

Then we were off to Mozart's Coffee shop on the lakefront to meet our friends Julie and Charlie Johanson. We knew them from church before they moved about 5 years ago and just recently got back in touch via facebook! They are adopting too so we had a ton to catch up on. We talked for 2 1/2 hours! Can't wait to see them again and hear about when they get matched up with their little one.

For dinner we met Heather, my childhood friend, at Z-Tejas. Heather and I met in the 4th grade in math class. We lived around the corner from each other and walked our baby dolls (yes, we still liked dolls!) back and forth to our houses. She is an AMAZING NICU nurse!

Kisses after dinner =)

Sunday morning we got up bright and early to get to UUMC for Homes for Haiti. I didn't have my camera while we worked but got a few shots after everything was completed and cleaned up. We worked with a great group and met a really nice, young guy. He had melanoma, three kiddos and was adopted himself so we had A LOT to talk about. Hoping to run into them again while we are visiting my parents. We also met up with a former student of Neil's, Kassandra. She randomly found our blog the day after we worked and left the sweetest message for us =) Thanks Kassandra!

Here are parts of the houses that had been bound and were ready to be shipped off. It was a great experience and they actually ended up building 70 houses rather than only 50! God is good!

Here is a finished one. They also had something like bunk beds inside.

After cleaning up at home we headed downtown for our free night at Hotel Valencia. We love it there! So modern and such a special place from our wedding night =) We ate at Michaelino's - excellent food and a great view from our river side table.

Can you believe the size of this chicken parmesan? Gotta love Neil's face!

A shot of the happy couple!

Cheers to our wonderful 7 years!

We took this very same picture on our fourth anniversary. Valenica is in the back!

Neil talking to the girls before bed time! They were having a great time at Mimi and Poppa's.

One last shot before our camera battery died!

Monday morning we took it easy and walked a little more on the river. We went to the Quarry for a movie and then to Mencius for a late lunch. Oh, our time together was WONDERFUL! Already can't wait for next time! We had the best time but we were anxious to get back to our girls that afternoon. They had so much fun with their grandparents swimming, eating out, playing outside, getting spoiled, etc. Thanks for letting us have our weekend getaway!

It took the whole week to get back into the swing of things and now we're back off to Austin tomorrow for an adoption Hague Training with our home agency! We're also super busy getting ready for our next garage sale, preparing for VBS next week, setting things up for me to start teaching my summer lessons on Monday, finding babysitters, coordinating other activites for fundraising, getting my application and resume in for NISD to teach privately, etc. Always seems to be something on our plates but we love it!

Thanks to Sara, Tara and Cindi for leaving a comment on my last post. A girl can dream can't she?! Well, I left a long list of our thrifty vacay advice on my last post if you're interested in reading.

Hope yall had a great week! I have so much more to post! Hope to get caught up when we get back into town.