Easter Weekend

Somehow, I am having trouble getting into the groove of regular blogging.  I have all the intentions but it seems so time consuming compared with slapping a quick photo up on instagram (which I do more often--link on sidebar if you want to follow).

I still have some posts in the works from the last few weeks but I will start here and then go backwards.

Our Easter weekend was pretty packed. Our niece, Olivia is graduating from college in a few weeks.  Unfortunately, we cannot attend her graduation as it is out of town and the same day as Kate's dance recital (which we had already committed to).  So, we decided to take a day trip to Austin on Good Friday to visit Olivia, take her to lunch and let her give Will a campus tour (yes, he's starting to look at colleges!)

I woke up Friday morning feeling pretty sick (killer sore throat, sinus headache) so I did not bother with bringing my big camera.  I just did not have the energy.  These are all I-phone pics.

On the drive to Austin, we saw the most beautiful array of wildflowers.  They were spectacular!  A certain someone did not want to pull over and let me take photos. However, he finally pulled off into the measliest patch and I snapped these quickly.  I REALLY, wish I had brought my good camera for the blue bonnets and Indian paint brushes.

So, Olivia showed us around campus.





There was a pretty little grotto.
We stopped and prayed and thanked God for his only son on Good Friday.







Will, Harry, Kate and Olivia




Dave and his favorite niece:)


Kate, me and Olivia

After the campus tour, we we to a great restaurant on Lake Austin.  We sat outside on the deck, had an awesome meal and excellent service.  It was a really great day.  It was just one of those family days where everyone gets along and is in a good mood.  It really was delightful.

We drove back home that afternoon/evening and then woke up (still sick) and headed to the beach for the rest of the weekend.

Dave has recently taken up kayak fishing and so we go to the bay/beach (or he goes with the boys) as much as they can get away with our busy schedules.  I still felt really crummy but did not want to sit home alone for Easter so I went along.



Harry LOVES the kayak and so does Kate.

Will wades out in the marshes to fish as well.

Kate loves sitting on the dock of the canal fishing (she doesn't ever catch anything--but she is happy)



Harry waxed his skim board and did some skim boarding.



On Saturday some friends came down to the house.  I was not the best hostess and napped most of the afternoon while they fished and went to the beach.  I LOVE the beach and it pains me that I missed it.  It takes a lot to keep me from the beach.

We did sit on the deck and watch a beautiful sunset.



(iphone pic)

We spent the night so the Easter bunny did baskets at the beach.

Then we piled in the car and headed home.  We spontaneously decided to stop someplace for breakfast. I had read/heard about the Sunflower Bakery and Cafe and really wanted to try it but I was afraid that on Easter there would be a long wait.  And we were not quite showered or dressed for Easter brunch.  Luck was on our side and we got a table just before a long wait started.  It was sooooo good.

Belgian waffles with fresh cream and berries, fresh gulf shrimp omelet, and homemade cream puffs.  Will had chicken and waffles and Kate had pecan pancakes.  We will definitely return to this place.

We ended up cleaning up and getting dressed for  a little egg hunt and 5 pm Mass.

Kate's smile was so big that it looked like her eyes were closed in a lot of the photos.
So, the boys did what big brothers do-- tease her!



Luckily, Kate has a great sense of humor and she laughed!





This year I put $1 bills and a few $5 in the eggs.  Will are Harry are teenagers.  They want cash.  Plus, I'd rather give them that than candy.  They raced around so quickly that I could barely get any photos.





Harry got almost all the $5 bills










Poor Will (who needs the cash the most for gas and food with friends) got the least.

We went to the teen mass in the evening and it was less crowded and less formal than our regular mass. It was nice.  Our Easter dinner consisted of BLT sandwiches since we could not really cook a big meal while at mass.  And I was still pretty sick.

Even though this Easter was very different from all of our other Easters, we all agreed that it was a really lovely family weekend.  The kids are at ages where they really enjoy each others company and there is little or no fighting.  We have fun together. I'd like to freeze time! I guess being sick worked in my favor as I did not go to any trouble for anything.  It was all super low key!

I know this is full of little details that are boring and insignificant.  I like recording all the details here so that we (our family) can look back and remember one holiday or occasion from another.

an Austin weekend

A few weeks ago, Will's water polo team had a tournament in Austin.  Austin is a really cool city and even though we knew that most of our time would be spent in the UT natatorium, we decided to make a quick family weekend out of it.  These are a combo of instagram photos and camera photos.  I really love instagram.  It is probably my favorite form of social media right now.  You can follow me on instagram here.

So we drove into Austin and I saw this painted wall.  I made Dave pull over to take photos.  This is when my kids moan and groan and loathe having a shutterbug for a mom:)  None of us were really in the mood for pics but this wall is so cute.  I think it would make a great backdrop for an engagement shoot or a wedding shoot.

You can just see how excited they were to do this for me;)

One of the kids took an instagram of me and Dave....



So the reason we were in Austin was to see if Will's high school water polo teams could qualify for the Junior Olympics in California this summer.  And while his particular team did not do too well in Austin, his school qualified two teams.  So in a few weeks, Will gets to go to California to compete in the Junior Olympics.  We are really excited for the teams.  We are told they will probably not win any games.  Will's school has some of the best water polo in Texas.  They have won the State title a year or two ago BUT the California kids have been paying their whole lives and our kids have not.  It is a great experience nonetheless and they have so many fun things planned.







I really enjoy watching water polo. It is fast paced and exciting.  And the games last about 40 minutes max! There is literally no time to get bored. The tournaments all run precisely on time and most are indoors.  I have best friends who sit outside here in Texas in 100 degree heat all weekend for baseball tournaments.  That would likely drive me nuts.  I do not tolerate the heat that well. I am not knocking baseball at all but this sport is much more my style for spectating.  It is hard to photograph though especially without a good telephoto lens (hint hint honey).

Since, the tournaments run so efficiently, you can leave and come back. So we had a few things on our list to try to squeeze in while we were in Austin. One of the places we went was Barton Springs.  These are natural cold springs. And they were COLD!  But very refreshing...











Will and Kate had a lot of fun here.
 Dave, Harry and I went in too but I guess I did not get any snapshots of us.

After this we got to go see my niece's house.  She goes to college in Austin and so we got to see her very cool house and take her out for tex-mex and margaritas.  I cannot believe my niece (who was the flower girl in our wedding) is of legal drinking age now!  I did not bring my camera and have no photos which bums me out but we had fun!

The next day brought two more water polo games and then when we had a break we escaped for more family fun. One of Harry's new obsessions is rock climbing and he had researched a rock gym close to the natatorium n Austin.  So, we headed over there for an hour of rock climbing.








Look at the muscles in her back!





 An instagram of Katie Ru bouldering.
  She amazes me.  As girly-girl as she is, she can totally hang with the boys too.
  And she is wicked strong from all the gymnastics conditioning.

She has spent all summer hanging with me or the middle school boys that are always around (Harry's friends).  She even goes to the middle school chess club with all the boys!

That pretty much sums up our weekend in Austin.  We also ate a lot.  Like Houston, Austin had GREAT places to eat.  We had fabulous Tex-Mex, awesome frozen custard and one of our faves, Kerbey Lane.

And we stopped in a regional favorite place too...



{pronouced Bucky's}

What is Buc-ee's?  Well it is apparently the world's largest convenience store (67,000 square feet).  This place has everything.  And some really good Texas gourmet food too.  It is so much fun to wander around inside.  They also have the nicest and cleanest bathrooms.  Here are a few of my instagrams from inside....





If you ever go to Buc-ee's you need to get a kolache.
 I also hear the fudge is really yummy too but I am not a fudge person.

Hope y'all have a fabulous 4th of July!  I am sure I will be back with some pictures.
We have a hodge-podge of plans.