Austen in Austin

I felt a little weird this past weekend calling out my son's name in public.  We were visiting friends in Austin, Texas, and I'm sure people thought we were a little strange naming our son after the city they thought we lived in.  I wanted to wear a shirt that said, hey, we're from Chicago, but since I didn't have one, he got away with a lot more than he normally would have! Just kidding.

We had a great trip to visit our friends and dare I say it was easy with a 3 and 6 year old (think no strollers and car seats to lug onto the plane and then video players for them to watch movies on the plane). Austen has always been an easy traveler but we haven't taken Peyton on a flight for 18 months since she proved to be more challenging. Turns out that time made a difference.  She was great.  A little nervous with the plane going up in the air and landing on the way to Austin, but on the way home she wanted to look out the window as it took off/landed and her nervousness quickly faded.

The weekend could be summed up in three phrases:

Good food:

(Eating lunch at the food trucks on South Congress in Austin)

(Chef Billy's finger lickin' Texas chicken)

(Chef Billy at it again...slow cookin' the pork - it was falling off the bone good)

Good friends:

(BFFs like they never were apart)

(posing in the Texas shirts!)

(Giving each other a push in the swing)

Good times:

(Fishing - Austen's first experience)

(Riding the tractor in the backyard was hours of fun)

(Just hanging out playing tic tac toe)

(Feeding the goats at the Austin Zoo)

(Enjoying the view of Lake Travis with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle balloons that got popped soon after by the little siblings)

We hope someday our friends will move back to Chicago. Until then, we'll add to the good food, good friends and good times with many memories in Texas, Chicago and other places.