Visitors! Matt and Becky

Last week, we had our first visitors! (well, aside from my Mom helping us move out here). Casey's cousin Matt and his wife Becky flew out for a University of Texas football game and we're so glad they stayed at our house.
The night they flew in, we ate at The Salt Lick (which we'd been wanting to try for a while. It's an Austin classic). Yummy stuff! And back home we sang Happy Birthday to Casey. The big 3-6! Now that Lucy understands birthdays, she's thrilled to celebrate Casey's and mine and now Owen's in just a week!
Saturday morning, we walked around the downtown square.
Matt and Becky were both so cute and great with the kids. I think Owen reminded them of their boys when they were that age.
We played Hide and Go Seek:
Lucy was the Seeker.
We window shopped:
We had a few moments like this:
and this:
And we found a little museum on the street and peeked inside. Weir, Texas. Becky's maiden name!
Museum dress-ups:
At the end of our tour, we were asked to be Extras in a student film happening right there in the square. Sure. Payback for all the projects we've done in the past?
It was a narrative about two mimes....having some sort of Mime-Off.
Um, classic.
Mime #1 getting in character:
and Mime #2 getting in Make-up:
We were pretty cold standing there.
But fun to be a part of silly things.
And the rest of the day was filled with UT football and tons of roll baking/testing, in preparation for Thanksgiving day. The house sure smelled delicious.
Matt and Becky it was great fun having you here! Please come visit again!

Somersaults

Recently, the kids learned to do somersaults. And they're both pretty good at it! I can't wait for Lucy to start her gymnastics preschool in January.
If you ever say to Owen, do a somersault! he'll drop everything and hit the ground:
nice form!
tuckered out.
The other day at the park, two teenage girls were doing round-offs and cartwheels in the field next to us. Owen looked over and saw what they were up to. He got off the park toys, ran over to them, dropped to the ground, and performed his best somersault. When he finished, the two girls stood there and applauded him. It was the cutest thing.

the many faces of Cinderella

Back in October I found this little dress at a local thrift shop. Though it was a bit FLDS, it was just Lucy's size and just what Lucy would call a Cinderella Dress! No question. She loved it.
And danced around for a couple hours.
I love this shot.
Oh, commoners. They have no idea the cat fights I've won to get to where I am.
and this little video sums it up perfectly. Here's Lucy's rendition of Cinderella, in 90 seconds. The video jumps-in to the middle of the story, where the mice are making Cinderella's pink dress. My favorite moment being, "and cinderella cried, cried, cried"

obedient

There was a time when all we had to say was, Owen do you need a time out? and he would walk right over to the wall and sit himself down.
Those times are coming to a close. But the little guy still gets his fair share of time outs. His 2 year old manners are already creeping out.

Who can resist this though? Once a cuddler, always a cuddler (I hope!)

Waco

During our Girl's Week together, Lucy and I took a road trip up to Waco (an hour north of us). Like most Americans, you're probably thinking of David Koresh and some cuckoo cult. But Waco is also home to the Dr. Pepper museum! And a very cool zoo. So we checked them both out.
Guess who took this picture? Yep. Lucy.
It may not seem like such a feat. But just picture the little girl, holding my large SLR camera, having to look through the eye piece (you can't see what you're shooting on the LCD screen like point-and-shoot cameras), and pushing the proper "click"! button. Oh, and adding a nice angle WITH the Pepper word in it. Good job Luce!

The museum was actually ho-hum. Casey always jokes that my blog posts sometimes make the outing look way cooler than it was. And that's exactly what this was. But there were tons of old retro cans and bottles:
Vintage coolers and vending machines:
and we got to watch a medley of old Dr. Pepper commercials. "Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too? Be a Pepper...Drink Dr. Pepper...."
Next up, the Cameron Park Zoo.
This zoo was much cooler than the LA Zoo. For some reason the LA zoo has been under construction for the past 6 years. Hmmm....sounds kind of like the 5 freeway. This place was clean, colorful, and actually had animals!
Lucy's favorite, always:
One of my favorites....especially because it was African, with cool ears. The other ones look so circus-y.
And this guy kind of freaked me out. He stared right at us for minutes. That wire is pretty strong, right?
We found some cool exhibits near the monkey cages, where Lucy could ride,
jump on chimes:
and swing from ropes. She figured this one out all on her own and loved it:
Overall, a very fun day. But my assessment of Waco: it's exactly the place I would expect a weird cult to well, cultivate. The city is very strange. It feels, forgotten. But not in a cool ghost town way. It's a strange forgotten town, still sporting the not-so-cool aspects of 80s life. And there's no one there. No one walking around downtown. No one in the restaurants. And just a few people at the zoo. Weird. You can all check Waco off your list! We've seen it for you.