Austin Trip

Also a while ago...

At the end of September, we took a family trip down to Austin which is one of my favorite cities. We stayed with Chris, who is a good friend of Jarret's back from their college days. Since Chris got married right before Julia was born, we'd never had the privilege of meeting Chris' wife Laurie and her two sons. We stayed at their house and had a wonderful visit... despite the horrors of the 3-hour drive down in which Julia didn't nap and then the following 2 days in which she napped a total of just over an hour. Chris and Laurie are such generous and thoughtful hosts, and Laurie was super patient, sweet, and snuggly with Julia.

They just recently bought a boat, which meant we got to enjoy a lake trip without having to haul our own boat! Better still, what lake in Texas is prettier than Lake Austin? Even better STILL, the boat they bought was the same make and model of Alan's boat (Jarret's best man from the wedding), which is the boat we met on and got engaged on!

Julia's only naps seemed to happen in 30 minute chunks on the boat. Laurie and daddy both were eating it up though (Chris is the one driving):






Laurie's son Court (13) was tearing it up on the wakeboard considering he'd only really been doing it about a month:


I simply can't imagine this lifestyle. Wow:


I've climbed the 100+ steps up to the scenic overlook on Mount Bonnell several times before, but this was my first to be in the river directly beneath the overlook. It was fun to look up and see all the people at the top of the hill taking in the beautiful scenery:


And of course, some family shots. We were riding near the 360 bridge, which is what you see in the background: