We discovered a new cheese shop in Austin.....it's super dreamy.
After a pride-filled afternoon at the Texas State History Museum we ate at Bess Bistro. A-MAZING. Our taste buds are still thanking us for the crispy artichokes we had as an appetizer.
We finally made it out to Johnson City and toured around LBJ's ranch.
Dinner in Fredricksburg for some German fare.
Good food + great friends = a perfect belated New Years celebration.
We've been doing our best to take advantage of the nice January and February (aka Spring) weather .
A fantastic January. The perfect start to what promises to be another great year.
(Because no post about anything related to high school is complete without pictures from high school. I love the pic above because it shows that we did indeed have our dances in our high school cafeteria. Love it.)
With somewhat decent regularity C and I stay up late into the night listening to music from the 90's. We find songs on youtube that are perfectly "high school" for us, quiz each other, sing along, laugh at music videos and talk about how "popular music totally peaked when we were in high school." (Does that make us sound old?)
I've decided that what's magical about the music of your adolescence is that you just know so much of it. Never have we been so well-versed in popular music. Pop music, R&B, Rap, Country, Rock, Grunge, Ska, Alternative, Chick rock, Dance - you name it. We know all the words to songs in genres we haven't listened to since. We love the one-hit wonders. We love the big hits. We love the songs they ALWAYS played at school dances. We even have a certain love for the songs we never liked because of the associated nostalgia. And of course, we have our songs/bands that are just straight-up epic. (Counting Crows, Oasis, Blind Melon, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Weezer, R.E.M., Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan, Matchbox 20, Goo-Goo Dolls, Alice in Chains, Beastie Boys, Mariah Carey, The Cranberries, Fiona Apple, No Doubt and oh so many more.)
I've learned a lot here in Texas over the last few days as the temperature has dipped (gasp) below freezing. For example, if the weather isn't what you're used to and you find it physically uncomfortable, you're free to cancel or close everything and just stay inside. (PS - I'm talking pre-precipitation. Just plain cold.) C and I look forward to using this new knowledge and freedom with reckless abandon come summer.
You know your holidays were awesome when on February 3 you are still attempting to adequately blog about them.
Alas...
Onward!
Part two of our holidays, much like part one, was full of amazing people (pictured above.) And I must say, the activities were pretty stellar too.
The men, in all their glory, hiked into the cabin. And despite hiking out (as well as other activities such as ice-fishing) in a big winter storm they insist it was an awesome and fun experience. Honestly, by the smiles on their faces I almost believe them.
To belatedly celebrate LeAnn's birthday we had a fantastic cooking class at Gygi's (Thanks Con!).
From beginning to end food was a big part of our holiday fun. Ty's bacon explosion (a bacon weave filled with sausage, ground beef and more bacon) was a dream come true for C who has wanted to make one for a while....and I must say....was super delicious.
To ring in the New Year and celebrate Ty's birthday we celebrated with SO MUCH good food....and a whole lot of Janitor awesome-ness in honor of Ty's upcoming book publication.
There were many cute kids and we even got to celebrate Kira's 5th birthday.
Every year I'm a little antsy about skiing. (What if the weather is terrible? Ugh....you have to get up SO early. I only go once a year, what if I'm a mess on the hill?) And then, without fail, every year I LOVE it and wish we could go back the very next day.
And thus the Utah portion of our holidays came to a close. Loved it.
