A few weeks ago, someone on my local Facebook page asked about doing a fall session with a local photographer. By time I saw the post, there were already a dozen recommendations for reasonably priced photographers having special fall mini sessions, so I wrote down a list of names and did a little googling for myself. We haven’t had a professional photography session since Jack was 2 years old and I thought it would be a great opportunity for some new photos!
Of course, upon typing this I realized we actually DID take pictures with my friend when she got a new camera a couple years ago. And I even wrote about it and shared photos on my blog. I guess my only excuse is that a ‘professional photographer session’ with a person you don’t know seems a lot scarier than a session with your bestie. We all have some not-so-great angles, so it seems extra horrifying to pay someone to take photos of you where you’re fixated on all your flaws.
So, it was with baited breath that I opened the photos link when the photographer sent it over a week after our session. And yes, there were some photos that I picked apart because I felt they highlighted my flaws (just mine, everyone else obviously looks perfect all the time).
But there were also some that I loved – silly photos that captured our family being goofy. And one with Jack making the most ridiculous face (he says it is only for sharing with family). Jack got braces in August and I can’t help but thinking he is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, stuck in that magical moment between kid and pre-teen.
Here are my favorites:
Time goes by so fast! Travis and are celebrating 14 years of marriage today and Jack’s growing like a weed. I’m so happy we were able to freeze this moment.
Well, TECHNICALLY it was 72 hours… but ‘weekend’ sounds prettier for the blog post title. In reality, we left the house around 3am on Friday and returned home at 3am on Monday. But that’s not how we planned it. I’ll get to that though. First, let’s talk about our family trip to AUSTIN!
With the summer winding down and a 3-day weekend for Labor Day, we decided to do an impromptu trip to Austin, Texas.
Why Austin? Well, I went to Austin 8 years ago for a work conference (you can read about it here: All about Austin) and thought at the time that it would be a great place to visit with the family. It’s super walk-able, has lots to do and delicious food. What’s not to love?!
Where We Stayed: Austin Hilton
When we got the itch to travel, knew I wanted to stay in the same area as my business trip and I checked out a bunch of hotels and Airbnb options. After much googling, I decided to stay at the same hotel I visited previously: the Austin Hilton. The price was reasonable (actually cheaper than the Airbnb’s), it was convenient to get to, unlike an Airbnb a hotel had an option of early check-in, and it had a fantastic rooftop pool.
Our room was a 2-queen bed room on the 19th floor and it was clean, air conditioned and comfortable. We arrived at the hotel around 9am and they were able to accommodate us by letting us check in to our room to drop our stuff off.
And did I mention the pool?! It was on the roof of the 8th floor and every day only had maybe a handful of people out there. We visited the pool each day of our stay for a nice relaxing cool down. Also, on our last day, we packed our stuff up, checked out of our room, and then hung out at the pool for a few hours before showering in the locker rooms and heading to the airport.
What We Ate: Café Crepe, Iron Works BBQ, Snooze, Austin Taco Project, Gus’s Word Famous Fried Chicken, Amy’s Ice Cream, Big Top Soda Fountain
As I mentioned, we ate lots of food while out and about in Austin. However, our favorite spot was Snooze and we actually went there for breakfast two days in a row because it was so good! The ambiance was downright adorable and the food was magical. I highly recommend making time for breakfast at Snooze if you’re in the area and OHMYGOD the maple bacon with pepper was transcendent.
Where We Shopped: South Congress Avenue, 2nd Street, and everywhere else. Favorite stores: Paperwork Art & Gifts, Big Top, Allen’s Boots, Toy Joy and the Austin Visitor Center
We only packed carry-on backpacks, which means we had to be really careful about any purchases. However, we did buy a few things that were small and easily packed.
Jack bought a small video game toy, a harmonica and a tiny music box. I found these amazing earrings by local designer Rebekah Vinyard at Paperwork Art & Gifts and some fun stickers from Big Top. Oh and I also bought a super soft Austin t-shirt to wear on the way home.
Our Favorite Activity: YourBikerGang E-Bike Tour
You guys. We had SO MUCH FUN on the YourBikerGang E-Bike Tour! Our tour guide, Joker, took the three of us all around Austin on e-bikes for 2 hours of sightseeing and fun. Kids under 14 are free to ride on the back of the bike and both Travis and I loved the e-bikes and wish we had a reason to buy one for home!
The afternoon of our tour, it was raining buckets and then suddenly completely stopped about 5 minutes before our tour. So much luck! Also, some additional luck… we were the only people booked for our particular tour time, so we had a private tour around the city.
Here are a few more photos from our e-bike adventures:
Fun Around Town: All the adorable photos
Okay, this part is just a photo dump of all the gorgeous photos we took around town. We LOVED all the street art, so we made it a point to take photos as we passed by!
The only drawback of the whole trip was coming home. I had purposely scheduled our flight back for Sunday night, so that if we got bumped or delayed we’d still have Monday to recuperate before heading to school and work on Tuesday. Well, that’s exactly what happened.
They were short staffed and we couldn’t fly out until they found a pilot and flight attendants… which took hours. Finally, we were able to board and fly out around 9pm, which means by time we got back to Maryland, made our way to our vehicle and drove home… it was 3am. Luckily, we were able to sleep in the next day.
All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful little getaway for our family and I highly recommend Austin for a fun, family-friendly weekend away!
It’s official, we have a 5th grader in the house! And to make it even more bittersweet, this is our last ‘First Day’ at Jack’s elementary school as he will be starting middle-school next year.
It’s our last year of familiarity of knowing where all the classrooms are and which before/after school counselors are our favorites. It’s our last year of having our school just a quick 6-minute drive from the house, so I can easily pop by for field days and meet-the-teacher events.
So yes, it’s bittersweet. But we do have one last year to enjoy at the elementary school. One special year where Jack is in the highest grade at the school. Because what kindergartner doesn’t look up to the 5th graders like they are gigantic and cool?!
And we have one other change this year – a couple weeks ago Jack got braces. So now he really does look like a pre-teen!
