When I was around 5 years old, my mother told me to clean my room. She returned a few minutes later to find me crying. She asked me what was wrong and I told her..."Mamma, I'm not a worker girl, I'm a Dreamer, a Thinker and a Player." For the next 25 years, this was one of our favorite inside jokes!
I don't know how you plan a trip, but we plan ours around FOOD (amongst other things, of course)! People gotta eat, right? We made a wish list of a hand full of places that we hoped to eat while on our trip and I am happy to say we made it to all of them! It isn't just about the food, it's about the experience and we had a wonderful experience at all of them. We highly recommend them all! ***Warning - you might be very hungry after reading this!***
Stagecoach Inn - Salado, TX
This was a little emotional stop for me. This was one of my Dad's favorite places to eat and come to. It's a restaurant attached to a hotel. Mom and Dad had driven the 2 hours to Salado, eaten a yummy dinner, walked around town (it is a very cute and quaint town) and stayed the night many times. I was last here with him on his birthday, probably 10 years ago. It's home cooking at it's finest. They have about 6 things on the menu, that it told to you (not written down), and they do those 6 things really, really well. Each meal includes: chicken broth, hush puppies, salad, entree with 2 sides and dessert. Michael and I both got the Chicken Fried Steak and it was probably the best I have ever had!
Me and my boys at the Stagecoach.
My Chicken Fried Steak
Jonathan liked this place!
Ben liked it too! He got lots of attention from the waitresses.
They built the building around this tree, they say it is 600 years old.
Salt Lick - Driftwood, TX
Neither Michael or I had ever been to Salt Lick, but we had heard a lot about it. Unfortunately, Michael still hasn't been...when we arrived in Austin, he really wasn't feeling well. So we decided to leave him in the hotel to sleep while the boys and I went to visit with Sean and Britania...and we went to Salt Lick with out him! Sorry babe! I did bring him left overs, but he wasn't up for them. But I did buy him some of their famous BBQ sauce, which we did bring home and will have to use very soon!
The famous BBQ pit. They let you walk back in the kitchen to see. It was really cool and smelled so good! It felt good to, it was a cold and rainy day.
"Whats all that meat doing there?"
The boys were checking out the grounds while we waited on our table. It was a really neat area on a lot of land, out in the middle of no where. Driftwood is about 30 minutes south of Sean and Britania's home.
This picture cracks me up - Jonathan was a little excited!
Yum. We got the "All You Can Eat Meat Plate" and requested the burnt end brisket! It was divine.
The Guenther House - San Antonio, TX
The Guenther House is the only one of these 4 restaurants that both Michael and I had already been to together. It is one of my favorite places. It is attached the Pioneer Mill. You know, the people who make the pancake and biscuit mixes. They took over this historic home on the property of the mill and they are a full service restaurant. I prefer having breakfast there and I love their coffee so much that I order bags on line at least twice a year. It is not only a feast for your mouth, but for your eyes. As the property and home are beautiful. The house backs up to the Riverwalk. But make sure you have plenty of time when coming here...we were here for a total of like 2.5 hours! We waited for just over an hour for a table. That was probably my only complaint. It didn't seem that they were prepared for the Spring Break rush.
My boy and me in front of one of the entrances.
Smiley boy and daddy...waiting...
Cutie pie in his St. Patrick's Day shirt - "Mommy's Little Golden Boy". That is part of the Riverwalk behind him.
The Pioneer Mill.
The house.
Finally seated! We are happy!
Already planning our next stop! Where too next Jonathan?? - He says "The Riverwalk Boat!" - more on that later!
Poor buddy. He crashed out at the end of our meal. He was super tired. He is also wearing his St. Pat's Day shirt, "I got your pot of gold right here".
Blue Bonnet Cafe - Marble Falls, TX
Last on our list and on our way home, the famous Blue Bonnet Cafe! I had been here once before with Mom, Dad and Amy on a family trip to Fredricksburg many years before. I knew it was something that Michael would love, and he did! They are famous for their PIES! But they also have some good home cooking too! Michael got a Cheeseburger and I got the Pot Roast. We both enjoyed our meals, but my pie was the best part of my culinary experience on the trip!!!
The Blue Bonnet Cafe.
The boys and some of the PIES!!!
PIES, PIES, PIES!!!!
Michael got the Pecan Pie!
Ben had a Cheerio! (Jonathan had a scoop of ice cream. I really don't know how I didn't get a photo of it!)
I got the Chocolate Fudge Pie. Described by our waitress, "It's basically a brownie in a pie crust. We heat it up, then we put a big scoop of ice cream on top, then we put whip cream on that and then we top it with hot fudge." - I yelled "I'LL TAKE IT!" It was as delicious as it looks and sounds!
Spring Break 2012 Michael and I decided would be the beginning of our new family tradition of taking a family trip. Maybe we were a little too premature on this. It's a little hard to describe, but I'll be honest, we had really high highs and really, really, low lows! We decided that the boys are just a little too young or maybe we are just a little too old...either/or or a combo of both! Judge all you want, there are some things that I am really good at as a parent...but traveling is not one of them!
Our agenda was just to get out of town, see family, see some sights and eat some good food!! We succeeded in our plan and now that I sit here and recap, I am so glad that we did it (and I am also glad we didn't leave early). My favorite part of the trip was seeing my cousins, their spouses, and children! I have a cousin Sean and his wife, Britania that live in Austin and I have a cousin Emily, her husband, Jason, and their kids, Lance and Lainey that live in San Antonio. Thank you for being such great hosts to us!
One thing is for certain, we are all home bodies! The evening and into the night was the worst part of all 3 nights we stayed away. So much so that Sunday night, the second night of our stay, Jonathan cried for about 2 hours that he wanted to go home. Once we got him finally settled down and in bed...he THREW UP! I am sure that it was because he was worked up, because he was fine after that.
Health issues did play a big role in our trip as well. For instance, Jonathan was the ONLY one of the 4 of us that WASN'T on an antibiotic! I had Strep Throat for the 3rd time in a month, Ben had an ear infection and we believe Michael had Strep too (his was never confirmed, but the Dr gave him an antibiotic anyway). Ben and I started feeling bad on Tuesday and went in to the Dr. on Wednesday, so he and I were almost back to normal by the time we left Saturday morning. Michael on the other hand started feeling bad on Thursday night. So he went to the Dr on Friday afternoon, but didn't start feeling really bad until Saturday afternoon...once we arrived in Austin!
I took 600 photos of our 4 day trip. So many good ones that I HAVE TO share. They will take my negative words and squish them! In other words, by the looks of the photos, we had a blast, and we DID! I am having a hard time narrowing down my favorites! So I decided to break them up into categories. Family, Food, Sights...etc.
Austin Family:
Jonathan, Britania and Ben at Sean and Britania's beautiful new home!
Jonathan and Sean at Sean and Britania's new home - the pictures are blurry, something weird was happening with my camera.
Jonathan, Britania, Ben and Sean...as we were saying good-bye to our short, but very sweet visit!
San Antonio Family:
Jason, Lance, Jonathan and Michael.
Lainey is playing peek-a-boo with Ben, who is next to me. Emily, my cousin, is expecting her third baby in August, so both Lainey and Lance were very excited to play with baby Ben!
Love this picture! Lainey is so happy that she made Ben laugh! And she looks just like her momma!
Ben says, Well done Lainey, that was pretty funny stuff!
Back at the Mayes' house...my boys took over all the toys!
I love this picture! I think Ben had the most fun! He was trapped in some kind of contraption all trip long...ie, car seat, stroller, high chair or pack and play! This was the first time he was really free in days!
We have very happy to say that we have found a church we can call our home. We haven't joined yet, but we will in the next month or so. We have been attending this church on and off for 5 years, so I guess you could say, it's about time! It is where Jonathan goes to Day School and it is where I attend my CCM Meetings. We just really like it there and feel very comfortable. I love all the different things that I can do and all the things that are available for my boys, too!
So last Sunday we were told that Jonathan would sing in the big church service!!! We were so excited! It was a first for us! So here are some pictures and the video of the stellar performance by my awesome little performer! He will sing at least 3 more times in the next couple months in the big service, so if you want to see him "live", let me know and I send you the dates!
I realize now that I probably should have cropped this a little. I am sure you don't need to see the lady in front of me shoulder...but do you spy a cute little boy you know?
Jonathan singing! I know I'm bias, but I think he did great!
February 26th was Olga's 99th Birthday (Michael's Grandma). I am honored to say that we attended to help her celebrate! I have never celebrated someones 99th before, so as the days approached I got excited. I think that it is really cool that Jonathan and Ben get to celebrate it with their Great-Grandma! My Grandma O'Brien just turned 82 on February 18th, so it was an exciting Birthday month for both our Grandma's!!! Happy Birthday to you both! We love you!!! - I just wish I could have celebrated with my Grandma!
Olga at 99 and Ben almost 1.
Michael, Ben and Olga, telling funny stories.
Pat and Ben, reading stories.
Loves to upside down!
Or in a box...Jonathan was there, it just seems that some days one boy or another gets in front of the camera more than the other! :)
DFW Airport is one of the airports that soldiers come to when they are coming home from the War Iraq and Afghanistan. Volunteers have put together a "Welcome Home Hero's" greeting group that you can join on a daily basis. They have offered this since the war began...and it's been on my to-do list ever since! Today, FINALLY, we went and joined the families of soldiers, veterans, and other greeters in welcoming a group of soldiers home! (It was NOW or never because they will no longer do it after mid March, since there has been a troop reduction!)
What an awesome experience it was! My friend Kirsi and her two daughters, Taryn and Mazie joined us. We felt so welcomed by everyone...shocker, the welcoming committee made US feel welcomed! It was such a neat feeling of comradery as we waited to see the troops! There were about 100 of us there to greet the troops and there was about 50-75 soldiers that came HOME.
When the first soldiers turned the corner the welcoming crowd burst into cheering and applause! It was a very moving experience! It became even more emotional for me when I saw tears in the eyes of one of the soldiers. I just couldn't imagine what it was like for him.
Even though I have wanted to do this for so long, I am glad I waited until now. Things are so cool to experience through Jonathan's eyes. He and I made "Welcome Home" and "Thank You" signs prior to going and he proudly displayed. But then he quickly put them down and stuck his hand out to shake their hands...melted my heart. Jonathan told every single solider "Thank you".
I explained to Jonathan that these soldiers went away from the families for a very long time so that they could protect Jonathan and our country. He really liked that.
I think the cutest thing was when we got home, Jonathan asked me, "When are the soldiers coming over?" After a few clarification questions back and forth, I still didn't understand, and then he said, "Well, we made a sign that says, Welcome Home, so when are they coming to our home?" :)
Jonathan and Taryn, with Taryn's very pretty sign!
Ben, Jonathan and Mazie. And the matching strollers!! Ben is almost 9.5 months and Mazie is 6.5 months!
We got there really early, so we had some time to kill and energy to burn!
I didn't know this, but you can buy Girl Scout cookies for the soldiers. There were probably 3 or 4 different Girl Scout Troops there handing out cookies to the soldiers! Very neat!
All the gentlemen in the caps are the extremely helpful veterans. We assume that most of these men do this everyday. Kirsi and I were towards the very end of the line to greet and a couple of these men brought us all the way to the front to be with the veterans and the family's. We felt very special being up there! These men reminded me of my Grandpa, who is also a veteran and I know he would be the same way!
Our little spot behind the veterans!
The crowd!
This is when Jonathan put down his sign and flag and stuck his hand out.
Oh how I wish these photo's weren't blurry. But I love, Love, LOVE this photo! This guy was so nice. He said something like, "Hey there buddy, your going to make a great solider one day!" Jonathan got so excited!
Thank you to all of the United States Service Men and Women!
He has grown so much and so many developmental things…I think the easiest way to do this is bullet point them:
The Stats:
·He is 38 weeks / 8 months and 3 weeks old
·He weighs around 22lbs
·He was 25” tall at his last appointment, 2 months ago, so I am sure he is taller now.
Sweet doll baby at his 7 month check up.
Movement:
·At 6 months he was sitting on his own.
·At 6.5 months he was rolling everywhere and surprisingly getting from one end of the room to the other pretty fast!
·At 7 months he was really, really trying to crawl. It was comical. He would pop his knees under him and like a cartoon character or something he would run his feet really, really fast, but he wasn’t able to go anywhere. It was very frustrating for him. It was like he could get the back going, but not the front!
·By 7.5 months he finally got all the parts working the way he wanted and he finally crawled! Yeah!
·Now, at 8.5 months he is speed crawling…I mean seriously, this kid can MOVE.
·Almost the same day he crawled was pulling up and standing while holding onto something.
·He thinks he can stand, take his hands off whatever he is holding onto and DANCE. But, sadly, it never works out for him. He falls on his bum bum, quite hard. But the good news, HE LIKES TO DANCE! Just like his momma and his brother! Good times ahead for sure!
·He has rhythm! Anytime he hears any beat of any kind, he will stop and look for the source and sit up and roll his belly. It is the funniest thing! Jonathan did the same moves when he was this age too! I LOVE IT!
·He is waving hello and good-bye, but only when he wants to.
This video was back in November on the day that he first started dancing.
Loves to Laugh
Personality:
·I wrote in our Christmas card that he is “laid back”, but I don’t think that is how I would describe him now. I think that if I had to choose one word to describe him, it would be “EASY”. Yes, he is an easy kid. He is easy to be around, easy for me to get him around, he is easy to feed, easy to play with, easy to get to sleep, easy to smile, easy to laugh…I could go on and on! – Now there are times it isn’t so easy, but that is usually when he isn’t feeling well or he is hungry…or wants out of his high chair!
·He thinks EVERYTHING that Jonathan does is hysterical! I mean it. He will start belly laughing, and Jonathan and I are looking around, like what happen? What’s funny? Like just the other day we were outside and Jonathan drove up on his tricycle and said in his best robot voice “HI BEN” and he dinged the bell on his tricycle. And Ben just burst out laughing! His laugh is so fun that you can’t help but laugh with him.
·I don’t think that Ben will ever realize how special he is to the 3 of us. When he laughs, whatever the 3 of are doing or where ever we are in the house, we all stop and come and watch him laugh.
·Just tonight, Ben crawled up to me with something in his hands. He raised it over his head, never taking his eyes off me, and then throws it to the ground. Then he laughs and laughs.
·He is very quiet when we are in public or anywhere away from home. I don’t think it is a shy thing, I think he just needs time to get used to things and people. Like in the car, he is typically very quiet. I have pulled over to check on him at least a half a dozen times just because he is so quiet. At the grocery store the other day, he didn’t make single peep the whole time. He was cranked around to see where we were going. And from what I could tell he only smiled at one lady and it was funny, because we had seen her on almost every aisle and every time we saw her she would smile and say hi to him. Finally on the 5th or 6th time we saw her, he gave her the biggest smile. I think it made her day!
Movie watching time with brother!
Eating:
·HE IS A GOOD EATER! Yeah! There really isn’t anything he doesn’t like that we have given him so far. He has eaten all the different types of veggies and fruits. Now we are on to trying mashed meats and veggies…yum.
·Oh, but there was one random time that I had given him mango’s for dinner and I also put him in hand-me-down PJ’s from Jonathan…well one of the 2 things or both made his entire trunk (middle section) break out in a rash. It took a couple days to heal. I am not sure which did it, so we took away the PJ’s and no more mango's for him!
·I would say his two favorite foods are the baby oatmeal and baby yogurt! He will yell at me if I am not getting it to his mouth fast enough.
·He does have a personal time limit on how long he will sit in his high chair and the alarm he sets off when he has had it can get rather annoying. J
·He likes feeding himself some finger foods, but we have to be careful. We had a choking incident on Christmas Eve and thank GOD Aunt Amy knew the infant Heimlich maneuver! I was scared out of my mind! Thankfully all is well with little buddy! We just are going a bit slower with how many fingers foods he gets now.
Messy Eater, but I'm not complaining!
Teeth:
·He cut his 2 front bottom teeth on his 5 month birthday. Both at the same time! Ouch! He handled it pretty well! He was only fussy for a day or so.
·He cut his 2 front top teeth the week that he turned 8 months (the week after Christmas). And yes, both at the same time again. These 2 were more painful than the first.
·He is now, at 8.5 months, cutting his top 2 side teeth; sorry their actual names escape me now. But I find it so interesting that they keep coming in pairs, all of Jonathan’s came in separately.
Brotherly love! Words cannot describe how much they love each other.
General Health:
·Poor Benny Bear has now finishing the 6th round of antibiotics for ear infections. He had his first ear infection when he was about 3 months and he has had one a month ever since and he has had 2 this month alone!
·He has been a pretty awesome sleeper for the most part since he was born, but with all these infections and teeth, it really effects his sleeping. I really hope that we have healthier and more restful days in our future.
·We have an appointment later this month to discuss tubs for his ears. I will keep you updated.
Sleeping Beauty!
I love how his lips curl up!
Things Ben loves:
·His favorite person in the whole world is his big brother! I mean it is the coolest thing as the mom of these 2 boys to watch them together! They love each other equally and I know their bond will only grow as they get older! Crossing my fingers it stays this way!
·He loves his Daddy! Back when he was 5.5 months, I was up early in the morning with Ben. I had just changed his diaper, strapped him to his changing table and left the room to wash my hands. While I was in the bathroom I distinctly heard Ben say, “Hi Ya, DaDa”! I stopped and ran back in there, and to my surprise, because I didn’t hear him go in there, Michael was standing right there! So I asked him, “Did he just say what I think he said?” And with a big smile, Michael said, “did you hear, hi ya, DaDa?” – Wow! And he has said it at least a dozen more times and only when Michael is around. Crazy! He hasn’t said any other words just yet.
·I am pretty certain that my boy loves me. J We cuddle and snuggle. We have our own little language. He has recently started crying when I leave the room. Or when I have been gone running errands and Michael stays home with the boys and the second I walk in he starts crying…I think that means he loves me!
·He loves it when I sing, especially “When you’re happy and you know it!” He is so funny and starts dancing!
Jonathan teaching Ben how to talk on speaker phone with daddy!
