austin weekend

This past weekend we took our friends, the Wrights, to Austin to have a little weekend getaway.

We got in on Friday just in time for dinner, and we headed over to our favorite spot, Verde's.  The kids loved playing in the field with all of the toys while we waited for our table.  We even spotted Jesse James while there.  His daughter was playing outside alongside the kids the whole time, and we had no idea.  Then Knox almost ran into him.  Nice.

I'm mad my camera settings were off the whole time.  All of my pictures were blurry.  This one lends itself to be blurry, though.  They really were running that fast the whole time :)

The next day we decided to make it a pool day.  Since it's still in the 100's in Austin, it was our last hurrah.  We were still cold, but the girls loved it.  Knox decided his new favorite thing to do is to walk on the ledge.  Thankfully Papi was willing to do it with him until he was satisfied.

Although he stopped a few times to take a little dip.

The Wrights have a sweet Labradoodle, Gatsby.  He loved his new surroundings for the weekend.  He's an adorable little guy.

Saturday night, after the kids were asleep, we headed out on the town.  We quickly realized that we're not young anymore and were home by midnight.  We still had a great time.

Thanks, Wrights, for such a fun weekend!

92 and still going strong

My grandmother just turned 92.  Ninety-two.  She's amazingly healthy and fiesty.  Love her for that.

We met her for dinner to celebrate, and she got to meet sweet Holt.

This one is a little blurry, but it's too cute not to share.

We did our best to get a good picture of all of them...but you know how it goes.

Knox wasn't having the best day.  This is the best picture we could get of them together.

And Ms. Olivia LOVES her some Arjorie.

We are so thankful for everything she has done for us, and for all she means to our family!  Love you, Arj, and Happy Birthday!!!

Recently...

We've been busy around here.  As you can see with my lack of posts.

This weekend we were really busy, but it was nice because we were home.  We've  been out of town a lot.  Knox got some new kicks.  He melts my heart in them.

My little skater punk.

We switched to shorts and hit up dad playing some tennis.  He loved getting to stand courtside.

He really loved when dad threw some tennis balls to him while he held the racquet.

He's a pro already.

Later that afternoon, we headed to the Plano Balloon Festival.  We attempted to go Friday night and it was rained out.  Saturday was too windy for the balloons to take off, so we hung out for a while and then left to get Knox to bed on time. 

He loved pointing to the sky divers.

They landed close to us.

Bummer the balloons didn't take off.  I really think Knox would have loved it.  This was as close as we got.

The shoulder ride might have been the highlight of his night.

Love my little "Cars" lover.

The count is 3 and 3

Like I said in this post, Andy and Natalie got their boy.  She started having contractions at 10pm the night before, but waited to come in on her scheduled induction time.  She got her epidural and had him right before noon.  I headed up to the hospital right in time, and was able to snap some of these pics while he was only minutes old.

Daddy and son.

Family of FIVE.  Holy cow.

Proud Auntie!

He's such a muffin:

And his big sisters are already enamored:

So, it's tied up.  3 girls and 3 boys (grandkid-wise).  Who will tip the scales next, and in what direction?

Vail: Day 5

Our last day.  It went by so fast...we had so much fun and tried to soak up the weather as best we could.  Glenda and RP went on a morning bike ride and found this incredible spot, tucked away in the valley.  The Betty Ford Park.  Amazing.  There was a rock garden (pictured below) that you could walk through, with gorgeous flowers and plants every where you looked.  Then at the base there were picnic tables, large areas of grass to play and run around and a nice little playground for the kiddos.  If there's one thing that makes Knox happy it's being outside, so he was in heaven!

This picture just makes me so excited for Fall.  Love his little pinecone treasures.

Not sure when I turned all "nature girl," but I took about 900 pictures of these hummingbirds.  They were flying all around us, stopping to rest and eating the nectar out of the flowers.  So pretty!

Knox loved the playground.  Opposite him in this picture is another little boy on the see-saw.  Of course Stephen and I both took turns as well.  He loved it.

Swings are always a favorite.

And his new favorite:  the slide.  If there's a slide on the playground, you can bet we'll go up and down it about a million times.

We hated to leave the amazing Vail, but were glad to be home.  The locals kept saying the town was like a fairytale, and they are 100% correct.  So glad I got to spend some time there during the summer.  I highly recommend doing it if you get the chance!

Sneak Peek

I'm not good at surprises.  I'm not patient.  At all. 

My brother and his wife were pregnant with their third...under three.  They decided to wait to find out the sex.  Torture (for me).  They have two beautiful girls, and really wanted a little boy.

And he's here.  Finally!

Holt Andrew Kampen

8lbs, 3oz

20.5"

Cute as a button.

Some Vail tricks...

This is his favorite word now.

He loved the "pillow launch" with Aunt Kelly.

Vail: Day 4

Day 4 started much like the others...with a walk.  We headed over to Lionshead (about a 5 min walk) with Knox in the beloved backpack.  He seriously loved that thing.  He pointed at every car, truck and dog and kicked his feet when Stephen would bounce.  Once we arrived in Lionshead he gave Stephen a "high-5."  Guess he figured he had done a good job!

Once in Lionshead we took the gondola up to the top of the mountain.  During the summers, they have "Adventure Ridge," basically a lot of outdoor activities for the kiddos.  While Knox is still too young for all of it, he still enjoyed being a part of it all!

This is the best I could get of us.  He didn't love the gondola at first...

Then he realized he could beat up on Papa and it would be fun!

This view made it all worthwhile, though!  I think if we'd have come just a week or two later, the leaves would have turned and it would be even better!

One of the activities we partook in (because it was free, ha) was the slack rope.  Kelly and I (and Stephen joined in later) tried our hardest to master it.  We got pretty far on a couple (they were about 10-15 feet long suspended between poles), but can't really say we're pros.  Definitely harder than it seems.

Knox's fave?  The pony!

You had to be 3 to ride it.  Sad face.  He would have loved it!

We had lunch on the top of the mountain, and then Mimi and Papa took Knox while the "kids" went mountain biking.

I fell way more than I'd like to admit (some of the trails were HARD!), we laughed hysterically and had a great time! 

We headed home afterwards and got cleaned up for dinner.  The Vail Jazz festival was going on in Lionshead that night, so we grabbed a seat at the pizza joint (Blue Moose Pizza) adjacent to the action and enjoyed the music over dinner!

Doesn't he look so big here?  Sad.

He loved the blue moose, and the lights on his antlers.

After the jazz fest, we met up with my friend from home, Brent!  We've known each other since 6th grade, and he transferred to Baylor our Junior year (and was a Fiji with Stephen).  We were walking in Vail Village the day before and literally ran into him.  Thursdays happened to be his day off, so it worked out perfectly!

I stole this picture from his Facebook..so it's a bit blurry!

Brent is a chef at Sweet Basil, the "it" restaurant in Vail, so he knew someone at every place we went.  He even gave us a pub crawl to see all the hot spots in town...we had a blast!  Such a small world!