the austin bucket list
two weeks from today we will be in michigan. happy mother's day to me! i can't believe our time in austin is coming to a close so quickly. i have a (crazy) week and a half left of work. i've shed some tears in my temporary office already. ha. i got all choked up at church this morning when david asked if i wanted to say hi to anyone after service. all i could think of is this may be the last time i see x person. and i ended up just bolting for the nursery to pick up sabina before i became a ridiculous puddle of tears. this is such an emotional process! so bitter sweet. there are many many things i will miss about our lives here. and also many things i am looking forward to that await us in michigan. there are things i will not miss about austin (traffic. oh. my. goodness.). and there are things i am not so looking forward to in michigan (winter, for one).
to try to maximize the time we have left, we made a short austin bucket list. this weekend we knocked three items off of our list (go us!):
1. franklin bbq
2. emma long metropolitan park with friends
3. andy's frozen custard
saturday david and i spent most of the day with friends of ours in east austin. we started out by dropping david at franklin bbq around 8:00am to wait in line with our friend for the most amazing bbq on the face of the earth. that's right. yes. it is. the guys waited five and a half hours for this bbq, and in the meantime the girls hung out around our friends' house while bina napped and the dogs did some yard and house exploring. when bina woke from her nap we hit up a local garden shop, sherwin williams, and west elm. i got to meet my current favorite artist, eli halpin, who was showing her work at west elm. it was a fun morning/early afternoon! we reconvened at about 1:30pm when the guys were able to get the bbq. and then we feasted in our friends' backyard. bina enjoyed her first brisket. and now nothing else will ever be as good. ha. franklin bbq: check.
after we finished eating we rolled ourselves back into our car and out to emma long metropolitan park for a three mile hike. we packed our family (including the dogs) and our friends and their gorgeous husky into our car. it's more fun when you're all together. it's been raining quite a bit but saturday it was nice and sunny out and the perfect temperature for hiking. the trail at emma long hops back and forth across the creek that runs through it. usually you just get your shoes a little wet unless you fall in. but this time. the creek was like a raging river. ok. maybe i'm exaggerating a bit. but there was absolutely no way the shoes were staying dry. the water was up to shin deep. this of course did not deter the dogs. they happily frolicked up and down the trail and the creek as we hiked.
david, aka super dad, carried bina in the fabulous kelty kids back pack we found on craigslist for about two hours as we completed the hike. my shoulders were hurting by the end and i wasn't carrying a thing. very thankful for my husband and was proud of him for toughing it out with his happy little hiker hanging out on his back. bina enjoyed the hike thoroughly. i think the dogs enjoyed it the most, as usual. it's so fun to see them in their element and running free (we had their e-collars on, but the park is off leash so they're allowed roam). jake likes to attack the water because he thinks it is alive. whenever there are little rapids along the creek he turns into psycho dog, growling at the water and trying to bite it. meanwhile bella is right beside or behind him monitoring the situation. she is like his wingman on the trails. unwanted wingman, but wingman nonetheless.
we will miss emma long. the trail and the creek it winds through are absolutely perfect for the dogs. they love every minute of it, which makes me love every minute of it. and we will especially miss sharing the trail with our friends who introduced us to it, and their husky. we've made several trips out there since we met our friends and it's always a blast no matter what the conditions. i'm thankful for the time we've had with them and the fun memories and photos and videos we will take with us! emma long metropolitan park with friends: check.
today we ate our leftover bbq from yesterday for lunch. so much meat. i think i need to eat fruit and veggies for the rest of the week now. ha. and what better way to top off bbq than with some andy's frozen custard?! we first experienced andy's in springfield, missouri where david and i went to college. amazing, amazing stuff. my favorite is the straw-anna (frozen custard with strawberries and bananas). simple, yet delicious. we missed andy's while we lived north of boston for three years and one day we were talking with some friends from church and mentioned it and how much we missed it, and they informed us that there was an andy's frozen custard in the town just north of us. WHAT. we had lived here TWO YEARS before finding this out. TWO YEARS. TWO YEARS WITHOUT ANDY'S FROZEN CUSTARD WHEN IT WAS JUST NORTH OF US. criminal. anyways. so we have frequented andy's frozen custard since we discovered it lives in round rock. and today we hit it up one more time with the whole family in tow (bella featured below, pouting because she didn't get to eat any). andy's frozen custard: check.
the last item on our austin bucket list is hopdoddy. so we will probably be hitting that up next weekend. i cannot believe we have one weekend left in austin. we'll be finishing up our packing as we prepare for the movers to come a week from thursday. sunday afternoon we are having a little get together of friends. and then i will have three days left of work before officially launching off on this new adventure of being a stay at home mom.
oh austin. we love you and the friends we have found here, the dogs we picked up here, and they baby we birthed here. we will miss you so very much. you'll always have a special place in our hearts.
