Brett & Kirsten: 4 Years and a trip to Austin

Brett and I celebrated our 4th anniversary last month. We have a tradition of taking a weekend get-away each year in lieu of buying presents. So far in our marriage we've enjoyed trips to Park City, Las Vegas and Galveston Island. This year our destination was Austin Texas! Having a baby tag along on the trip does make things more complicated but I'm glad we put in the effort to keep the tradition alive. More on the trip in a moment.

For our anniversary we also made a parenting first and hired a babysitter. We have left Brooke with family and a close friend before but this was our first time calling up a Young Woman from the ward and having an official date night. Brett and I enjoyed dinner at a local Japanese Steakhouse (its like dinner and a show at those places!) and Brooke enjoyed playtime with the babysitter. Win-win all around.

We pushed our trip to Austin to the following weekend so we could reap the benefits of an extended holiday weekend away from work. We left after Brooke woke up from her afternoon nap on Friday and drove the 3 hours without any real issues. Brooke entertained herself in the backseat like a champ and only got a little fussy at the end. I fed her cheerios and baby puffs until we found a place for dinner and then finished the last 20 minutes to our motel. What an amazing change from the baby who couldn't even make it to the doctors office without crying just a few months ago.

I was kind of worried about Brooke's schedule on the trip but she did great at staying up longer, napping less and late bedtimes. Once Monday came it was definitely catching up to her and we had to spend some time getting back on schedule once we got home, but it was easier than I expected and so worth it!

Crawling on the big bed in the motel

On Saturday the weather was rather uncooperative and rained off and on most of the day but we still did some fun things. We ate lunch at the famous taco truck "Torchy's Tacos."

Then we went to Zilker park. We wanted to ride the miniature train with Brooke but it was closed due to the rain. Instead we just walked around and saw the free little exhibit they had about...um...water or something. I can't really remember. Whoops.

Then we met up with my friend Tausha and her daughter Harmony. They took us to this cool pedestrian bridge where we happened upon some awesome slack-lining. Apparently I didn't get a picture of the action (Brett got videos you can see on his facebook page) but here they are setting it up.

The view was great and despite the rainy and windy conditions there were some people enjoying the water.

Then we went back to Tausha's place for nap time and she was gracious enough to babysit Brooke while Brett and I went out on a date. We had dinner. Yum Yum. And then walked around the mall a bit and stopped in the Brookstone store to test out their massage chairs. They are fabulous BTW. Then ended up at another restaurant for some dessert. Thanks again Tausha!

Sunday was pretty low key. We went to church with Tausha and then spent the day at her place eating yummy food, playing games and catching up. Tausha came to visit us back in January and it was fun to see how much both kids had grown in 4 months. Although we failed to get a picture of them together from this trip :(

Houston January 2013

Monday we went for a "hike" up Mount Bonnell and enjoyed the beautiful views.

King of the stairs!

We let Brooke nap for a bit and then grabbed some lunch at Chuy's and hit the road. Brooke even tried to convince us to let her drive us home.

The trip back involved a bit more crying but less than we expected. And after all the crying Brooke even slept for about half an hour, so that helped.