Austin Trip

The Riveras became really good friends just before we moved from Austin :( but it's been wonderful to spend time with them during both of our trips back to TX! Lucas loves playing the part of little brother with them and both kids are so amazingly sweet and thoughtful towards him. We miss you guys!

Yum! Breakfast at the Rivera house is always lovely.

Special delivery! Just a photoshop photo. We didn't really pull Sophie up to the playloft in a bucket- but wouldn't that be a fun ride? :)

Austin!

I sadly never noticed how fun and quirky and interesting Austin really is until we moved away and came back as visitors! Here's an art installation put up for the month of April: pianos were left in random places throughout the downtown area for passerby to sit down and play!

And a fun idea graffitied across a bridge. Yes! Let's pretend we are robots! Lucas would love to!

And this really tattooed guy isn't all that much of an attention-getter to an Austinite, but he caught MY eye after being in much more conservative Charlottesville for 6 months!

Here Lucas is lounging with his two favorite friends. We miss you, Ellie and Isaac!

We also went to visit our old favorite destination for shopping, eating and playing: Central Market! We met up with Lucas' old friend Rand while there. Rand's mom and I used to swap babysitting every week.

And we brunched with the Robinsons and Ami at our favorite Mexican restaurant at the Triangle. Look how incredibly pale-skinned Sophie is here! I think she must have either red-headed Brady genes or Laith's mom (Karen's) fair and blond genes!

Mike and Olivia
Becca and Olivia
Check out those Michelin fat rolls! She's so cute and chubby I could just eat her!

Our first night back in Austin I attended my friend Cheasty's rehearsal dinner. It was Texas-themed, meaning she asked all the guests to dress up as whatever they thought of when they thought of Texas. We had Willie Nelson, a TX sheriff (the groom!), and a TX beauty queen (Kate- whose hair would have been teased much higher if it hadn't been for the heat and humidity... how do you do it Dallas girls?)

Here's Cheasty with her sister

My friends Kari and Kate were there (Kari is the one who introduced me to Cheasty) so that was fun catching up with them too!

Overall a fun-filled, busy visit. See you again at the end of May, Austin! :)

The Vincents visit Meemom and Uncle Paul!

The kids did amazingly well on the plane until we hit the bedtime hour. Let's just say we learned the hard way that we need to book morning flights for any future travel! My mom and Paul put us up in a beautiful comfortable hotel the first night and we all got great sleep and were ready to play early the next morning! First we hit the Tucson Air Museum. Lucas was enthralled.

Lucas opted not to be in our posed photos. He's been harder and harder to capture on my camera. All the shots you see of him on the blog lately have been of him doing what I've caught him doing or with the camera off to the side of my face while I talk to him!

3 generations of women: Look, we all have the same Ukrainian eyes! :)

Our Tucson tradition: painting the river rocks that surround the pool. It will be fun to compare how these have changed as Lucas gets older.

Uncle Paul can rip a phone book in half!!! Don't mess with this guy! :)

Lucas gives it a try. Hmmm. Maybe when he's a "bigger boy".

Photos from around the house...

Baby Blue Eyes

Thanks for the lovely visit, Mom and Paul! We had so much fun and hope we didn't wear you out too much! :)

Tucson Visit

I've been so tired lately- so these next several blog posts are going to be short on written content. I think the pictures tell the story very well on their own anyway! :)
We had a fantastic visit with Meemom and Uncle Paul. It gets more and more fun to visit as Lucas gets older and can do more activities...
Like swimming,

And goofing around,
and playing in a tent (or eating a banana in a tent, as the case may be)

enjoying Paul's new puppy, Ryder,
painting rocks for the poolside border,
and sitting in the cockpit of the airplane on the ride home!
We had a great time Mom and Paul! We look forward to your visit in the fall when our baby girl arrives! :)