2009 Adventure #3 - D.L. Jardine's, Buda, TX

For two years, we've driven past D.L. Jardines, a ranch/production area in downtown Buda. We've seen the sign, but we've never ventured down the road to see what was there. Well...today we did and to our surprise, it was a cool little place!

It's a large area with an old graveyard, an old fashioned wagon, and fire pit.

Some of the old graves had fallen apart and were barely readable...

Here is Mason on the wagon.

It has a little store that sells spices, chili mixes, and other Texas style mix-in's, salsas, etc. We purchased the raspberry marinade for our first try... They have a few long-horns and other animals as well.

We were only there about 30 minutes or so...but it is worth stopping by if you are in Buda!

It's on main street in Buda, just East of downtown (old town Buda). They are also building a new Historic Park in that area, but we couldn't get in there since it's still under construction.

Sew, what have I been up too?

I am so proud of myself! I made a Victoria a cushion for the rocking chair and a sleep sack! I just made it up, without a pattern! I think I did a pretty good job!

2009 Adventure #2 - Mighty Fine and Kiddie Acres

Burger and Fries!!!!! YUMM.

Here is the crazy seating! Sooo many people!!

Making the burgers...

Continuing our quest to explore Texas in 2009 (see posting Jan 11), we decided to travel a little North of Austin and try Mighty Fine Burgers and Shakes, a fast food restaurant that we'd heard a lot about (Braker and MOPAC). After that, we went to Kiddie Acres (Howard, just west of MOPAC).
It's been such a nice week (65-80 degrees), so we assumed we'd be okay... Nope. It barely was over 40 degrees all day. But we'd already told Mason about Kiddie Acres so our adventure number 2 was on!
First, Mighty Fine Burgers and Shakes was wonderful! We arrived to a line of probably 50 people, but it moved quick. If you don't mind sitting at crowded picnic tables, with a small selection of food, then this place is great! The burgers were EXCELLENT! Even Mason loved his hamburger. The shakes were made from Blue Bell ice cream. The fries were crinkle cut, made for potatoes right in the store. Anyway, without going on and on, it was worth the trip! We look forward to stopping there again soon!
Next, we ventured over to Kiddie Farms. It's probably a pretty fun place in reasonable temperatures...but riding rides when it's 40 degrees out was even too much for Mason. We lasted about 5 minutes and headed home. Plus, it was kind of expensive.

Adventure #2 was a wash.

Yeah...we were the only ones there...made for short lines!

Trying to fight off the cold so he could ride rides!

That's what he said...

I was getting Mason out of the tub and he looked at me and said "Wow Mommy, that drain is REALLY thirsty"!

That's what he said, and other funnies

Last night as Jes and I were putting Mason to bed he stopped us and with the most inquisitive look on his face asked,"Hey, can we talk about belly buttons for a minute?" We tried, unsuccessfully to stifle our laughter, and said "sure, what do you want to talk about"? He said he didn't know, he just wanted to talk a little about belly buttons. So, we talked about how some people have an "innie" and some have an "outie". That seemed to satisfy him.

Today was swim class day. On the way there Mason fell asleep. I got him out of the car and tried to wake him up, without success. So, I sat him on the sidewalk. I figured he would wake up since he was sitting up. I turned to get Victoria out of the car, and when I turned back around Mason was laying on the sidewalk, in fetal position, fast asleep! It was quite hilarious!

This one was from a while ago, but too funny! Mason told Jes he wanted to watch T.V. Jes turned it on, and the first thing that came on was a commercial for a medicine for genital herpes. Mason looked at Jes and whined "NO! I don't want to watch genital herpes!!!".

2009 Adventure #1 - Boggy Farm

Looking back at 5 years living in Arizona, we regret that we didn't explore more. Granted Jes was in school and Ashlee was running her salon, but we really never saw a lot of what Arizona had to offer. In an effort to avoid that, it's a goal of ours to explore a new area of Austin/Texas each month this year. We've saved newspaper clippings, articles, etc. on areas to explore.

This weekend was our 2009 adventure #1. Based on a newspaper article, we went to Boggy Farm, a local farm outside of Austin. The news article made it sound REALLY neat and interactive. It wasn't. First, it was cold, so standing in the fields looking at growing vegetables wasn't the funnest thing we could be doing. They had chickens and other farm stuff...but really...our house is surrounded by farms. In fact, we buy eggs from the ranch behind us and visit their chickens all the time. The vegetable selection wasn't that great since it's winter...so our adventure number 1 was pretty much a bust.

So we went to the childrens museum instead. Here's the two pictures we did manage to take at the farm.

Where o where could she be?

I went into Victoria's room to check on her. She had been playing on the floor with some toys for a little while. When I entered the room I couldn't see her. I could hear her grunting so I knew she had to be close, besides how far could a 7 month old baby travel on her own??? But, the panicky Mother in me started to fret... where could she be! But, no worries I found her pretty quickly, under her bed!!!

She is rolling around and gets up on her hands and knees and rocks, she is really close to crawling. She can scoot backwards really well, she is all over the place!

Date Night - YES!

Now that the holidays are over, we took a relaxing breath and took the opportunity to have a date night. It didn't involve much except a trip to Barnes and Noble, Hobby Lobby, Olive Garden, and then to a movie, but it was fun to have some adult time (the selection of activities was pre-determined by gift cards we'd received in the past).

We saw the movie, "Yes Man", with Jim Carrey. It was actually pretty funny! It made us think about how often we say "no" to opportunities and while obviously the movie takes it to an extreme, we considered trying to say "YES!" to everything we can for a few weeks. So, if you want to ask us for anything in the next few weeks that we'd normally say no too, now's your chance!!! Of course...we still might say no. It was just a movie....