June 28, 2012: Austin, Florida, and DADDY!

I have been MIA on the blog, because for about a week this month I was MIA!  First, our friends Liz and Drew flew into town and then drove with us to Austin for our mutual friend, Kate's wedding.  Here I am flanked by Bryn (which means "Hill") Elizabeth and Elizabeth Hill :)  So yes, Liz refers to her as baby Hill...

 Drew and Liz were Liam's first babysitters when he was just a few months old...guess he didn't scar them too much since they are still around almost 4 years later :)

Thanks to Mal/Dal, who kept the kids, we had a great weekend in Austin.  Friday night we hit up some bars and food trucks...

One of my favorite parts was canoeing in Town Lake on Saturday.  It was perfect weather and it's definitely a cool juxtaposition of city/nature...

 Saturday night at the wedding was a mini-LA reunion seeing Lindsey, Annie, Kevin, Kate, Drew and Liz...among other TX friends.

 We had so much fun!  Although we didn't make it very long on 6th street, I did get a Best-Wurst before ending the night :)

We drove back from Austin on Father's Day to be with the kids.  We had a nice afternoon and attempted to go the Rough Riders game with Mallie and Dallie...but as you can see it rained on us...the whole time...

The kids lasted about an hour and then we headed home...we were a little wet, but I'll take it over 100 degrees!

 The kids gave Nick his cards they colored...

And what did we get our amazing, wonderful Daddy??

 18,000 bees!  Well actually we REMOVED 18,00 (the estimate by our beekeeper) bees that had taken up residence in our tree...

 Yes he literally scooped up the huge mass of them in a USPS mailbox...

 Happy Father's Day Nicky!  We love you so much...more than all the honey...from all the bees...in all the yards :)

Towards the end of June, I had a first.  I went on a vacation...without the kids...and without Nick.  Just me and my best girls from high school (-Jess who couldn't make it).  I had 5 glorious days in Sea Grove, Florida on the Gulf shore.  We had an awesome beach front condo...

 Our view...

 Our beach for the week...I do miss Santa Monica, but not so much the actual beach or water.  LA's got  nothing on these beautiful white beaches with clear water....

It's so rare for us to all get together, and we had such a great time catching up.  Love that these are the girls who saw me through bad break-ups, bad choices (eyebrow ring??), and so many other fun memories.  Although this trip was pretty different from our Spring Break '99 to PCB, it was still fun...and much more relaxing...and no fake IDs necessary :)  15 years and still going strong....

Big thanks to Nick, Mallie, Meha, and Linds who all stepped up to help out with the kids while I was gone.  Liam was recovering from a sinus infection and Bryn had croup which turned into bronchitis (all thanks to our rainy baseball game) which seemed to peak while I was gone.  Even though they were a little under the weather and sleep-deprived, they did manage to have some fun...

It was a great vaca, but man was I excited to see them at the airport!!

I can't thank my family enough for taking such good care of the kids even though it wasn't under the easiest circumstances.  Now that Mommy is home, household is back in order, and kids are healthy, maybe I should mention that we decided to make this an annual girls trip?  :)