He loves me, he loves me not

At least for now, Morgan is a mommy's boy. Check out where daddy stands:
http://blip.tv/pelaezfam/i-love-you-this-much-6015004

Y'all come back now, Rich and Jill

On Congress Bridge

 We had a great week with Rich, Jill, Owen, Kyle and Elana. Again, it was filled with lots of eating. But this crowd wasn't just interested in BBQ... I had no idea Jill was such a Mexican food enthusiast! Needless to say, there's no shortage of good places to eat in Austin and we ate out pretty much every meal. The weather was great while they were here and we enjoyed a ton of activities including running the Towne Lake trails (to work off that food!), hiking at Mayfield Preserve, Mt. Bonnell, the Zilker Zephyr train, shopping on First Thursdays, Cowboy Breakfast, the Zilker Kite Festival, and even had a day trip to San Antonio. Little did we know it was Texas Independence weekend so we had the added bonus of seeing reinactors and cannons going off at the Alamo. We also checked out the Riverwalk via a boat tour and happened to find a kid-friendly mechanical bull at Market Square! The kids had a great visit and the older boys all slept together in Morgan's room. After all these visitors, the house feels so quiet!

riding the Zilker Zephyr

 

Live music at the Cowboy Breakfast

Morgan riding the bull, San Antonio

Owen riding the bull, San Santonio

Mariachi band serenading us at Mexican restaurant, San Antonio

Howdy, Kyle!

Crowd at the Alamo (that's an original cannon out front)

Alamo reinactors

Can't believe Elana is almost one!

Zilker Kite Festival

Texas Reunion

face painting from Ruta Maya coffeehouse

Our first in a line of upcoming visitors spent the past week with us here in Austin. My brother Darren, his wife Annie and their son Jonas flew in from Chapel Hill and we showed them the best of Austin including eating, eating, and more eating (sorry Annie to tempt you away from your diet!) Neither of them had been to Austin before, so we happily showed them around town and had lots of fun including live music at Ruta Maya coffeehouse, Stubb's Gospel Brunch, riding the Zilker Zephyr, visiting the flagship WholeFoods, watching the sunset at Mt. Bonnell, BBQ at Rudy's, hiking at Mayfield Nature Preserve, walking up and down S. Congress, ice cream at Amy's, riding bikes to Little Stacey Park, brother/sister bonding playing darts at Clive Bar, dinner with Uncle Steven and Mimi and even an adult night out on Fat Tuesday featuring pre-party flip cup and beer pong at Steven's fraternity house before heading out to 6th St. That was a whole side of Austin Ed and I hadn't seen before. (And if you're wondering, Darren & Steven beat Ed & I at beer pong, but the thirty somethings beat the frat boys at flip cup -- both times)! It was a fun week and great to share the town with family. Morgan enjoyed playing with his cousin Jonas and even asked me this afternoon where Jonas was : )

Darren and Annie, hope you had fun. Thanks for making the trip out here, loved spending time with you guys. Rich & Jill, you're next! See you this Wednesday : )

one of many crowded baths

Austin skyline from Mt. Bonnell

 

storytime with Uncle Darren

Mayfield Preserve

peacocks at Mayfield Preserve

Brotherly Love

They kinda look more like brothers when they cry, don't you think?

In my attempt to snap the "perfect" sweet Valentine's photo, I end up with... well, reality. It was going great until Dean popped Morgan on the head with a train (which made Morgan cry) and then I took the train from Dean and told him "No hit!" (which then made Dean cry). Sigh... Well, Happy Valentine's Day! We went to the Valentine's Party hosted by Stroller Strides at Rudy's BBQ. It was a beautiful 75 degrees (where does this weather come from???) The boys played nice all afternoon when I didn't decide to whip out my camera. Then our friend Siiri hosted us at her new place for dinner. Ed and I will try for a romantic dinner on Thursday.

Resisting A Rest

"Are you sure you're not tired, Morgan?"
"No." (yawn)
"Maybe we could lay in your bed and read a story?"
"No. I wanna play cars." (with heavy eyelids)
"Ok, then you can play for your quiet time..."

30 minutes later there's a boy snoring in the hallway : ) This boy has slept through construction, fallen asleep with books on his face, and now on hardwood floor. And for an hour and a half!

Tipping Point

Dean has reached the tipping point where he now walks more than crawls. Our "Baby" Dean is growing up so fast! He is enjoying his new found abilities and although he still tumbles quite often, he's quick to get up and keep on moving. Check him out in action:

http://blip.tv/pelaezfam/dean-walking-down-hall-5917655

Visit to Maryland

It was great to see family during our brief trip back to Maryland. Most of Ed's family was in town for Linda's 60th Birthday Party Saturday night. She knew that Ed and Morgan were coming, but Dean and I were a surprise. We stayed at Rich and Jill's house (thank you for your hospitality!) and when Linda came over, I just let Dean crawl into the room until she noticed him and screamed in shock. It was fun for the cousins to all play together and Morgan said he just wanted to stay in their basement full of toys when it was time to go back to Texas.

And it snowed! Not much accumulation, more of a rain/ice/snow mix, but it was a change from the temperatures we've been used to.

On Saturday morning, we had a yummmmmmy brunch at Marc and Donna's house. My mom & Tom as well as Darren and Annie were up from North Carolina so it was great to have a partial family reunion. We really miss family, so it was just what we needed.

Thanks to everyone for making the effort to come see us. It was a whirlwind and the kids were troopers between all the planes, layovers, rental car, and traveling from place to place. Next time we will stay longer!

Elana is getting so big!