We had such a great time last week—-as most of you know we spent 8 days in Austin, TX for Thanksgiving. We decided last year that we would start our own traditions at Christmas and instead of driving like idiots for a very short visit with our families in Ohio we selfishly are blocking out Thanksgiving week for just Chris, Beth Ann, Micah and Aaron. We started last year with a trip to Amelia Island in Florida, rented a condo we found on VRBO.com and had a great time (other than the ant biting incident that Micah and I encountered during our “Mom-mandatory” beach photo shoot.
This year I found a delightful vacation rental in Austin on the website HomeAway.com. After a lot of searching and emailing owners back and forth we decided on a 1930’s bungalow at Eponymous Gardens. http://www.eponymousgarden.com/ What a GREAT choice!!! We so totally enjoyed the experience there. From the comfy quaint house with tons of electrical outlet strips ( A must for this family!!!), to the comfy beds, to the marvelous gardens and spa–it was a great place to chill. I spent a good deal of my week just sititng on the back deck reading my Kindle! That is pretty much my idea of a great time!!! Aaron was able to work for the first 3 days of the week—taking meetings and video conferences usually from the front porch in the sunshine!
There was plenty to walk to—Your Mom’s Burger Restaurant was a huge hit!!! We also walked to the river and did some nice walks there, taking in the sights of the neighborhoods along the way. Definitely some neighborhoods in transition as in many cities but great architecture and friendly people along the way. We went to Bess Bistro for a fabulous dinner–Sandra Bullock’s restaurant. And of course we had to go to Micah’s favorite place—Tacodeli—–which was fabulous as always!
Thanksgiving brought us to Micah’s house and we had an untraditional (for us) feast of brisket with all the “traditional” Thanksgiving trimmings. It was fabulous! That evening we went to the Texas Texas A &M football game. What a great stadium!!! Fabulous! But it was so cold that even with our newly purchased Texas hoodies we opted to leave early. Poor Aaron has no body fat whatsoever and I think it took him the rest of the week to warm up!
Once again I realize how blessed we are. We have two of the best sons in the entire world. No joke. I don’t know how it happened but somehow in our parental fumbling we got something right and for that I am thankful! When you have kids you don’t quite know what they will turn out to be and after all the football games, band concerts and FBLA meetings that you tote them to you wonder what they will turn out to be as adults. Well…..we are blessed! Micah is successfully pursuing his career with Johnson and Johnson and doing extremely well after his graduation from UNC-Chapel Hill. Aaron beat the odds of the 2010 grads of NCSU and landed his dream job with Cisco in Raleigh—it was great to hear him “working” and to see him in that role. I am amazed at both of them.
But perhaps the thing that Chris and I are most thankful for is the fact that we have good relationships with our boys. It isn’t always easy to maintain those relationships when you are thousands of miles away from each other but we have been blessed with technology with enables us to do that! Yay for Skype and cell phones!
So to summarize, as they say, great week, great vacation spot at The Eponymous Gardens in Austin (I would highly recommend this to anyone who is visiting there and needs a great relaxing place with great communication from the owners!) but most of all–great time with the family . My heart is full!!!
