Austin

For President's Day weekend we drove down to Austin. Because we are not really city tourists we spent most of our time touring the city parks. We walked five miles of the popular water front trail along Lady Bird Johnson Lake.

We shared the trail with cyclists, vacationers with cameras (like us), old couples bird watching, moms and dads jogging with their double strollers (and triple strollers-- didn't know they made them), and swarms of runners. My personal favorite however was the shirtless middle aged men swinging their hips while speed walking. Ryan's reaction to my giggling: "its a legitimate sport and a great workout." Its also pretty funny looking.




We received a great history lesson when we toured the State Capital and the Texas State History Museum.




You know the saying, "you get what you pay for"? I have come to believe that it is true, at least with hotel rooms. Last year, my brother, Jerrad and I paid $35 for a hotel room in Reno. What did we get? -- a room with multiple stains on the carpet (I don't know what they were from---but it didn't look good), intense cigarette smell, and plenty of drunken screams throughout the night.

In Austin, Ryan and I paid a little more for our hotel room. We got free breakfast.The room was adequate-- though I still didn't trust the cleanliness of the floor or sheets enough to lay Gwen on them. We also got thin walls and loud neighbors. One night, we awoke at 2:30am not to our cute Gwen but a loud argument, filled with obscenities, going on outside our window. The cops were called and we didn't go to bed.

Moral of the story: We obviously are not paying enough for our hotel rooms.

Gwen Rolls Over!

Videos Finally!!

I have finally figured out how to upload videos that we have taken. Here is one of Gwen's birth with more to come later (I hope).

3 Months

It is impossible to take pictures of this child right now without having her hands in her mouth. She LOVES them. Who needs toys?

She has learned to roll from her back to tummy. She seems to be quite pleased with herself and has no interest in learning how to roll to her back. In fact, the minute we put her down she rolls over and stays that way. She even insists on sleeping on her tummy. Maybe I'm a bad mom but I can't see the point in going in her room and turning her over every few minutes. So, I let her sleep that way.

She has been such a good little sleeper. After only 4 days of sleep training (with the help of Dr. Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child), she now takes naps during the day, in her own room rather than in my arms, and without crying. I don't know what to do with my new found freedom. Now if we could just get her to sleep on her own during the night. I had one blessed night where she did this a few weeks ago but it must have just been a tease because she now wakes up every 1-2 hours! Yikes! I'm not the most pleasant person to be around now. Poor Ryan.

Some of our favorite things...

Ok, so washing the car isn't necessarily one of our favorite things but a clean car sure is. One of Gwen's favorite things right now (besides eating her hands) is listening to Ryan and I sing and play the guitar. How cute! She must be our child.

Ice Storm in Texas

So we thought that we were getting away from the cold here in Texas but apparantly not. We got in the teens here and the place was a ghost town. Nobody left their homes-- well, almost nobody. Ryan, a native Utahian, courageously (and dangerously, I might add) drove to work 3-4 snow days. He was the only one in the office. That's dedication!

What did Gwen and I do? -- We lounged around the house, drank hot cider, and surfed the internet for new recipes. (I guess that is what I did while Gwen slept). If anyone wants some yummy winter vegetarian casserole ideas, let me know. These were yum!