JAMSquared

Last Saturday afternoon was Aspen’s baptism. It was held at 4 PM at St. Theresa Catholic Church. I’d never visited that church before and the stained glass window behind the alter was gorgeous. Aspen did really well and it was a very nice ceremony. Unfortunately, I didn’t take as many pictures as I normally would as I was helping Julia out by taking photos with her camera.

Apparently, it was more interesting to look at her Aunt Sarah than smile at the camera.

Since Brian was keeping Cameron occupied and Sarah was the godmother, James held Trevor since Jessica was happy to play in her carrier for the majority of the ceremony.

Here’s my cutie pie with her Daddy. Doesn’t she look fancy in her party dress?

Earlier in the day, Jason and Julia held a cook-out to celebrate the day’s big event. I’m glad I was able to help out by bringing dessert (blog post on that to come). I think the party started right after Aspen woke up from her nap. She still looks a little sleepy in this photo, but it was such a great photo of my Mom.

Jessica fought and fought naptime that morning and so she was kinda sleepy at the party. We actually ended up leaving to take Jessica home for a nap before the baptism.

After Aspen’s baptism, my parents, Sarah and her family and us went to eat dinner at BJ’s Restaurant. Jessica did pretty well, considering she didn’t get a morning nap and only got a relatively short afternoon nap. Here we are waiting for our table. The wait wasn’t too terribly bad since we called ahead.

Sunday morning before Sarah and her family left, Trevor and Jessica got to play together. For some reason, Jessica really liked holding his ear. She does like to grab my ears too for that matter.

This is a pose that we’ve begun to see a lot of recently. This makes bow wearing difficult, because the bow typically goes where her hand is located.

We then went and had breakfast tacos at Torchy’s Tacos before they headed out of town to go home.

Last Saturday, we took Jessica to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I really like visiting the Wildflower Center. It is always so pretty. You can see pictures from my other trips to the Wildflower Center here and here.

I was excited to get some pictures with Jessica and the bluebonnets. She seemed to really enjoy the bluebonnets and other wildflowers. She also liked the little mini waterfall at the pond and kept looking at it.

These yellow flowers are called Engelmann’s Daisy (Engelmannia peristenia).

We had a really nice relaxing weekend. Our friend Justin came to visit. He currently lives in Moore, Oklahoma. The last time he saw Jessica, she was only two weeks old.

Justin and I started a puzzle Friday afternoon during Jessica’s nap. We finished up that night. It was fun. It’s been quite a while since I worked a puzzle. We actually started a second one on Saturday, but it is a much harder puzzle and isn’t quite finished yet.

Saturday morning, we took Jessica to the Austin Zoo. We had lots of fun. The last time we went was over five years ago. The zoo, a  non-profit rescue facility, is making great strides in becoming a full-fledged zoo. Although, I will say, it is not a very stroller friendly zoo. The pathways are fairly uneven and there are lost of quasi-steps (timber posts every so often). A plus is that the zoo is in the hill country and has lots of shade, which is great for visitors and even better for the animals.

I can’t wait until Jessica is old enough to enjoy the zoo more, as she slept most of the time we were there. I know she will get a kick out of the petting corral.

On Sunday, we took a walk to the playground. The weather all weekend was super nice.

And yes, Jessica looks sleepy in that last picture. She fell asleep on the way home.

As most of my faithful blog readers know, James and I play World of Warcraft, a massively multi-player online game. Our small guild consists mostly of friends here in Austin, but we have a small number of guildies who live elsewhere. Back at the beginning of May, Mona and Dean, who both live in the San Francisco area, and Eric, who lives in Atlanta, came to visit. We had a lot of fun visiting, doing touristy Austin stuff, and of course talking about WoW.

Friday night, we went to Salt Lick so our visitors could experience true Texas barbecue. Then we played pool and hung out at Aric’s house. I think we had enough non-WoW conversation that my friend Kristy, Aric’s wife and lone non-WoW player, wasn’t bored with us.

Saturday started off pretty early (well early for me who typically sleeps until 10 or noon Saturdays) with Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake followed by visiting the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. It was too late for bluebonnets and a tad too early for the cacti blossoms, but it was beautiful and the weather was really nice.

For lunch, we went to the Alamo Drafthouse, an Austin movie theater original that serves food and beverages (what other theater can you buy and drink beer at?) and saw X-Men Origins: Wolvervine, an excellent movie. Then we visited the Texas Capitol. I totally think no visitor to Austin should skip this attraction. The Capitol is a beautiful building constructed of Texas granite and completed in 1888. I especially love the dome: outside with the lady liberty at the top, inside from the ground floor looking up or inside from the 2nd or 3rd floors looking down at the five different Texan crests in the marble floor.

Afterward, we went back to our house where I put Dean and Ranger to work (they offered) helping me prepare the food for the guild party, which was a lot of fun.

On Sunday, we went to Mount Bonnell, the highest point in Austin (which isn’t saying much). You do have some nice views of the Austin downtown skyline and Lake Austin, but the views weren’t quite as good as I remembered. Of course, since the last time I was there was almost 6 years ago when James proposed, tree growth and euphoric romantic feelings could bias my memories.

We then had lunch at Texadelphia, another Austin original that serves a Texas version of the Philly cheesesteak. We then checked out the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. It was the first time James and I had gone there even though it opened in 2001. I really enjoyed the museum, especially the special exhibit about immigration through the port of Galveston (ya’ll know my love of genealogy). It is definitely a museum that I would enjoy spending some more time visiting. Keep in mind photography is not allowed. It is also home to Austin’s only IMAX theater.

After dropping Eric off at the airport, we went to Chuy’s, another Austin original (we can’t take guests to any old restaurant) where we chowed down on excellent Tex-Mex and chatted with current and former guildies (it is sad to say, but people do come and go in the land of WoW).

James dropped Mona and Dean off at the airport Monday morning before work and our weekend came to a close. It was a great weekend and it is safe to say that Mona, Dean and Eric enjoyed their trip to Austin.

Our friends Aric and Ranger have birthdays one day apart at the end of June. We finally celebrated last Saturday (first Aric and Kristy were out of town, then Ranger and Clarisse). We went to eat dinner at the downtown location of Mongolian Grille, which serves decent Mongolian barbecue. For those who don’t know what Mongolian barbecue is, you fill a bowl with a wide selection of veggies (or only carrots if you’re my husband), meats, and noodles; top it with a sauce you make (a ladle of soy sauce, a ladle of this, a ladle of that) and maybe an egg or two. Then you hand it to a chef and he cooks it up on a big round grill/griddle.

After dinner, we went back to our house and ate cake and of course sang to Ranger and Aric.