Babymoon

Right after Christmas, Jason and I were spoiled with the opportunity to take a vacation together-- just the two of us! Many, many thanks go to Matt and Kim for making this possible by caring for Jaden and Cody during our time away. You guys are wonderful! It was such a joy to eat leisurely meals together, play board games, have complete and uninterrupted conversations, and to sleep in. Our life will change dramatically once baby is born, so we loved having the extended time together before this big life change. For our 3-day "babymoon" vacation, we chose to visit Austin, TX since neither of us had ever explored the city before.

We stayed in a quaint, peaceful bed & breakfast home that was located less than a mile from a lake. The homelike atmosphere was perfect for our un-rushed vacation.

Our portion of the bed & breakfast home were the two rooms pictured below.

We actually never met the owners of the bed & breakfast. They prided themselves on giving their visitors a very quiet, private vacation. Sometime during the day while we were gone, the owners would set out options for our daily continental breakfast on this counter or in the fridge. We were a little disappointed that the breakfast wasn't a larger hot meal, although we did appreciate having no set timetable for breakfast.

We arrived in Austin later in the evening, so we had just enough time to eat dinner at a yummy local pizza shop, unpack at the bed and breakfast, and learn a new board game (Karuba) that we had gotten for Christmas. The next morning was very relaxed. We both slept in (ahh... what a beautiful thing!) and then had a very leisurely breakfast at this outdoor table.

Our first touristy stop was to visit the Mansfield Dam that was nearby our bed and breakfast.

The dam created peaceful Lake Travis, a popular lake for boating and kayaking.

We spent some time walking around this recreational area, enjoying the views of the lake.

We thought of Jaden and Cody right away when we saw this playground area. Jason told me that I needed to give our baby girl a ride down the slide. I compromised by just sitting at the bottom of the slide for a picture. :)

For lunch, we ate at The Oasis, a unique Mexican restaurant overlooking Lake Travis.

The most popular dining areas at the Oasis are tables with a great view of the lake, so the restaurant has a multi-tiered deck with lots of outdoor seating. I've never seen a restaurant quite like it!

This was our view during all of lunch. Just beautiful! Our fajita meal was quite tasty too.

Following lunch, we took a free tour of the Texas state capitol.

an inside view of the dome-- every five-pointed star had the letters
of TEXAS between the stars' points

The interior of the rotunda contains portraits
of Texas governors, as well as leaders of the Republic of Texas.

the  Senate Chamber-- beautiful to still see the Christmas decor!

Even the lighting had to display its Texas pride! Can you
make out the letters of TEXAS in the light bulbs?

one of two large oil paintings in the Senate Chamber:
The Battle of San Jacinto

the second painting: Dawn at the Alamo

a mosaic in the capitol's rotunda depicting the seals of the
six nations that have governed Texas

the Texas House of Representatives chamber

Each desk contained a panel for desktop voting and communication.
The seats were also embossed with the Texas state seal.

the Texas Supreme Court courtroom

the uppermost view of the dome that we could get

After visiting the Capitol, we stopped by some downtown botanical gardens. The gardens would've obviously been much prettier in season, but several sections were still very tastefully done and made our $2 entrance fee worthwhile.

Our next stop was to visit Mt. Bonnell, a tourist attraction that claims to showcase the best views of the city.

In order to see the views, however, you have to be willing to climb the 102 stairs. We had already done quite a bit of walking this day on all of our stops, so I had to take these steps fairly slowly. Baby and I made it up, though! :)

The views of the city and of the Colorado River were worth the climb.

For dinner that evening, we visited The Melting Pot, a new restaurant for us both.

The restaurant earned 5 stars in both of our books! The cheese and chocolate dips were by far our favorite courses. :) We spent some of our relaxed, slow-paced meal discussing possible baby names for our little girl.

That evening, we played a full game of Empire Builder (a game we had never before done in just one sitting). We love this game, Becky and Brian-- thanks again for gifting it to us! :)

 The next day we did an activity that was the highlight of the trip for us both-- an escape room! We weren't allowed to take pictures in the room itself, so this photo booth pic is the only one we have. Jason and I were able to sign up for this escape room as just the two of us, which was much more comfortable than trying to solve a puzzle with strangers but a bit more challenging too. We were cast as FBI agents trying to expose a Russian spy by searching for clues to his true identity in his 1970's era apartment. The puzzles involved multiple gadgets, searching for clues, unlocking multiple locks, and decoding a variety of codes (even one in Russian). It was quite intense. Thankfully, we could radio in to the owner (who was, of course, a guy with a heavy Russian accent) for hints up to 5 times during the course of our hour-long challenge. In the end, Jason and I just barely made it out of the room with 42 seconds to spare. The whole experience made us eager to try out another escape room with more of our family members sometime hopefully soon!

After the escape room, we stopped by IKEA to shop for some bedroom furniture for Jaden and Cody and just to browse a bit too. On the drive home, we were planning to stop at the Blue Bell Factory store in Brenham for some ice cream but unfortunately didn't arrive until after closing time. We still drove by the factory so that we could say we'd seen it. Instead, we stopped by a Panera restaurant for dinner and then picked up our boys. It was a marvelous vacation that recharged us back into our parenting roles again. Thanks so much again, Matt and Kim, for this generous gift of time!!