Austin Paustin Puddin and… Hey Cupcake!

So what if the above doesn’t rhyme! If you’ve ever been to Hey Cupcake then you understand.

Yes, I think I may be their biggest cheerleader! –In spirit, not size…though if we lived closer for longer I may hold both of those titles!

We’ve got icing, yes we do!! we’ve got icing! How about you?!? GOOOOO HEY CUPCAKE!! (TM)

Okay, I’m coming down off the S and I’m ready to focus…

So we’ve ended another AMAZING, exciting, and queso covered stint in Austin. We had some crazy weather, some visitors, some amazing food (from both our regular spots as well as some new ones), and created some beautiful memories with our local peeps! Let me start there with our Austin “family”. Each year we spend most of our time with the Blewett’s. They are –follow me here– Matt’s mom Donna’s BFF Penny’s kiddo Evan and his wife Tabby and their girls Lily & Lotus. Got that?

Or simply our Austin Family.  We still spent most of our time with them laughing, eating, watching Big Bang Theory, and plotting our future compound, but we were lucky this year to get to spend some time with 2 other friends too.

One is a nomadic (and high energy, fun loving, aerial dancing) friend of ours from the road, Ayo. Though we barely got any time with her at all, the time we did get were some of my highlights. You can read about all of Ayo’s antics and passions here. We had the honor of visiting her church (she’s in the choir), touring her home, and sharing a quick lunch with her. Sounds pretty vanilla right? Yeah, until I tell you that she’s this funky little Jewish woman who’s church is a predominantly black Methodist church (she had to audition for the choir with a hymn –she didn’t know what a hymn was). Her home is a Co-Op with 17 people in 12 rooms (she’s in her RV parked in the back between a converted bus and a temporary tent, and our lunch was cut short because she had to run to her trapeze class!! This girl is on fire!! (Plant that in your head for a few hours. If you don’t know the song, YouTube it and learn it. That’s an order Soldier!) I could go on and on about my adoration of Ayo and her enthusiasm for life, but I want to focus on our church experience.

Matt grew up Methodist, and I love to attend his mom’s Methodist church with her when we’re in the WA area. But this church was something else entirely! AND I LOVED IT!! I had only seen church like this in movies. There was preaching like you can’t believe, women fanning other women because the spirit had moved them to the point of shouting their praise, singing solos that got the congregation on their feet with hands waving and booties swinging. The atmosphere was so contagious that if I hadn’t been holding Siena (who was a sleeping angel through the entire thing) I would have been standing and shouting “PRAISE JESUS!” right along with them. (Note: Matt was not holding a sleeping baby, but felt no such desire.) When Ayo asked us how this compared to our experience with church (remember, she’s Jewish so this is her only interaction with a Christian church) Matt laughed and explained that after the songs we usually just sit down and wait for the peacefully delivered sermon. This was very different than that -and again, I LOVED IT and I LOVED getting in some Ayo time!

Our other Austin friend is Yair. He is also a former Full Timer like ourselves. And so when he left the road and was looking to rent a home in Austin he was naturally drawn to a place that had a giant concrete slab next to the driveway. Perfect for a 24′ RV!! When we weren’t in Cedar Park with Tabby & Evan this is where you’d find us. This gave us plenty of Yair/Bratt time. We shared some meals, walked around a bit, caught some Honk! TX, and went to his Power Lifting Competition (Grrrrr!! Muscles flexed). He won a second place medal!! Go Yair!! ;) He also took us to a really delish food truck. Austin is known for these but our experiences up until this year were “meh”. It’s fun, but the food was not great and usually over priced. Yair started our quest for better food trucks this year by introducing us to Hey!… You Gonna Eat or What? YUMMY!! The Chef delivered our Monte Cristos, gave us the scoop on what we were about to eat and how he made it, then checked in later to make sure we loved it. We did! We also loved: Phatso’s, Gordough’s, and Ms. P’s Electric Cock.

Lets see… Oh! We had visitors in Austin too. First were the Tallals. They came down from the Dallas area for my bday!! We ate pizza at like midnight and waded around Barton Springs basking in some TX sunshine. It was a great visit! Then my mom came out for just under a week. She’s been hearing us go on and on about Austin for years now so it was exciting to show her what we love. We sent her back to San Diego about 10lbs heavier (sorry Mummsy) after a truly fantastic visit. (The highlight of which may have been handing Siena over early each morning and letting them bond while I slept…next to Matt…with no baby between us…or on me…peacefully…for at least an hour!! Ah, bliss!).  And though they weren’t exactly our visitors, it was also really great to get to spend time with the Blewett’s extended family.  Penny (remember, from above?) & Bill came to visit along with Nick (Evan’s brother) and his beautiful and pregnant wife Cynthia.  (I have a deep deep love for Cynthia not only because she reminds me of the sheer joy of being pregnant, but also because she makes the worlds best chocolate covered caramels!  Seriously!)

Siena Banan Monkey Face (C4FWRQ4EQ <— who typed this) enjoyed her first taste of Austin.  She continues to grow and developing her mad skillz every day!    We pulled into Austin with a teeny infant and pulled away with a genuine baby.  In the three weeks we were there Siena found her toes and began sucking on them, she rolls around a lot, she can stand on her own, pull herself up on things.  She mobile (but not yet crawling) and can “climb” over Mommy Leg Mountain, reach for us, acknowledge us and familiar faces vs. strangers.  Her “talking” has broadened to include squeals, the “th” and “f” sounds (2 of her favorites), and i think we have officially begun teething!  Whew!!  We are in her 5th month of life on the outside.  It’s crazy to think that she’s been in my arms shorter than she was in my belly, and even crazier to think of how much development has happened in these 5 months!!

Well, that about sums it up.  Austin 2013- CHECK!! Until we meet again in 2014 KEEP IT WEIRD AUSTIN!!

XO

Breezy