Keep Austin Weird

Having just returned from my brothers wedding in Austin, I was reminded of how un-cool Charlotte is...or maybe how cool Austin is. Not that I dont love Charlotte. It is the perfect place to raise a family, it is safe, it is absolutely beautiful...but it is not "cool." Austin on the otherhand, is a great mix of amazing music, hippy, green, cowboy, organic, retro, modern, and a college town. It is also a town of (seemingly) "in shape" people. Lance Armstrong definitely has a bike following there. I cant even count the number of women I saw over the age of 40 with biker legs and cut arms.

We spent a large amount of time consuming beef (as we usually do in texas),Tex-Mex,and beer. Jeremy discovered a place called "Frank Groceries" where he got a bloody mary which took him about 45 min to describe to me. He, Nathan, my dad, and our old army friends, spent the better part of the morning there. The bloody mary came with bacon in it, in addition to a jalapeno, cheese and olive... Jeremy also had dark chocolate covered bacon to wash down his fajita with. Immediately afterwards, they somehow found room in their stomachs for ice cream.

The wedding was amazing. We loved seeing Colin and Misty and all their friends. We stayed until 1230 am (late for me) dancing and enjoying our family. On our way back to the hotel, I was exhausted. Jeremy and Nathan decided this would be the perfect time for pizza. So we drove though downtown Austin, sat in traffic (yes, traffic at almost 1am) and got the pizza....it made me realize how far I am from college when I saw a group of people coming out of a parking deck, to BEGIN their night.

The next morning, we tried to go to Frank's again, but they were not open. What were we thinking??? It was 9am. Whe should have stopped by at 2am. They were open then.

Boarding the plane, I was very excited to see the boys, to see Charlotte, and to know, no matter how old I get, Austin will always be weird.

what porter eats

i would like to say this dirt is from outside...but alas, he licked it off the kitchen floor.



I have been meaning to post for awhile about the many items I have located in my third childs mouth. I know all babies mouth things, but this seems to be Porters strong point. This morning, I have already found him sucking on batteries he somehow got out of the sound machine. Yesterday at the beach, he spent a fair amount of time sucking on a seashell full of sand like it was a sugary lollipop. I suppose with Keller I would have freaked out and googled all the items that have entered his digestive tract, but experience has lessened my concern. I can spot from across the room when P is sucking on something. He gets this intense look on his face and a purse to his lips. My routine is to go squeeze his cheeks together and the enticing item usually pops right out.. One day I saw him crawling past me at full speed with Jeremy's dirty underwear in his mouth. Later that day, I had changed his diaper then ran to strap C in the van, by the time I returned to retrieve Porter, he was sucking on the diaper...nice.

P's first time to taste salmon, cornbread, cookies and raisons have all been grazing under the chairs of his brothers
He loves the food but is not scared to try more organic items like dirt, seashells, rocks (a favorite), sand clumps and leaves. By far the most disturbing thing I have found in his oral cavity happened at the park one day. I noticed the lips beginning to purse and cheeks suck inward...I ran over did my cheek squeeze and out slides an old cigarette butt...nice one P.