Surviving the Austin Snowpocalypse

As many of you may know, Austin has survived the Polar Vortex that struck last night. Woooo! Can't say that I wasn't terrified like a child this morning trying to back out of my driveway thinking my jeep was just going to slide right into the neighbors house across the street, but thankfully I did make it to work okay. Phew! ;-)

Today has been quite hilarious and I thought I might share some of the horror stories I've been seeing float around facebook throughout the day regarding how awful our experience with this "snowpocalypse" has been.

Just piles and piles of ice and snow...

This article about the 8 Horrifying Photos of the Austin Snowpocalypse 2014: Perfection. So funny!

Well this weekend is going to be a fun one! We have family coming in town and we are getting to meet baby Rylee (Scott's sister's newborn) for the first time!! We cannot wait to love on her and Raelyn and have our little Christmas one month late. Will be taking tons of pictures. (( #RyleeandRaelyn ))

For today's #backthatazzupfriday, we are jamming to  #TURNDOWNFORWHAT by Lil Jon cause if you know me, you know we always gettin #turntup on Friday night. Link up with Whitney from IWYP to get your weekend started right. Make it a great one friends!!

Ziplining over Lake Travis

As most of you know, this weekend was crazy eventful as I really wanted to make my little sister, Maddie (14 - who has been staying in Austin w/ me for 3wks from Louisiana), and Scott (28- the BF), feel really special as they both celebrated birthdays on Friday and Saturday.

Friday night we had Scott's Birthday Bash, which I posted about yesterday, and today, I've got all the awesome pictures we took while out in the blistering heat beautiful sun and lake!

Saturday morning started early for me as the "event-coordinator", and I got some extra extra strength head-ache medicine and water ready next to our bed for Scottie (yay for curin' the hangover quickly before it starts!) and whipped up the breakfast of champions with some waffles, fried eggs over easy, bacon, with syrup and nutella out for the spreadin'. They were happy campers :-). I made sure to schedule the zip-lining around 3pm so that we could all feel like "sleepin in"/lying around the house during the day being lazy! Also woke up Maddie with some balloons and a card from Huxley. Although Huxley seemed a bit more interested in the balloons than Maddie. It was too funny!

 

We got there about 30 minutes early to get all prepared, and thank goodness we had been drinking water all day because we were in for a huge surprise with allllll the hiking it really was to get to these zip lines!

We did a total of 5 zip lines, all getting longer and faster each time. It was an experience to remember! The last zip line, you got up to 65mph and it stretches over a 1/2 mile directly over the lake (we had many watchers from their boats on the lake - so fun!)

The tour-guides were absolutely fantastic - fun and energetic. Very motivating while you're hiking, and water was provided at every stop/zip line. Overall it was an incredible experience and very worth the $89 per person (although I was bummed I missed the groupon back on OCT that would have made it only $50 but oh well!)

Best part is - after all the zip lining - you have access to a private beach where you are provided tubes, floaties, everything you need to have a great time - the water was perfect and we hung out and unwinded with a cold beer after ziplining. A perfect afternoon. Scott and Maddie had a great time, and that makes it all worth it for me.

Scott is holding up his shoe because we bought those before zip-lining. He LOVES them - they ar the new Apidure (Toe-shoes?) that are perfect for hiking, swimming, etc. They were only 39.99 at Academy which is NOT bad for the comfort and support he had. He said he felt like he was barefoot! I just can't bring myself to wear these toe-shoe things. Looks so weird! lol!

Once we noticed the sun slowly starting to set, we decided to take off and grab a good table ealy at The Oasis on Lake Travis in Austin. It was about 11 minutes away so it wasn't a far drive at all. Scott got Fajitas, Maddie got Fried Shrimp, and me - Shrimp Tacos w/ Baja Sauce. Oh and a cold magarita too. JUST what we needed after a day of workin' out/swimmin!

Look how breath taking the sunset and skyline was...

It was the perfect dinner, we were feelin pretty tired though and headed home for some Huxley time... he was soooooo happy to see us :-) Cuddled up with daddy right away and we watched a movie and I'm pretty sure we were all in bed by 11pm!

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Father's day has been rough on me as this will be the second one I've spent missing my daddy who passed away in October of 2010. His story is here. For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to go to Church where I knew the whole sermon was going to be on dads... I am making it up by attending Church Wednesday evening, but it was definitely hard - and I know it is much harder on Maddie who was only 12 when she lost him so we had an easy morning in the house. Sunday evening I grilled some Steaks, Corn on the cob, Asperagus, with loaded mashed potatos, and we had Scott's dad over to watch the game (for all you Heat fans- OKC will come back strong don't you worrryyy!) and we had a great time. Since Scott's dad had to work on Scottie's bday - I made some homemade brownies and had candles so he felt like he got to celebrate w/ us too.

Ruthie, notice a delicious batch of onion dip half gone? :)
That dip is amaaaazing and was half devoured in 3.2 seconds. Credits to Ruthie Hart for the recipe!

Shrimp Diablo Appetizers (Bacon Jalapeno & Cream Cheese wrapped over Shrimp and grilled)

Huxley made a #1 Fur-Daddy TShirt with paw-prints for Scott for Father's day. He looooooved it!

Well, that was my weekend! Sorry for the abundance of pictures - but I KNOW you enjoyed them! We are still unwinding from all the fun activities and great food. Also a lot of amazing things happening in our little family right now, so stay tuned! God is SO good :-) We are blessed.

Doc's Motorworks Bar & Grill

Yesterday Maddie and I decided to walk down South Congress again for lunch, but most of the trailors were closed! So we walked back right next to my office to another Austin staple called Doc's Motorworks Bar and Grill, and I'm glad we did because it was 1/2 price burgers! They were delicious, but it was so hot outside (thank goodness for those misting fans!) and I could barely finish my burger OR fries.

When we got home we headed to the gym and did a 30 minute tough interval workout on the elliptical before doing some arm workouts, then got some tanning done before dinner.

I had a really hard time sleeping last night! I don't know why, but I was up until about 1:30am completely zoned out on Pinterest, lol, does that happen to anyone else!? So needless to say I'm draggin' this morning with my big ole cup of coffee, but it's gonna be a great day! Oh and guess what!??

1 follower away from hosting my big giveaway! I'm going to plan on it being the first week of July!! I'm so pumped and so thankful to have met and become close with so many of you! Thank you for your readership & I can't wait to give back! xo

Here are our fabulous pictures from lunch yesterday! If you are an Austinite or visiting Austin soon - definitely check em out, they are great! Oh, and amazing Happy Hour specials too!

My two favorite shirts at this little T-Shirt Boutique! hehe

Thought it was pretty comical to see the sign, "BYOF" (Bring Your Own Furniture) on an apartment building... very clever! Lol!

Today has been hectic so far went to go grab coffee this morning and couldn't find my debit card, so had to rush home and rummage through everything to find it - only to realize it got stuck in my Mary Kay brush kit thing, ughhhh I hate that feeling! Let's hope the rest of the day goes better! Happy Tuesday y'all!

Weekend in Pictures

Our weekend practically started Friday as we didn't have much going on at work. Maddie and I started the morning off right with a cup of coffee and netflix'ed a random scary Shark Movie that ended up being quite the ridiculous movie.

For lunch we decided to hit up another Austin Iconic Restaurant, Shady Grove! Maddie got the famous Chicken Fried Steak, and I opted for a Grilled Chiken Sandwich. It was heavenly, and Maddie left with a TShirt that sad Shady Grove on front and "Keep Austin Weird" on back. :-)

When we got home we definitely had nothing but RUNNING in mind after eating all of that delicious food!! So we leashed Huxley up and headed out! We ran about 3 miles around our neighborhood and then next to my home we stopped by a little park. You can tell by the pics Huxley had a great time! He even went down the slide! His face is soo funny in the slide pics.

Saturday was pretty lazy, we got some cleaning done around the house and just chilled out as Saturday night was going to be a late one! Around 730 we went to go watch the Heat play and have a brewskie! Now, I'm not a HUGE Heat fan ( I like watching them though!) but I really want OKC to win! Now that they are teamed up against each other I cannot WAIT for the Championship!!!!

Saturday night after the game we went to our good friends house to listen to their band play and have a few drinks. Umm has anyone heard of Fruit Loop Three Olives Vodka? Not bad! :) It was so fun and we got home around 2am where Scott went directly to bed and I stayed up with Maddie watching "Walk Hard" - funniest movie!!

Here is a little Video Clip - he is SO talented! He works with Scott @ Dell. I love going to little Dell parties so I can see all of my friends again! I miss everyone from Dell but I just loooove my new job so much!

Sunday was a bit of a hungover/tired day. We streamed Church to our TV from online, then laid around for a few more hours until finally we got up and headed to see our little step-brother Colin and have a little late birthday celebration. Colin is so cute and animated, I didn't snap too many pics, but I did get some good ones with his cake and a little video of his face landing straight into it. :-)

His video of his face in the cake.... lol!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Anyone do anything exciting!?

Linking up with Finding Beauty in the Ordinay, It's a Good Life, Life Rearranged, and Harpers Happenings.

Hopdoddy Burger Bar

Maddie's 2nd Day on South Congress was fun! We didn't do as much shopping because it was sooo hot!! It was fun though, we stopped by a few little shops on the other side of the street, and even visited some cute puppies (They have an Ausin Pet's Alive trailor set up on SoCo with puppies for show for possible adoption). We didn't snap as many pictures as I'd hoped, but OMG if you are in Austin or are ever planning on going to Austin, Hopdoddy is one of the best tasting burger joints I've ever been to... Maddie was in heaven!

{source: Hopdoddy Website}

Maddie anxiously awaiting her burger and fries!

Holy yum. This was a Classic Cheese Burger with their Sassy Sauce (which is a combination of their homemade horseradish, mustard, and mayo with spices). The fries are seasoned with garlic and herbs which makes them so flavorful, oh and to top it off:

a NUTELLA and Pretzel Milkshake! We obviously didn't even finish it halfway we were so full from the burger but it was the bomb.com.

So YAY for Friday!! This week has flown by for me, maybe it's because my sister has been able to hang out with me at work and we are currently jamming out to Dubstep Radio while drinking coffee. So fun. :-)

Have a great weekend, friends!

South Congress

So if you have been following along with my blog, my little sister, Maddie (14) is in town for 3 weeks, and we are having a blast! Yesterday, she came with me to work, and we listened to Pandora as I worked away & took an extended lunch to do some South Congress Shopping since my office is located very dangerously close conveniently on the shopping strip! Here are some pictures of our day yesterday.

During our walk, we stopped and grabbed a slice of the delicious "Home Slice" Restaurant, then grabbed Fro-Yo as we walked back into the office. It-was-Amazing!

Today is known as "First Thursday" and as the first Thursday of the month there are incredible sales, biker rallies, tons of tourists around so we will check it out & have some lunch on SoCo again today! We'll definitely capture some more photos! :-) Happy Thursday!