ACL= Pure Awesomeness!

The Eagles in all their magnificence!

All 80,000 people at the festival. It was crowded, but fun!

Last weekend was the annual ACL (Austin City Limits) Festival. This equals 3 days of music (70 bands!) in Zilker Park, and I got to go to Sunday's festivities with my dad and brother. The Eagles were playing and if you know anything about my dad you know that he loves him some Texas Longhorn football and he loves him some Eagles. I grew up watching The Eagles Live in Concert: Hell Freezes Over DVD over and over again(although when we were younger it was a VHS :)). So we spent the day lazying around eating good food and listening to great music and then it was time! Time for some Eagles! It was an amazing concert. They are so good live and I've never seen my dad happier. It was great having my dad here for the weekend. I watched a lot more sports than I ever would, but it was nice just spending time with him.

Moving On!

This last month we did our last and final fertility treatment and much like it's predecessors it was a big, fat, epic fail. We are letting go of this part of our lives for awhile and are going to search out some other paths to travel down for now. Heath finishing school, me doing more school, going on some vacations and hopefully forgetting about the word Infertility and the pain it has caused in our life. We can no longer plan our lives around: when this treatment will work, when I am pregnant, when we have a baby, etc. Although we are moving, living, doing- infertility has put our lives at a stagnant standstill and we are ready to move forward with new plans. Being parents was such a big part of the dreams we had for our future and now that we've had one road block after another we are coming to terms with the fact that it probably won't happen for a very long time. We just cannot afford the price tag of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and I am not in the right state of mind to accept adoption yet. It is Plan B to me, and I would never want a little one to grow up thinking "My mommy couldn't have children so she adopted me". I feel bitter that there are all these women giving up their babies because they don't want them, can't afford them, can't care for them- and I would give anything to have a baby of my own and just can't. Simply just can't. I think I will have a long road of acceptance coming up. I am angry, bitter, jealous, sad, and heartbroken, and those feelings don't go away overnight (although I wish they did). I guess the biggest thing I am bitter about is that 4 years ago I gave up my dreams of what I really wanted to do in school and changed to the degree I have now so I could work from home and still be a stay at home mom. Now each day I work from home is like salt in my barren womb. Right now I am planning on extending my Associate's Degree into a BS in Health Information Management, but I am also thinking of the possibility of choosing a degree I really want to do. Maybe this is an opportunity to fulfill other dreams we have like : school, traveling, etc. One day this will all make sense..

Our little graduate!

The teacher had little graduation caps! Awesomeness!

It was quite a feat trying to get that hat to stay on her head.

Sophie graduated from her beginner obedience class last Wednesday. The guests of honor were Uncle Mattie and big "sister" Ally. She did a great job and as any biased "parent" would say.....I think she was the best :) She was younger than all the other dogs because they didn't get enough people for the puppy class so she got put into the next level with older dogs. She did great.....we didn't. She learned a lot but we didn't practice as much as we should have. We will take what we have learned and move forward and hopefully she'll be a well trained canine citizen! Congrats Sophie Jane, we are proud!

Hotel Breinholt was also booked this weekend. Mom and Dad brought Meme (dad's mom) to visit and to celebrate my dad's birthday. It was good seeing her and as always, we had a great time. Gram and Gramps bought Sophie a new kennel (to match Ally's) for graduation. She LOVES it and in fact hasn't left it so far today....and the door is open :)

Looking forward to a fun weekend with Ben, Mer, and the girls! Can't wait!

Catching Up!

We've had lots of fun things going on but I just haven't had time to post anything....

After Joey and Kira cam for the 4th, we had some other friends stop by as they were traveling to San Antonio. Forest and Jenny stayed with us from Thursday through Sunday. The best part of people coming into town (besides seeing them, of course) is all the fun things we get to see/do that we probably wouldn't do on our own. For instance, we've lived here for a year and have never been to the Capital- even though it is right by campus. So we got to do that- it was really amazing- beautiful land and architecture. Also they went to a couple museums on campus while I was working Friday. All in all a good time.

Then mom came to visit us for a couple days before her and dad left for their Alaskan cruise. It was nice to see her and the grand-puppies always love a visit from their Gram :)

After that it was Mattie's birthday, so what to we do? What any almost 30 year olds do, head to Chuck E. Cheese's of course! It's a tradition now- Davy comes from Fort Worth and we all head out to the local CEC and try and not look like child predators :) We had a blast as usual. Mattie won the skee ball jackpot a grand 19 times. It was insane. There was an audience surrounding him . Pure awesomeness. The best part is the end of night when we pool all our tickets together and see what we've made and then everyone gives us their slips to give to our nieces. So really it is like charity work :)

Then, this last weekend, we went home to Keller to watch the house while mom and dad were in Alaska. It was also Bennie boo's birthday. Ben and Mer brought the girls over Saturday morning to swim. After that we pretty much did nothing. I must say it was one of our most boring weekends home. Parents weren't home and everyone else was busy. Plus the main reason we came home was to mow the lawn, and we woke up Saturday morning to the neighbors finishing the lawn. Talk about good neighbors. They are LDS and super nice. But that left us pretty much with a wasted trip except for the small amounts of time we got to see Heath's family.

Other fun things coming up are: Sophie's Graduation and Heath starting school again!

A very merry Un-4th of July

I tried to upload the video (which was way good), but it was taking too long, so you get this lame picture :)

I just figured everyone was naming their recent posts something to do with the 4th of July so I went in a different direction. Like other holidays, this one is over taken by picnics at the lake, extended weekends, and unimportant things that have nothing to do with the purpose of the day. And we did it all. Haha, just kidding. I did however spend the day thinking about my grandfathers (and the many others) who have served/are serving for our country and given us these wonderful lives- you know the one's where we can take a long weekend, go to the lake, and shoot fireworks. On the other hand, we did have our friends Joey and Kira come visit and had a great weekend with them. Friday we headed out to Cooper's for some good ol' BBQ. Then we started our typical weekend of staying up entirely too late playing Mario Bros. Saturday we tested out the famous Round Rock donuts with their incredible 14 inch donut. Joey and Kira bought one and between the 4 of us we didn't finish it (much of that was due to the fact that it was chocolate glazed and it was WAY too much chocolate-if there is such a thing). Then we continued our spree of eating at Pluckers with Matt. 5 delicious lemon pepper wings later and we were all full. Sunday we laid low until around 9 when we headed out to Georgetown for a fireworks show- you know, the true meaning of the holiday :) We had a great weekend and thank J&K for making the trek from Houston once again. Hopefully we'll get to visit you guys soon!

Joey and Kira at the fireworks show.

Us at the show..

This weekend we have friends from our old Trophy Club Ward coming to visit: Forest and Jenny. Yep, you read that right. They're like peas and carrots :) They don't get that ever I'm sure....just like I never get "Yo Adrienne!!!!". Yeah, that never happens. Anywho, they're heading in tomorrow to keep Austin weird- a little saying we have here.

It's been a crazy whirlwind of a Summer but we're enjoying it.

Clever Title Here

Just like I don't have a good name for this post I don't really have much to write about, but thought it was time for an update. Last weekend my parents came to visit for Father's Day weekend. We were going to go home but I got a little sick and they decided to come visit instead. We went to Lockhart to eat at Smitty's BBQ. It was pretty good. Another one of the many great places around Austin that have been featured on food/travel channels. After that we headed out to the Alamo Drafthouse (it's like The Movie Tavern in Fort Worth) to see Toy Story 3. We al agreed that it was an awesome movie. Pretty unbelievable for a trilogy- they usually get worse but I think they are getting better! After that we headed home and hung out. Last week I sold my phone so I could buy a new one. Somehow I was already eligible for an upgrade which just happened to be the same time that Apple/AT&T released the new iPhone. I said if I could sell my old phone for the same price as the new one then I would do it. I ended up selling it for 25 dollars more than the cost of the new one with taxes included. I profited! So my new one is due to be delivered today and Heath is anxiously waiting by the door for it :). This weekend we're going home so we can FINALLY go see our friend's new baby boy Koen. I didn't want to risk getting him sick last weekend. Congratulations Wes and Brindee! Can't wait to see him! It's also my mom's birthday on Sunday so we'll be celebrating that too. It's been a busy summer so far and we've loved it! Keep the fun coming!

Sea World- Fun for all ages!

Enough with the depressing talk. Let's talk fun! We've had the pleasure of going to Sea World twice so far this year. We bought one of those Fun Cards where you pay the same price as a one day admission but you get to come back all year.

The first time we got to go we went with Ben, Mer, and the girls. We went both Friday and Saturday and had a blast. It was so nice to see the faces on the girls at the shows. There is nothing like bringing joy into a child's life because it brings joy into yours! We also got to stay at this awesome resort hotel thanks to Ben and Mer's friends. It was an amazing, relaxing time and we wish we could do it again.

Hanging in the hotel with our Sea World treasures.

Waiting for the Shamu show to start.

Everyone after the Shamu show. We sat in the Splash Zone but hardly got wet.

Thanks for a great trip Ben and Mer! We had a blast!

The second time we went was two days ago. My aunt called us last month and asked if we would help her out with taking her grandson's to Sea World. Being the fun lovers we are, we said yes! So we spent the night at my cousin's house Wednesday, got up early Thursday and headed out to San Antonio, then came back that night after we had worn the kids out. Boys are a lot harder than girls. Holy smokes. Carter has Down Syndrome so you have do a lot more for him than other 6 year olds, but he's a great kid and LOVES Heath so they always have a great time. He loves shows, animals, and acrobats so he was in heaven being at Sea World. Carter loved the Beluga/Dolphin show so much that he just sat there when the show ended and signed more and said "more show!"

Zane, Aunt Sis, Me, Carter, and Heath outside the entrance of Sea World.

Another great trip! Thanks for inviting us Aunt Sis!

So hopefully we'll have more fun trips to S.W. this year and many more summer fun adventures!