Gourdough's Donuts

Trying Gourdough's Donuts while in Austin is a necessity. These aren't your run-of-the-mill chocolate glazed with sprinkles donuts you buy at your local grocery store, oh no. These are big as your hand, loaded with weird toppings, and called by names like "Fat Elvis" or "Son of a Peach" type of donuts. Even Alex who is not a big donut fan, upon trying a Gourdough's donut promptly looked at me and said, "these donuts might actually convince me to like donuts."
I made the mistake of convincing Alex to take me there on Memorial Day, and unfortunately the line was much too long to wait in when you have an impatient toddler. I made a second mistake when we returned a few days later on a much quieter day with a much shorter line, ordering two because I thought I was hungry enough to eat both of them by myself (and confessional time - came very close to succeeding). Mistake number three is the fact that Gourdough's is a 10 minute walk away from our house, so you know I'll be back multiple times this summer :)

The Flying Pig on the left, topped with maple icing and bacon. The Razzle Dazzle on the right, with chocolate icing, raspberry jam, and chocolate chips. Just bring me an insulin drip now.

Zilker Park Botanical Gardens

The Botanical Gardens were gorgeous! We went early in the morning when it was still pretty cool and there was lots of shade to keep us from getting too warm. It's located in Zilker Park near downtown Austin, but when you're in it it feels really secluded and like a world of its own. There were different areas in the garden, and our favorites were the Japanese Garden, the Pre-Historic dinosaur themed garden, and the Butterfly Garden. I would definitely give this place 5 stars- it has excellent stroller friendly walking paths, was easy to navigate, Addie loved looking at all the different flowers and animals, and it provided lots of wonderful scenery for picture taking. It was a lovely morning outing!

Japanese Garden

Baby bump picture :)

At the Koi pond watching the fish

Love these two cuties of mine

Snuggling Daddy :)

Sitting in the Rose Garden

The waterfall in the Pre-Historic Garden

A little girl butterfly in the Butterfly Garden

Leading Daddy along the paths

Stopping to smell the flowers

Making friends with the caterpillar sculpture in the Animal Garden

So funny.

Lovely lillies

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose

Did you know that the TV show 'Friday Night Lights' was filmed in Austin? As soon as I found out that you could drive around and see some of the places they used in the show I was super excited and added it to our to-do list while in Austin. Alex and I had watched the series together on Netflix a few years ago, and definitely consider it one of our favorites. We've even (half) joked that Tim Riggins Aggen has a nice ring to it for naming future children, and ever since we found out that we'll be in Austin for the summer have overused the phrase "Texas Forever" throughout our daily conversations. Also, can we just talk about Matt Saracen - anyone else want to adopt the kid and help him out with his grandmother like we do? Anyways....

The weather forecast called for rain one afternoon (it's been raining like crazy in Central Texas this year), so I thought it would be a great activity to do since we would just be in our car the whole time. Turns out that it ended up being sunny and hot during our entire drive! We got the list of addresses to go to online and unfortunately didn't make it to all of them (like the Panther Field House or Tim Riggin's land), but we still had fun driving around and exploring different parts of Austin.

The Saracen House

The Taylors, or better known as Coach and Mrs. Coach's lovely house. It surprised us that this house is actually situated in a tiny cul-de-sac.

Riggins House- just around the corner from the real-life Taylor House. And the card I'm holding up? There's a funny story behind that. Feel free to ask me about it.

 Other places we drove by but didn't take pictures of were:

• East Dillon Football Field
• The Landing Strip (which is actually a strip club in real life, gross.)
• Ray's BBQ (which is now a tire shop)
• The Alamo Freeze (which wasn't there, but instead was torn down and is now a Dairy Queen! We stopped and got ice cream there, and Addie loved her vanilla baby cone)

The Thinkery

We went to 'The Thinkery' Children's Museum the other day, and thanks to our Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum membership got in for free! (and there was even free parking too! Yeah!) The Thinkery was pretty cool, they have a lot of interactive exhibits and themed areas for the kids to explore. One of Addie's favorite things was the little pretend farm and food-prep area, where the kids could "pick" out fake food and then "cook" it in a miniature kitchen. It was a great morning outing for our little family.

Peacocks?!

Our first few days in Austin were spent moving in, unpacking, and getting to know the area around our neighborhood. To our surprise on one of our walks around the block we saw a lone peacock walking down a street by where we live. Chalking it up to a fulfillment of Austin's motto of "Keep Austin Weird", we sort of shrugged it off as one of many weird things we might see this summer, but our curiosity was still piqued. The next morning Alex went on a walk with Addie and discovered the source of the peacock, and the fact that it wasn't the only one in our neighborhood. There is a little estate-type events center near our house that is open to the public and has peacocks living on the grounds! Our neighbor further filled in the gaps and told us that it is a popular venue to get married or hold a reception at as the peacocks just roam the grounds and provide for unique picture opportunities. He also told us that since they are free to roam they may even leave the grounds as we saw the other day, and he has even experienced a whole group of them holding up traffic on one of the main roads in our neighborhood as they sat and dawdled in the street! It's definitely something that is unique to this area of Austin, and so we have walked to see the peacocks a couple of mornings in a row as Addie has been fascinated with them. She loves bringing them up out of the blue and thinks they are really funny. A lot of our conversations lately have gone like this -
A: Momma?
ME: Yes Addie?
A: Key, Key, Key-kah! (her word for peacock)
ME: Yeah! Peacock! Isn't it silly that we have peacocks in our neighborhood?
A: (laughs for about 20 seconds, sighs.) Key-kah.

We've tried getting her to say "peacock", but all her attempts start off well and then end with her saying it in her own way. She'll go "Pea, pea, pea, Key-kah!" It's pretty darn cute.

Peacocks from The Aggen Family on Vimeo.

Had no idea that peacocks just hung out in trees!

Addie LOVES the peacocks - except when they're in the trees. She's making sure the peacock keeps its distance...

Alex asked me to channel my inner peacock. Yeah, not so good.

On the estate

Mother's Day 2015

We took pictures last year on Mother's Day and it was so fun seeing how much Addie had grown that I wanted to take some again this year. These were taken right after a huge rainstorm, which ended up curling Addie's hair perfectly due to all the humidity. I am so grateful to be this girl's Mommy, even if at times it may be hard. She knows just how to pull at my heartstrings every time she grabs my finger to lead me somewhere to show me something exciting, or when she says "Mommy!", and when she gives me open-mouthed kisses on my cheeks. Love this girl of mine, and can't wait for her little brother to join our family in the fall and add to the wonderfulness of my motherhood.

Say Cheese?

I asked Addie to smile for me the other day at lunch and these were the faces I got. I could not stop laughing. This girl is hilarious! And now for your viewing pleasure, Addie's versions of smiling.

 

Fashionista

Addie has developed a little bit of fashion sense recently. She loves dressing up and wearing sunglasses, headbands (on both her head and as necklaces), scarves and necklaces, and does all of it all by herself. I managed to catch these ensembles and I got to say she is quite the little model, don't you think?

Spring Break in Chicago

We went to Chicago for Spring Break this year. Here's what we did:

• Saw the Cloud Gate (The Bean) sculpture in Millenium Park
• Stopped by Navy Pier
• Ate dinner at Shake Shack
• Museum of Science and Industry - loved seeing the baby chicks and the planes
• Deep-dish pizza lunch at Giordano's
• Drove around the city and looked at architecture
• Had the most amazing hot chocolate at Katherine Anne Confections
• Dinner at Big &Little's
• The Field Museum - Addie liked looking at all the animal displays!

In front of The Bean

Sweethearts

Daddy's girl

Museum of Science and Industry

Looking at the baby chicks

Making a tornado

At Giordano's

Deep dish heaven

Hot chocolate heaven

The Field Museum

Cuties

Addie at the Field Museum from The Aggen Family on Vimeo.