labor day :: texas hill country

i have a lot of photos from our labor day weekend in the texas hill country, but would you believe i didn't capture everything! i didn't get any pictures of the kick off dinner at our house with the dowiaks. matt's parents and two brothers came over for a little family dinner. we missed you aunt suanne, uncle bill, miles, katie, autumn and the newest dowiak, elizabeth rose!



saturday morning we headed to my parents house, aka the holmlund b+b. who wouldn't like to sit out on this patio with a cold drink on a nice fall-ish day?! mom and i took advantage during nap time.
sunday morning the light coming in from the window above the front door was great, so i sat and got a couple of pics of my handsome matson. it's hard to believe his feet will one day fit in shoes that size!
he's even so handsome from behind!
the front office had some good light too, so it was reese's turn. this is the best picture i got. little girl toes - chipped paint and all!
mom and dad took the kids to church {matt and i played hookie for the first time in YEARS} and started our 36 hour getaway by heading over to my brother's house. i didn't get any pictures there, but brody, jessica and i had fun making hot dogs, hamburgers, cokes and fries out of play dough - i'm addicted to the kid stuff! just kidding. i'm not really. i just started making stuff with him while jessica and i chatted. i only got a peek at baby emersyn b/c she was sleeping. erik + matt talked yard stuff most of the time. your yard looks great, e + j!



after that we headed down to the drag in austin. we stopped in the crowded co-op and splurged on UT tees for the kids for football season. strange that we've missed two seasons of texas football, but not to worry we are definitely making up for it with football on all.the.time. i don't mind it though. if you are ever down on the drag, this is a great place to eat.
after a walk around campus, through matt's old stomping grounds at the UT business center we headed down to our friends' mario + andrea's in new braunfels. they moved there while we were gone, so it was fun to see their new home. they shipped their cute little daughter, ana, off to her grandparents for the night, so we enjoyed some adult time. where did we pick to go? a biker bar of course. are we bikers? no, not so much, but there was a decent live band, cold coronas and the guadalupe river. add in our good friends and it was a perfect sunday afternoon, sans kids.
later we were joined by the lee's and we enjoyed dinner at the famous gristmill restaurant in gruene, just minutes from m+a's house. i love that place. it's has great food, beautiful scenery and funny memories. i've been to the gristmill several times in my life, but i will share the funniest memory i have from there. it was back when my brother graduated from southwest texas state university {now known as texas state} in 1997 {golly!} and our family celebrated with a dinner at the gristmill after the ceremony. as we were looking over the menu and the waitress asked if we had any questions, the new graduate piped up and asked, "what's the difference between chicken fried chicken and chicken fried steak?" i think she was polite enough to tell him the difference, while the rest of us haven't stopped raggin' on him since! love ya, e!
back at gram + papa's the kids went swimming with cousin brody {i hear there are cute pics of reese, matson, brody and emersyn together, but i haven't seen them yet.} and played in these antique cars. they loved the cars, but had zero interested in a quick photo.
if you can't tell, these are the cutest little cars you've ever seen! at this visit reese was able to really get going with the pedals.
the slight uphill grade was tough, but the downhill slope was fun!
buddy boy L-O-V-E-D the fire truck. so much so that he'd really let ya know he wasn't happy about getting off!
he likes to ring the fire truck bell.
while reese can do the pedals now, matson's little legs don't quite reach so the adults take turns pushing him around {it's killer on the back!}.

even reese took a turn. she doesn't look like she's enjoying it though! i'm not sure what was going on there. silly girl.the other part of the trip i didn't get pictures was the best part - schlitterbahn!! oh my gosh we had so much fun! we had a great group of 13 people, a half empty waterpark and short lines. we all decided we love the "old" park, schlitterbahn west, the most. there are longer rides, big tubes, slides, lots of bumping into each other and flipping out of tubes! i think everyone had at least one spill. such fun!!



after schlitterbahn matt + i had to go back to the b+b to rescue gram & papa take the kids back home. the report from the last time gram + papa kept them was that they were perfect angels. this time apparently they were a little less than perfect - meaning there was a lot more crying. thank you mom and dad for taking care of our little ones! we all love you!



they were pooped after the fun weekend. the car ride home was pretty good...


a little more fun began when we got home. grandma + poppy's air mattress was still in the living room, so it became a climbing wall,
a tunnel,
and a slide.
they wore themselves out again!
lucas, we enjoyed your visit! mario + andrea, thanks for having us! everyone else, thanks for the wonderful memories, whichever part of our trip we spent with you!