I wore my cute shoes, not practical ones.

This past weekend, I took a solo trip to Boston to visit Grace for a girls weekend! I had so much fun! It was great spending two full days together so we could catch up, talk about anything and everything, and just be with each other :) Here's a little recap of the trip:

I got in Friday night around 9pm, so took a cab (the T option was vetoed when I realized I would have my luggage, it would be night, and I've never ridden a subway system before - let along by myself!) to Grace's apartment in Brookline, a suburb of Boston. We just hung out at her place that night and went to bed early so we could get up on Saturday and take advantage of the morning.

Saturday morning, we went to an arts festival in the little "downtown" section of Brookline. There were tents set up and people were selling jewelry, artwork, clothes, etc. I ended up buying a cute gold necklace with an "h" charm. 

At noon, they opened the food part of the festival. You purchased tickets and one ticket got you a sample at a table.

I had the most delicious fudge covered cookie - YUM!

After a light little lunch, we walked ALL the way downtown! It was quite the walk, but luckily there was lots to see along the way, like Fenway Park, where Grace works, and a park where people rent space to garden.

We finally made it downtown :)

After purchasing tickets for the duck tour, we had a couple hours to kill, so we explored the area a little more. We went past the Boston Marathon bombing site. It was an emotional place, but all the shoes, memorial items, and patriotic things made it something special. It's comforting to see how much people care, even complete strangers.

Eventually we made it to Boston Public Gardens. By this point, my feet were starting to ache, so we found a nice park bench and took some pictures. It was actually fun just people watching :)

The flowers were absolutely beautiful!

We then made our way over to Boston Common. In the Garden, you stayed on the sidewalk; but in the Common, there were people laying on blankets, playing frisbee, or just running around in the grass. There was a carousel, kiddie playground, and a big pond with some "famous" frog statues (I had never heard of them, but Grace said they're a popular for pictures).

Before our duck tour, we thought we should put a little something in our stomachs, so we went to Max Brenner's and got shakes. I got chocolate (of course) and Grace got strawberry cheesecake.

It was finally time for the duck tour! We loaded up and headed out to see the rest of the city on wheels (thank goodness because my feet were starting to cry at this point).

We saw things like the capitol building...

... and then plunged into the Charles River to see the sights from there!

After the most tourist activity we could do, we took the T back to Grace's apartment to freshen up for dinner. We went to The Daily Catch, somewhere she'd never been, but is a little chain in the Boston area. It was an extremely small restaurant (only seven tables in the entire place!) and they bring your food to you in the sauce pan in which they cooked it. But I had the best shrimp and scallop pasta!

It was an exhausting day, so we showered and went to sleep pretty soon after we got home. My poor feet :(

Sunday morning, we went for a run around Jamaica Pond. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and the pond didn't hurt the eyes either ;)

After showering, we took the T to Cambridge for brunch at Catalyst on MIT's campus. I had delicious french toast and Grace had a fried egg sandwich. It was a great meal on the patio, again, with good people watching :)

We walked on campus for a bit before heading over to the Charles River.

We walked along the river, watched the people working out, looked at the boathouses, and eventually came upon a dragon boat race! I had never seen one of these in action and it was the coolest/most hilarious thing ever!

We finally made it to Harvard Square and got some ice cream at J. Lick's. After walking around the square a little bit, we found a nice park bench and spent the evening chatting and watching everyone.

We were still pretty full from ice cream, so opted for a light dinner at Clover Food Lab. Grace said one was opening soon near her apartment, so wanted to give it a try. I got the soy BLT (don't ask; I wasn't myself after all the walking) and a lavender lemonade. Grace had some sort of eggplant sandwich. It was a "healthy" kind of place....

We got back to her apartment, showered, and stayed up till 1:30am talking. We were soaking up as much time together as we could :)

Unfortunately, Grace had to go to work Monday morning, so I had the morning to myself. I went for a jog and at brunch at Zaftig's, a Jewish deli, before packing up. I had a yummy pastrami scramble.

I had the worst flights back (sooooooooo many delays), but nothing could ruin my mood from such a wonderful weekend with Grace! Thanks so much for letting me stay with you, taking me all over the city and playing tour guide :) I had the best time and can't wait until round two in San Francisco!

One Kick Wonders

About a month back, our small group was trying to figure out what we wanted to do when we meet. What did we decide on? Kickball. We are the all new team to Austin Sports and Social Club for kickball - and it's obvious. Luckily we have a lot of fun playing :) Here's our team photo (at the end of the night):

I also got some pretty good action shots. Here's Trevor....

Jenni...

Daniel...

Leanna...

Tyler...

Jessica...

and Leanna running to second.

This past week was also Jenni's birthday, so I used my mom's fancy cupcake cookbook and tried to replicate some cute cupcakes :)

Here's the picture in the book:

Nailed it!!!

After the games, we all sit around for a while and chat :) It's really fun and I enjoy hanging out and getting to know everyone better.... although I've known this one for quite some time....

Just keep swimming....

Today I went to Jackson's swimming class! It's actually a bath class since he's only four months old, but (if Lindsay and Ben want to) he can move up to the actual swimming class where he goes under water and learns to float when he's six months!

The clinic is near my office and when I found out it was at noon, I knew I had to go watch during lunch! It was also nice because I could take pictures and video for Lindsay to have since she can't do this in the water with him. So, without further adieu, our fishy :)

And here are some videos to show what they did. Unfortunately, I missed the songs, but I did get the last part of the clock song ;) And try to tune out the swimming teacher coaching the four year olds....

I think it's safe to say our little fishy loves the water!

Backyard Make-Over

Since the front yard is pretty much complete, we've moved on to the backyard! It's proving to be as much of a challenge as the front, if not more (it's quite large). We had some wonderful help this past weekend, too - the Liggett's (Linday's in-laws)! We were talking yard work on Mother's Day and they offered to come help, and we were more than happy to have them :) We got a lot done and were finished by 12:30!

• Mowed and edged the front and back
• Power washed the driveway, walkway, front porch, eves of the house, AND the deck
• Put in a new flower bed border in the backyard (the old was removed a couple months ago)
• Cleaned up the trees and bed

We're almost done clearing everything out and then we'll start planting :) But here's a before picture - what it looked like the day we came to first look at the house. This picture shows the right side of the deck, but the left side of the yard:

And here's what it looked like when we finished. This is showing the right side of the deck and the right side of the yard:

We're so excited to see how much it's transforming and can't wait to be done! We're going to stain the deck in the next couple of weeks (since power washing it basically returned the wood to new), finish pulling out some of the ugly plants, replace them with pretty flowers, and then add some furniture. How fun would it be to lay in a hammock between those two trees in the shade?!

Luckily I was the only casualty. I missed the branch and clipped my finger with the shears. Don't worry, I'm ok ;)

I spent the other day helping my mom clean out G's house. It's almost done; we're having an estate sale in about a month and then our first tenant moves in! Anyways, my mom and I were going through her purses and shoes (I know who I take after - such gorgeous shoes!) and I found this. Seriously? Really? An elephant purse? Only a big game hunter's wife would :)

And because every post needs a picture of Jackson, here he is being adorable and looking at himself in the phone:

Chillin' with ALL of the Chang's!

Nelson's parents came to visit and stay with us this past weekend for the first time since we've been married! We took the opportunity to play host and hostess to the max. We grocery shopped and cleaned everything before they arrived and had, what they call, a very "healthy" weekend - ha!

Saturday late afternoon, we took a walk through the neighborhood to HEB to rent a movie. It gave them a chance to see all the other houses and get a better sense for Circle C. That night we grilled steaks, steamed asparagus, and made a salad. We planned to have chicken kabobs the next night, so Nelson and I chopped everything up and put them on skewers to marinade overnight.

On Sunday morning, we went to church and then my mom, Lindsay, Ben and Jackson came over for lunch! Nelson's mom was supposed to come to Austin for one of Lindsay's baby showers, but Jackson decided to make his debut the day before the shower :) So she was very excited to meet him... and I was just excited to see him, again! Nelson grilled hamburgers, so we had another "meaty" meal that his parents aren't used to.

We were all so stuffed after lunch, so what better way to work off the beef than a walk around Town Lake?! Nelson's parents had never been, so they enjoyed seeing the pretty lake, Austin skyline, and other scenery.

Nobody was hungry for kabobs after the walk, so we had some froyo and watched another movie instead. It was a nice, relaxing, and fit weekend! We had so much fun hosting them and look forward to the next time they come! And, yes, that's an open invitation for anyone to come stay with us :)