greetings from austin // good news, bad news.

we've spent the last couple days in austin & we get it.  i mean, we totally understand why people rave about it here.  it's gorgeous, there are a million things to do & the food is ridiculous.

it's way greener than i thought it would be... when i envisioned texas i always thought of dusty roads & tumbleweeds.  who knew it would be tree-lined streets with rivers & creeks running all throughout the city?  we've barely scratched the surface of places to go & things to see.  we've hit up a few parks, trails & shops per people's recommendations.  we've tried a handful of restaurants and have yet to be disappointed.  far, far from being disappointed.  more like, "holy crap this stuff lives up to the hype!" which i feel like never happens.  and for all you folks who may or may not someday visit austin {or for y'all who are already around here} i'm talking about the salt lick & torchy's tacos.  so. freaking. good.

here's the bad news.  parker's been sick the last two days.  uuuuggggggh.  it really sucks & it's breaking our hearts.  the bright side is that it's not a pukey, painful kinda sick but rather a fever-ish, lethargic kinda sick.  and i've asked him a million times if anything hurts & he says no... he just says he's tired.  in fact today when i was giving him the usual 20 questions "does your head hurt?  does your tummy hurt?  are you hot?  are you cold?"  he eventually said, "mommy, can we please stop talking about it?!"  so i dropped it.

all the poor guy wants to do is stay in our hotel & sleep.  his fever comes & goes and every time he is loaded up in the car he passes out to sleep.  so that's kinda altered our schedule.  our days out haven't lasted as long as they otherwise might have {seeing the bats come out at night on commerce st. bridge!} & we've held off on some of the more active toddler activities {splash pads! hikes!}.  it's been fine though... elliot's gotten the boot outta the stroller to allow parker to get cozied up inside & we've just modified our schedule to allow for things that just let him chill.  and it rained today so it's not like splash parks or swimming was an option anyway.

oh yeah, rain... like i couldn't have gotten that at home.  oh, that reminds me!  austin reminds me a TON of portland.  they could kinda be twins.  hipsters, a river, food trucks at every street corner & amazing parks.  but i'm pretty sure austin has portland beat in the good-weather department. ah well.

anywho, here's a few shots of our adventures in austin up to this point.  and hopefully a good night's sleep for p-ray will lead to some exciting times tomorrow too.  otherwise it'll be a day of driving from one food destination to another... which, let's be honest, isn't all that bad.

 ^^^waiting for our food at the salt lick & not too excited to be taking a picture with me, apparently.

 ^^^and not too excited about my kissing advances, either.  i was big, fat denied.

 ^^^texas state capitol!

 ^^^the dome inside the capitol.  can you see the word "texas" up there?  this place was GORGEOUS.

 ^^^carrying this little sicko back to the car while elliot took a turn in the stroller.  his little limp body just breaks my heart!!

and that's it!  peace out, from austin.  xo.