Austin, TX

So Peter and I were feeling spontaneous the other weekend, and it was nice weather, so we took a road trip in the miata (yes, with the top down) to Austin. Since we have been Texans for almost a year now, I guess it was time to visit the capital.

This is us in front of some of the beautiful buildings at University of Texas. It is a really cool and huge campus--stretched out a lot further than BYU but with a lot less stairs.
We actually had to take this picture quite a few times because Peter kept saying I was doing a "fake smile". (probably true, i am no good at pictures) I'm sure all the college kids thought we were nuts.

Peter has recently cut his hair, so it is good we have this shot to remember it! We went to a restaurant called the Oasis that sits over Lake Travis and in the evenings there is the most gorgeous view of the sunset.
Another at the same place . . .
Our Kayak adventure (not sure which river/lake) where Peter did almost entirely all the paddling. (pregnant ladies shouldn't exert themselves too much, haha)
Some turtles that we scared while kayaking
This statue was funny, because Peter goes, "That is a fierce looking lady." I look at the name plate and it is a statue of Stephen Austin. Whoops! You can't help but admire his curls, though.
A shot of the inside of the capitol building. I have never seen so many Texas stars in my life! And did you know that Texas is the only state where they are allowed to fly the state flag as high as the nation's flag?
An outside shot of the capitol on the beautiful spring day that it was.

Chicago is one of our favorite places

About two weekends ago we took a trip down to Chicago. Several tolls later in which we did not have cash (whoops) we landed in Carey, Illinois, which is where Peter's uncle Jared and his wife Matia live. (so Jared is really Peter's uncle's brother, but. . . same thing.) They were sweet enough to let us stay the weekend there with them and their so-cute two little girls. And their pet snake, who is currently receiving antibiotics via injection by Jared. Random, but kinda awesome to watch.

So Saturday morning we get up early to go catch the train into town, and once we get there we realize the station in closed. Thinking we could just buy tickets on the train, we hop on and wait for the ticket man to come around. Once he gets to us, I pull out my credit card and he says they only take cash. We do not have any cash (as evidenced by the toll booth situation) and the guy tells us we will have to get off, get cash, and wait for the next train (at least an hour). Thankfully, the amazing guy and his daughter behind us offered to pay our fare and we could reimburse them when we got off. So nice of him!

We got into town and hopped on the bus, and the first place we got to was Navy Pier. It smelled of delicious roasted nuts and lots of other fried foods. As you can tell, Peter decided to make a photo op without my knowledge:

Also located on Navy Pier is the National Public Radio station where they air and record "This American Life." We buzzed the intercom and tried to get in, but I guess they only do tours and visits during the week. I guess that means I will have to wait until my next trip to meet Ira Glass.
After that we hopped on a bus that took us to the Miracle mile to check out all the shops and fun fancy places. And what did we find?? Steve Urkel's car from Family Matters!!

So funny. The people in the store probably thought we were silly, but that is okay. Peter was sweet and let me go into all the shops and spend as much time as I wanted. When we got too pooped we stopped at the Ghiradelli store and ordered an amazing banana split. There were lots of really neat buildings, like the Wrigley building, and a lot of them were pretty historic. It makes me want to move to a huge city!

If you walk further down on Michigan Ave you run into the beach (lake beach is still a beach!) It was such a beautiful warm day that we took off our shoes and waded in the water for awhile. It was so funny to be in the midwest and see a beach.

Towards the end of the day we both were starving, so we stopped at Gino's East to get some real Chicago-style pizza. Everyone writes on the walls and benches there, so we were sure to make our mark as well. (It is the reddish pinkish writing on the right-hand side)

We took the train back that night and heard all of Jared's great stories from his medical rotations and all in all had a blast. I could definitely live in Chicago, should the right job take us there.

Pictures from Canada and Ben's wedding

Wonderful Peter figured out how to get the pictures off his camera for us without the cord so now I don't feel so dumb explaining our adventures. It helps to have something to show for our trips! So here are our pictures we took our first visit to Canada. This picture of me is looking at the Renaissance Center (GM's headquarters) from the other side of the Detroit River. There was a really pretty boardwalk area to walk up and down.

Here is Peter, being awesome. I think he is pointing to the "People Mover" which is the actual name of the elevated monorail that goes around downtown Detroit.

No idea why Canadians are dressed up as Scots, but I am sure if we were native we might have understood why. It was their Memorial Day when we visited so there were celebrations going on.

We took the tunnel on the way to Canada (it took like 3 minutes) and took the Ambassador Bridge on the way back.

While there isn't a whole lot to do for us kids in Windsor, the next weekend Jason and Emeri came to town for Ben's wedding so we decided they needed to go see Canada too. (Peter and Jason have been best buddies with Ben since high school) Don't they look good? We had so much fun with them that weekend, and we went all over downtown Detroit, including a special trip to Pizzapapalis in Greektown. We all had a slumber party complete with Cosmo waking everyone up, and then got ready for the wedding. Ben and his awesome now-wife, Kim, got married in the Detroit temple. We stayed for some pictures and went to a ring ceremony, and dinner reception. Peter and I are lonely again with them gone, but maybe they can visit us in Texas on their way out to VA! (hint hint, nudge nudge).

Okay, so Peter just explained to me that Texas is not technically "on the way" to Virginia but a girl can hope right?