A-town & Sip-N-See

This past weekend we packed up the family for Austin's first visit to Abilene. This was our first road trip where we had to pack up Austin & Elliott and it was a lot of stuff. We were headed to Abilene because my mom was hosting a Sip-N-See on Saturday for us to show off our little bundle of joy. I was smart enough to pack almost everything the night before so that the morning would be a little bit less stressful. For those of you that know my family, we run on "bonham time" and always leave at least an hour after our projected time. Well this was no different, we planned to leave at 9am but ended up pulling out of the driveway at 10am. I was impressed though that adding a baby really didn't make us take any longer getting ready. Austin did surprisingly well in the car, he slept almost the entire trip only waking up as we were about 10 minutes outside of Abilene. Elliott however, was a wild man the whole time. He was constantly climbing over every seat in the car and going from lap to lap and occasionally peeking in the car seat to check on Austin. We got to Abilene in just enough time to feed Austin, change clothes and head to the church for the Sip-N-See. The sip-n-see was such a great way for us to show all of our Abilene friends Austin. Many of my mom's work friends came as well as quite a few of the ladies from my home church. One of my all time best friends Julia, who I have known since elementary school, also came to meet Austin. It was so wonderful to get to talk to everyone and to show off Austin. He did really well at the shower and only spit up on one person! Austin was held by many different ladies and even laid in the famous "brass bed" for a few minutes. A big THANKS goes to my mom for hosting it for us and to all the people that came to share this special time with us.

Austin & Elliott in the car.

Guests: Trina Fink, Grandma Karen (Gigi) & Jacinda Dieken

More guests: Connie Keaton & Aunt Jenna

The Coatney family.

Austin in the brass bed.

Mommy and Austin.

One of my dearest friends, Julia!

On Sunday morning we all headed to church at my hometown church, First Baptist Abilene. It was so great for me to get to show Austin to all the people who played such a large role in my growing up years. One really special moment for me was getting to introduce my first grade teacher, Mrs. Cross to my son. It is just amazing to me how many truly wonderful people were so thrilled to meet Austin and congratulate us. Austin sat in the service with us until about 10 minutes before it was over. At that point we had to take him to the nursery so he could be placed in the brass bed for everyone to come by and see him. (My church as a large picture window in the nursery where babies get to lay in the special brass cradle on their first Sunday at church. They even make an announcement in the service for everyone to know and then make their way down to see him.) We dropped him off, took quite a few pictures, and barely were able to leave him in there so we could go back to the service to hear the announcement. Many of the church members came down to the nursery to see him. Austin got lots and lots of compliments on just how cute he is! It was very surreal to have many of the kids I spent my high school years baby-sitting come by and see my own baby. I don't feel like I have gotten any older or changed at all and yet all of those kids are in middle and high school now and are nothing like the kids I spent so much time with all those years ago. Anyway, I digress....Austin was such a cutie, he just kicked, flailed and smiled the whole time he was in the bed and never once screamed or cried. Brent and I were both so proud and loved getting to show him off.

Headed into church and inside.

Austin in the brass bed.

Outside the picture window looking in at Austin.

Family pictures after church.

The other big highlight of our Abilene trip was dinner at my absolute favorite restaurant, Dos Amigos. We never have a trip to Abilene without it! We also went to the Episcopal church to take some family photos of Austin in his name onesie before he outgrew it. We able to get some really great shots of our family at a beautiful stone church. We then packed up and headed back home to Waco. The trip back was not quite a smooth as the one down there. We only made it to Eastland before we had to pull over and feed a very unhappy baby. After a bottle and some cuddling, Austin was able to go back in his seat and we could get back on the road to Waco. We finally made it back home and were all very tired from our short little get-away. I would say it was a successful first road trip and visit to Abilene.

family pictures (you can't tell but Austin is wearing his "austin" oneisie that he has now outgrown)