Oasis Photo Shoot and Morning Date

Brando and I went on a date morning this morning instead of a date night last night, as we went out with family and the kids last night. I love that Brando knew I was a little upset about not having a date night so before we even left for dinner last night, he scheduled on the calendar a date morning and emailed me a reminder that said, "Date morning - Be happy". He knows me so well.

We have a shopping and restaurant mecca near us called the Oasis. It's a mecca for our area, any way. The Oasis has been there for over five years, but the other restaurants and stores were built in the last year. It's situated right on Lake Travis with the most stunning view around. The sun sets just over the lake and makes for the perfect romantic evening eating at any of their now many restuarants: Oasis, Soleil, Austin Java of which this location has coffee only, Austin Chill which has self-serve yogurt, and another seafood restaurant that I don't remember the name and can't find anywhere - perhaps they are not open yet. Brando knows I LOVE going there to watch the sunsets or just see the gorgeous lake and explore especially since it's only a mile from our home, so that's where we headed to.

Our date started off with coffee at Austin Java and then we walked around and had fun exploring the decks before the crowds of people came. We had a huge storm last night so all the patio chairs were wet, which made it even more intriguing.

Besides the view, the architecture, design, and pure color of the place is SO MUCH fun it's the perfect place to have a little fun with the camera. Brando and I took turns, like usual, with the fun colors, architecture, and angles. He did quite a bit more than I, though, as I was mostly obsessed with the busy, colorful backgrounds and he did more inventive things with less of a main focus backgrounds.

There's so many photos, actually, that this is just a small portion and I'm saving the rest for later when I get to it. As you can see in the above photo, I've gotten a little bored of standing still for photos, so the majority of the rest of the photos I have are goofy and fun as can be. Which was perfect, because it made for a perfect, silly date morning.

My handsome hottie of a hubby. He shaved his hot as hell scruff, so now he looks like a baby, but still hot as hell.

These windows reminded me of doors. Gorgeous, either way, and I had Brando snag a photo for me because it would take too long for me to figure out how to change the settings for the perfect picture in a second.

Earrings and Bracelet ~ Bunny's Too, Plaid Shirt ~ Rip Curl, 
Lace Shirt ~ Macy's, Belt and Jeans ~ Forever 21,
 Boots ~ Seychelles from Bunny's Shoes

Love Brando's eye with photography and am trying to accept how different his style is than mine, thanks to the encouragement of GFF. He creates gorgeous images, magazine, high-quality, sharp as a tack images versus my love of vintage or blown out images. He blows me away with his knowledge of all the ins and outs of the camera and how they work together. I swear, he should teach photography classes, as he's taught me all I know and I know more about cameras than some photographers I have met. Now if only I could utilize that knowledge with my camera as well as those photographers utilize their knowledge with their cameras.

Austin Jazz Festival

Brando surprised me with a date this evening to the Austin Jazz Festival at one of my favorite outdoor places, Zilker Hillside Theatre. Now that the weather is finally cooler it was an absolutely perfect evening to go.

I've been to so many events at Zilker Hillside, but this was one I'd never heard of. The Austin Jazz Society hosted the event and announced that the mayor of Austin declared today, October 1st, some kind of official jazz day. I wish I could remember the official title! We didn't know what to expect, but it was absolutely perfect. A mini and more intimate version of Blues on the Green.

 The scene behind us.

 Just because

 Jazz, and blues as well, are so relaxing.

 I love watching the sunset at Zilker Hillside while watching a performance.

The bassist from this band of Paul Glasse's "discovered" George Strait, or so they told the story.

 The view to our right.

 Local favorites, Zen and Amy's ice Cream, were set up as vendors to feed the crowd. Brando went to check out Zen and came back with this yummy dish called The Schoolgirl (ha!) that had the perfect amount of spice from the chili garlic sauce and the serrano aioli.

Summer Night Musical

We brought a picnic and went to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers last night at the Zilker Hillside Theatre Productions with Brando's friend, S2, who has the same name as S and his wife, Sara, and the boys. S2 and Brando have so much fun talking together and Sara is wonderful too. They had invited us to dinner but we'd already planned on going to see this with our class. Fortunently she was just as excited about seeing it as I was. She had the movie since she was 5 and it was currently in her car. The actors and actresses came through at intermission asking for donations. We're poor so we asked them to donate to us. j/k We were thinking about it : ) ! It was such a summery thing to do, sitting there on the hillside with a blanket and the summer breeze and stars overhead. They had colorful and fun dances and the acting and singing was fabulous.

We may have found our fun couple to hang out with where we blend perfectly. That is if they don't pick and move to Ohio for a great job he may have lined up!! That would be good for them, sad for us.

Strange turn of events

Friends of B's are staying next door at M's house while she's back in her hometown. They just got back from their honeymoon, the ones whose wedding we went to in Dallas, and are in limbo as she is finding out where her job will be. She's a French teacher and is waiting on interviews from far northeast Austin to far south Austin - a big difference if you're deciding where to live. He also just got a job offer in Columbus, Ohio, where his brother's family lives, so they may move out of state as another option. It'd be really nice for B to have a friend close by if they stick around for awhile.

Perfect Date

My Perfect Flower


Perfect Stop


Perfect North by Northwest Restaurant


NXNW Perfect Outside Seating


NXNW Perfect Outside Seating


Perfect Entertainment on a Break

Perfect Couple


Perfect NXNW Cobb Salad and Quail Salad


Perfect Roasted Garlic Bulb & Goat Cheese Appetizer


Perfect Bottle of Champagne


Perfect Champagne and Entertainment


Perfect View


Perfect Entertainment

Perfect Goofball

Perfect Far Away Glance

Okay I'm not THAT delusional. It was just such a good night everything seemed so wonderfully perfect.

Favorite Memories

...seeing the Dallas Galleria layout, standing at the edge above the ice rink Louis Vitton was across the way, Abercombrie above, and PacSun above that. Expensive to cheap. It was hilarious.

...enjoying a night out on the town, talking about anything and everything with Allison.

...Uncle Julio's margarita's

...Allison's sweet warm personality

...the endless stream of conversation we have

...the fun giggly girl moments that are there when you get to just be free from whatever it is life has for you at the moment

...her cute little car with the butt warmers

...staying at the Westin in the Heavenly Bed.

...enjoying the full hilt of luxury with her and being appreciative knowing it's not the norm, at least not right now :)

...her interaction with my kiddos, even the brief moments they had the first night and the shared awe of Medieval Times, there's such an easy sweet connection there

...how blessed we are to know her wonderful face and heart and get to spend time with her on top of that

...my MIL not. buying. a. thing. except for intangible goods.

...the wonderful memories created and the pictures taken with her.

...being completely 100% spoiled rotten in whatever it is we did with her, from the luxury suites at the Westin to VIP seats at Medieval Times to a hundred dollar gift certificate at a local restaurant.

...the moments at home with her. Just being, sitting, drinking mixed Hennessey and Grand Mariner, watching movies, sleeping : ) while she played with the boys, late nights talking.

...her birthday party last night at NXNW.

...the wisdom of age and the lifetime of kindness she makes such an effort to share, so if it doesn't sink in now it will at some point and leaves me, my husband, my boys and anybody she shares it with only being the better for it.

...lunch and dinner with my hubby every day.

...Medieval Times

...the sweetness and romance of my hubby motioning to our knight at MT to pick me to be the queen, although I really wanted Allison or Mom to be picked, and when he did B putting his hand on my waist as I stood up, and then telling the knight afterwards as he signed the photograph of the moment, "Thank you for choosing my bride."

...the peaceful, relaxed feeling of having had company for a week and knowing there's not. a. single. thing. to do to get things back in order.

A Photo Meme

Our homeschooling group's celebration of the Chinese New Year, with BG leading the dragon.


A sweet note from my hubby. He wrote one the day before too that I was going to take a picture of. I didn't think he'd erase it to write a new one so soon!


The Austin skyline... and the view from the place where I'm taking my art class.


Happy soon to be Valentine's Day! There are five of these hanging above my kitchen island for Valentine's decoration.

Hubby Sweetness

So tonight. Our worst. date. ever.

And in the middle of it all, Hubby says, "I think it's amazing that you're taking the time to work so hard on those things. To learn how to sing it, to learn how to do so much. You're putting so much effort into being able to teach it that all the other girls yeah they're all doing stuff, but hello it's so painfully simple." I'd expressed concern over the things I've come up with for our homeschool group not being good enough and he hasn't said much, except that he thinks they're all the same until this. In the middle of our argument. That meant so much more to me than any other time he could've picked to say it.