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.

Change of Pace

So this weekend is going by just as slow, but for a completely different reason. It is PACKED full with the boys going to camp, working out every morning (hello, washboard abs!), errands, cleaning, and going to school in the afternoon. Shawners came by the table while I was doing homework this afternoon, and says, "Are you doing homework?" I said, "Yes." And he says, "You're going to summer school?!" Haha, yes, but only for a few weeks to catch up on what I learned last year so I'll be more prepared for the fall.

In lieu of anything else interesting to say... or just because I'm too tired! Here are some pictures:

BBQing out with KT, M, Li, and K

Date at T*ff's Treats while the boys were at art class - yum!

Our infamous stormy date night where we swam, watched an outdoor production and drove through a lightning, hail, wind, and rainstorm all in an hour and a half

The outdoor theatre. My favorite, favorite, favorite unique place in Aust*n!

The ballet production acts of Elvis and the Beatles. This was Blue Suede Shoes.

Baseball game at R*und R*ck Express

Funnel cake at the baseball game. Yum!

Beer at the baseball game. Even more yum, although it got kind of warm towards the end.

Stormy skies behind us - second night we were stormed out.

Our seats. At least we weren't stormed out til' the ninth inning!

Trial run for Brando taking h*gh school s*nior portraits. I LOVE how this one turned out. There was really no pretty scenery anywhere near that gate except for the gate itself and he totally made it work. Oh he also did these on our date where we went to T*ff's Treats. We squeezed a LOT into an hour!!

Life is full

After arriving home from the airport on Monday week before last I went straight to girls' night and Brando took Justinb to football practice. Tuesday I went to work after dropping off the boys at both their schools. Tuesday evening I'm pretty sure I slept. Wednesday I homeschooled Shawners all day and probably did the same thing that evening. Thursday was more work and school, then Brando took the boys to cub scouts while I unpacked with wine and a girlfriend. Friday night was another home relaxation night. On the weekend Justinb had his first game, we went home and slept, then went with some friends to a passover seder dinner at their church. Afterwards they came over for wine and chatting and ended up spending the night (they are the closest things the kids have to an aunt and uncle out here besides my sis and three boys, and the closest thing Brando has to a brother). We made a huge yummy breakfast when we woke up then they went off to church and we went off to take bluebonnet pictures. We came home, took a nap, dressed up for REAL bluebonnet pictures and went back out.

The week was full of work, school, and girls night on Monday, work, school, and dinner with a friend on Tuesday, work, school, and a date with Brando on Wednesday, work, school, and WOW down time Thursday, only we went to get a TV from a friend. Friday we had fajitas and margaritas in the hot tub with Kels while the kids watched Marley and Me inside the house. Saturday Justinb had another game, then Brando took the boys camping while I spent the day at the pool with M with lime*ade and vodka, then over to Kels again for beer in the hot tub with a few of her friends from her small group and then spent the night at her house. We woke up in the morning, made yummy breakfast tacos, and finished watching Marley and Me, then I headed back home for more pool time (and sunburn) with M. Brando and the boys got home, then he took off for WWF with the guys.

That's just what I remember as I'm sitting here.

Today, work, school, and I'm off to girl time, but you know what I don't have anything planned the rest of the week until this weekend. Granted, the boys still have cub scouts Thursday night and I'm doing my thing tonight so that leaves us only two nights, but for the moment they are free and I am relieved.

Things I'm Grateful For

This transition back into the never. fuckin. ending. routine of life has me so down after the cheer and care free of the holidays that I thought I would write a list of things I'm grateful for and have enjoyed since break.

*Bike riding the Veloway (or attempting to any way and deciding we don't like roadies much when biking with two children)

*Reading while watching the boys bike the hills at Palmer Event Center

*Biking Town Lake and taking a picture of our family by the skyline

*Going wedding shopping with one of my fav girls Genie

*Girls nights with Li, M, and Ambs, making dinner together and watching the new Bachelor and our oldie but goodie Gossip Girl (we didn't get into the City)

*Touring our own downtown and taking fun pictures in yellow stringy things

*Dinner with my girl, KT, even tho it started in tears (something about tears this week, three of my friends and I have cried buckets. All on Monday, too)

*Creating my itinerary to Hawaii

*Thinking about girls weekends coming up, trips to Cali, and SUMMER

*Being asked to attend my good friend's second birth

*Being able to go on dates, even though we're clearly out of practice

*My child watching the inauguration at school

*4 hours at home by myself last Saturday

*Dinner with JaeWu last Saturday

Art Sculpture downtown on the UT Campus

The Domain

Truthfully all this happy time with Brando has me feeling a little nauseous. I need my girl time to balance me out! Although I have been having plenty of girl time I have had equal time with Brando thru my own effort thinking it would be good for him. I'm thinking either I'm adjusting to not having more girl time than I have with Brando or I just plain need more girl time to stay well balanced!! Hmm, typing that out may've just answered my own ponderings. I am spending more time with him for HIM, but I need to make sure I take care of myself. I am grateful for

*the opportunity to go out on dates with Brando, and that we make it a priority.

Anniversary Weekend

My sister took the kids this weekend and Brando and I had the whole weekend to ourselves. Weird. But a blast. Wish I had pictures of taking breakfast to Brando and his coworker at his work Saturday morning decked out in my haute business suit in order to stick around and not look out of place. Or me helping his friend move in my cute wedge flip flops and big earrings on Saturday afternoon hence no fun day pictures : ( . We made up for it plenty both nights though.

Drumming on the table to the live music

How could I forget my favorites?

Our favorite restaurant. Ever. We always end up here somehow someway.

Watching Yes Man at The Alamo Drafthouse.

Funny as hell and the perfect drinking game movie.

Our serious faces as we rush to catch the sunset at the Oasis.

We made it!

Waiting for our table.

Yay! We got seated before the sun set.

Our pretty view.

More of our view.

Must get sunset pictures.

Soooo pretty. This was our first time eating here.

It's less than two miles from our house.

And I can't believe it took us three freakin' years to discover it.

 Coming here for the first time is perfect to celebrate our eight years of being together. Our anniversary was in November, but since everything else was also in November we didn't celebrate much and decided to let this make up for it a bit. We heard it didn't have the best food which is why it took us so long to get here, but with that view who cares?!

Plus the food was delicious! And the mango margaritas.

The grounds at the restaurant are almost as beautiful as the view and way more interesting to investigate.

See what I mean? A random space shuttle. I had a nice time in Mars. Learned a lot about men.

Walking SoCo.

The pretty grounds at Hotel San Jose.

Driving up South Congress towards the capitol which you can see at the end of the street.

Had to get coffee at Jo's on SoCo to stay awake.

NXNW. Again. Can't beat the live music. Need I say more?

Buh-bye weekend! Oh, except we went over to a friend's house and stayed up til' 3am.