Crawfish with the family

Crawfish season is in full swing and man are they big this year, at least compared to last year.  Picked up a 32 pound sack since we had family in from New Hampshire.  That ended up being more than enough since there were several in our group who were satisfied with just one.  And to be fair, that's one more than I thought they'd eat.

The great Purge begins.

Simon was a little skittish around the live ones.

They didn't stay that way for long.  Corn, potatoes, crab boil, onion, garlic, artichokes, shrimp, sausage, and of course, crawfish.

 We were lucky to be joined by Margaret, Bill and Chris.

Uncle Bill and I did our share.

Let it Snow

This past Saturday Mark, Henry, Simon and I took the early morning drive out to Lexington, TX to hit Texas Monthly's choice for Best BBQ in Texas, Snow's. Their brisket is definitely in the top 3. Their ribs and sausage could use some work. Still tasty, but not quite on the same plane as their brisket.

 Henry and Simon belly up to the table.

Ribs, brisket, and a fairly dry piece of sausage in the back.  Standard trifecta.

Simon works on a rib.

After eating it's time to play cars on the steps to the bathroom.

... or play in the town gazebo.

... or hunt for cats.

So far, Simon's hit Kreuz's, Salt Lick, City Market, Snow's, Franklin, Louie Mueller...Not bad for a Californian.  He's got a lot to teach his little brother.

Simon's jams

Austin may be the "Live Music Capital of the World."  And there's no better place to exemplify this than in the playroom.  Simon routinely pulls down the guitar and sings all the songs he's learned recently.  His favorite songs are the ones sung by Mrs. Carol at school.



For this one, he starts off singing Joe McDermmott's "Everybody Plays Air Guitar". Click here for a listen to the original. Erinn and I then try to get him to sing Mrs. Carol's "There's a dinosaur knocking on the door..."
This how he usually closes a show, with a medley. It goes Bim Bam/ Baby Shark/ Bim Bam Shabbot Shalom (Hey). And then he tunes his machine.

Easter morning

Simon greeted Easter morning the same way he did on Christmas, with wide eyed awesomeness.

Started with his basket:

Then had breakfast, got dressed, and went out the front door...

.... to discover that....

... holy Jesus.  You guys have to see this....

Over there!  Someone has "hidden" our dyed eggs right in plain sight!

Here's one!

And another!

Look at all these eggs!  I'm going to dump them out of my basket and onto the hard concrete.

Then it was onto Mass at St Eds. And then over to Erinn's parents where there was more awesomeness.

Another Easter basket!!

And more egg hunting with Olivia.

Simon was way too into the goldfish in the plastic egg to pose for a picture.

Happy Easter yall.

Edit from Erinn: Yes, I look pregnant in the picture because I am (in case any readers did not yet know our news). We are due in early October!

Addition from Andrew:  I really haven't told anyone yet.  So now you know...  And knowing is half the battle.

Preaster

For Easter prep, Simon got to dye his eggs.  Outside and without clothes on, because that's how Dad likes to prepare his eggs.

Erinn put the egg in a whisk so he could dip the eggs in the dye.

As you can see, there are only 9 eggs here.  We started with 10, but when Erinn told Simon to drop the egg in the dye, he didn't hear the last part and just dropped the egg onto the deck, cracking it.

Rodeo time

Also known as State Fair Light. 

I was really looking forward to taking everyone out to the Rodeo for the BBQ competition.  Even with the unseasonably cold weather and gale force winds, we loaded up and rolled out to the Travis County Expo Center.  It was colder and windier once we got there and Erinn let me know about it.

We hopped from tent to tent.  The first stop fortunately for Simon was the Kids Tent with the petting zoo.

After a heavy lathering of hand sanitizer, we headed across the parking lot over to the BBQ setup where we saw some sweet rigs, like this one:

Plenty of hospitality, but in the end it was too windy to continue.  So we headed to the see the world's smallest cowboy, Whiplash.

Simon and Erinn waiting for Whiplash.

Whiplash is a monkey that rides a dog.  And when I say ride, I use that term loosely.  He's strapped onto the dog.  Whiplash corrals some sheep and gets all the credit.  But honestly, the dog's doing all the work.

I couldn't get a good shot of Whiplash, so here's one the Dallas Morning News took.

Independence Day Parade

We found ourselves downtown last Saturday at the Farmer's Market, but took a detour to watch the Independence Day Parade.  The camera ran out of juice before we left, but it was fun, if not hokey.

Simon:  "You promised me freshly squozen orange juice and here we are, sitting on Congress Ave, waiting for a parade that won't start for another 20 minutes.  This isn't even my regular stroller.  This is the emergency stroller.... I hate this haircut."

Andrew:  "We'll get you some juice and that hair will grow ba- Oh look it's David Thomas!"
Erinn: "Who?"
Andrew:  "You know, he played Tight End.... nevermind, here comes a canon."

Yes, they shot it off.  Several times.

Davy Crockett everyone!

Andrew:  Simon, check out that big Texas flag!
Simon:  Yay runners!
Andrew:  That was a couple weeks ago.  We've moved on.

Happy Texas Independence Day

Celebrated Texas Independence Day early this weekend by visiting two of Texas' treasures, Real Ale Brewery in Blanco and Louie Mueller's in Taylor.

Skipped out of work early on Friday to celebrate our friend Mark's 30th birthday (well 30, plus some change).  His wife Lindsey organized a van down to the Real Ale Brewery an hour south in Blanco.  Perfect weather for it.

 

 

Turns out one of the founding fathers of Real Ale (the guy with the beard on the left) played lacrosse at UT about ten years before me and Mark.

 

Beer fridge, defined.

I will!  And after I've drunk Texas beer, I'll use that toilet under the truck.

On Saturday, Simon, Dad and I took a trip up to Taylor for an early lunch at Louie Mueller's.

Those business cards started out white, or a subtle off white.  Some of them might have even had a watermark before the smoke hit them.

Celebrated with the holy trinity of brisket, sausage and pork ribs and washed it all down with the decidedly Texan Big Red.  

Almost fell asleep on the car ride home from a meat coma.  I waited until we got home to have a nap.

Good weekend.