Sun, surf, and sand...

Hmm... I guess I'm a bit overdue for an update, eh? We've been really busy the past couple of weeks/weekends, so I'll try to keep this brief!

Weekend before last (that would be March 20-21):
We headed back to Houston again for another weekend of rodeo and volleyball. We arrived Friday night and spent some time with Rob & Lori and the kids before heading to bed. Saturday morning, we headed down to Galveston for the GCVA season opener. Finally... the beautiful spring day we'd been waiting for! Natalie took the opportunity to do a little rollerblading and Richie and Viet played some pretty good volleyball, placing 2nd out of 17 teams in their division.

Natalie left the beach early to meet up with Brad, Amanda, and Courtney for another round of rodeo - this time the Rodeo Finals and Brooks & Dunn - again in those sweet seats courtesy of Mom B! Rodeo traffic was a pain, but other than that, we had a great time. We met up with the volleyball folks afterwards for some yummy Cafe Adobe.

Sunday, we met with Mom B, in town for a Mary Kay convention, for brunch at Waffle House. Yum! Then to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to visit to the planetarium, the butterfly exhibit, and the rest of the museum. Back to Dad B and Brigid's house for yet another rodeo! This time we avoided the traffic by taking Houston's new light rail from downtown. Fun! We hadn't been on a train since Europe! Sunday's rodeo was XTreme Bullriding and Willie Nelson - quite a show! We stopped at Biba's for some yummy Greek food on the way home... but by this time you can imagine that we were exhausted!! So we decided to stay the night in Katy. Which worked out because we had both taken a vacation day on Monday to celebrate...

Our Second Anniversary!!
(Well, actually our anniversary was on Tuesday, but it worked out better to take Monday off.) We slept in Monday morning and then headed back to Austin, did a little unpacking and repacking, and were off again! We decided to go check out an Austin landmark we've never visited before - Mount Bonnell - which offers nice views of Lake Austin, downtown, and the surrounding hill country. Nice! Then we headed towards downtown to check into our B & B. We lounged a bit, got cleaned up, and walked a few blocks to a lovely dinner at Z Tejas, followed by an outing to see a really neat, Cirque du Soleil-ish dance show at the Paramount Theater - we had fantastic second row seats!! And of course it was nice not to have to drive home afterwards.

Tuesday morning (our actual anniversary), Natalie arrived in her office to find a lovely bouquet of red roses waiting for her on her desk! Isn't Richie sweet?!?

Fast forward to last weekend...

Friday evening, we had dinner with Karmen and Tim and Brad and Amanda at our favorite cheap Tex-Mex place, Flores. Saturday, Richie had an indoor volleyball tournament at UT, where they took second place. Natalie passed the day exercising, running errands, stopping by the tournament, and going climbing at the Greenbelt with Brad and Amanda. She had hoped to be able to go by San Marcos to see cousin Marcie's dance competition, but just couldn't fit it in. (Next year!) Saturday evening, Brad and Amanda came over and we grilled dinner, sat around a campfire (in a fire bowl in our backyard) and did some hot-tubbing. Nice end to a hectic day!

Sunday, the four of us headed out to Lake Travis to take a cruise on Knight Boat and try out Brad's latest toy purchase - a pair of kayaks! The weather was surprisingly cooperative... even though it was cloudy it was warm and it didn't rain - the sun even came out for a little while later in the day! Natalie and Brad both braved the cold-ish water to take the first ski runs of the season - the water was so glassy they couldn't resist! And of course the kayaks were a lot of fun - it should be a great lake season!

So......................

I think that finally brings us up-to-date!! (For now!)

(Pictures on the pictures page should be up to date now, as well.)

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Pictures page has been updated! (Finally!)

Back with an update later.

Hey, how'd it get to be Thursday already?!? This week has just flown by and it's looking like the rest of March will proceed in much the same way...

Last weekend, after a quiet Friday night of dinner out, some errands, and packing, we headed to Houston Saturday morning. We ate lunch with Mom & Dad D and then met up with Chris, Viet and Ramsey (who was in town since plans for the spring backpacking trip to Big Bend had fallen through) to hang out for a bit. Then we got dressed and headed into town to meet Geoff and Lisa for the Rodeo! We had awesome front row tickets, thanks to Mom B! The rodeo was fun to watch, as always - especially that close up! Randy Travis is looking older than I remembered him but he put on a fantastic show. I always forget how many of the great country songs out there are his.

After rodeo, we met up with the rest of the crew for an early St. Patty's Day celebration at Brian O'Neill's in the Village. It was good to get caught up with everyone!

Sunday morning early (notice I didn't say "bright"), we got up and got ready for the season opener sand volleyball tournament in Galveston. The weather forecast was rain and lots of it, but it wasn't raining yet and the tournament was still on. We made our way down to the island, and of course it started pouring the minute we crossed the causeway. But hope springs eternal, and they decided to delay the tourney for an hour to see if it would clear up. It didn't, so back to Katy we went. We spent the rest of the afternoon eating and watching movies at Casa Viet. The boys, desparate for some volleyball, found a place they could play indoor starting late Sunday evening. We decided to stay since Richie hasn't had much of a chance to play with that crew since the days of the Rec Center at A&M. It made for a late drive home and a Monday morning that came too fast, but it was worth it.

This week, we've just been trying to catch up on rest and chores. We didn't do anything exciting for St. Patty's Day except for wear green and have some green dessert (mint chocolate chip ice cream!).

And that's about it from here. We would like to wish a late Happy Anniversary (Monday) to Mom and Dad D! And ask everyone to think about Natalie's cousin Marcie, who's participating in a 30 Hour Famine this weekend with her youth group to raise money and awareness to help starving children around the world.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Howdy and TGIF and all that! This week's been a busy one for both of us this week at work and I realize I'm a bit behind in here. But I'll at least get caught up on last weekend before this one is here...

Thursday night, dinner at Mangia with the (mostly former) Motorolan crew. Pizza was great, as always, but they ran out of their famous dessert - the Ooey-Gooey Brownie! (Gasp! Blasphemy!) They did manage to find two of them for our table of 8, so at least everyone got a bite. LOL!

Friday night is hardly worth mentioning. Tired from a long week, we just scrounged dinner from the fridge, went for a walk, and took care of some badly needed housework.

Saturday was one of those perfect spring days in Texas - sunny with highs in the mid-70s. One of those days where it's just wrong to be inside or to drive with your sunroof closed or the top on your convertible, ya know? We went rock-climbing with Brad and Amanda for a few hours in the morning, then Richie met some friends to go play sand volleyball and Natalie retired to the hammock in the backyard with a book. Saturday night we went out to dinner and that's about it.

Sunday morning, we were ambitious and tried out a new church. Not sure if the place we went is one we'll eventually call our church home, but it was a good start. That afternoon, we met Brad and Amanda at Lake Austin to go for a boat-ride and lunch at one of the restaurants on the lake. Our favorite (Hula Hut) had a two-hour wait, so we opted for the new place next door. The new place wasn't all that impressive, with average food and mediocre service, but considering that we were sitting on the porch on another gorgeous day made it hard not to have a good time. Water in the lake is still a little chilly for swimming or skiing, but it should be heating up in the next few weeks!

I think that's about it from here for now. One of these days I'll actually get the pictures page up-to-date... but don't hold your breath! ;)

Thursday already and I haven't gotten around to recapping our crazy weekend? Well, here goes:

Friday night we took off a few hours early from work and headed to Houston to see a Rockets game with a group of friends. As we got closer to Houston (and game time), we started to get worried because no one could get in touch with a certain friend (name withheld here to protect the... err... innocent) who had bought the tickets. At about tip-off time, it was determined that said friend was unavailable because he was in JAIL. For unpaid traffic tickets.

That revelation, coupled with the fact that we didn't have access to our Rockets tickets, called for an abrupt change of plans. The sister of said friend was trying to get him bailed out but was basically waiting for him to be processed so there was not much we could do on that front. Instead, we decided to head to Cadillac Bar for a while for munchies and beverages, followed by a short excursion to City Streets to get some boot-scootin' in (seeing as how it was Go Texan Day and all).

Saturday, we were woken by a phone call from jailbird's sister saying that he had finally been booked and could be bailed out, but she couldn't do it on her own since her driver's license was expired. So Richie rose to the occasion and accompanied her to the jail, where it was determined that it would be better if they did not bail him out after all, because he would be able to see a judge that afternoon and hopefully get the charges dismissed due to time served. After a few minor adventures there, Richie made it out to Katy to visit with his family and later on meet up with the guys for a night of video and computer games.

In the meantime, Natalie, Micah and Lisa were doing their best to relax, spending a Girls' Day at the spa, chowing down on Chuy's, and later retiring to Lisa's house to watch wedding videos and chick flicks to the accompaniment of homemade guacamole, creme brulee and bellinis. Yum!

News of jailbird's safe release reached us late Saturday evening, and there was much rejoicing. :)

Sunday morning we went to church (and lunch afterwards) with Richie's family, took a quick nap, dropped by Viet's place to visit with him and Chris for a bit, and then headed back to Austin.

This week's been busy so far. Last night, we went downtown to see Defending the Caveman, which was a really funny and entertaining one-man show about the differences between men and women.

And I guess that's about it for now! Hope you all are staying dry!