Easter in Texas

Happy Easter! We spent Easter weekend in Texas with Steve's family. Austin had a great time with his Gramma, Grandpop, Uncle Brian (or "cubby" for Crazy Uncle Brian), and Autie PiPi (Diana).

We went up to the Twin Cities on Thursday to stay with my family overnight so it would be a shorter drive to our flight Friday morning. There, he got to see Auntie Michelle who flew home early so she could see Austin before we left for the weekend. He also got some Easter treats from Michelle's visit to the Pooh store at Disney World over spring break.

Then we headed to Texas on Friday. It is never easy traveling with a toddler, but he actually did really well on the flight there. We had to wait on the runway to be de-iced, since there was a raging snowstorm going on that morning, but he did fine with that, had a snack before takeoff, then slept for about 1.5 hours and I read him books for the rest of the flight. When we arrived, the weather was definitely a nice change from Minnesota. Most of the time it was in the 60s and 70s and sunny.

Austin had a great time playing outside! We realized that this was the first time when he really had a chance to run around the yard and play. Last summer, he was too little to run around and play and then it has been too cold to go out much over the winter, so this was his first chance to run around the yard and play. He loved it so much, he cried if we wouldn't take him out to play or if he had to come back inside. He got to run around kicking balls, chasing bubbles, scooting on a tricycle, and playing in a "cozy coupe" car.

Here is Austin leading Grandpop around the yard. How cute is that?

Austin did pretty well with the dogs. He was absolutely terrified of them at first and would freak out and cry and cling to me whenever one of the dogs even looked at him funny or went anywhere near him. He was always more comfortable with them when he was outside and probably felt like he could get away from them easier than when he had more limited space inside the house. He gradually got more used to them and was much more comfortable around them by the end. In fact, he even pet 2 of the dogs and poked Spike in the nose. Spike was his "protector puppy" and was always trying to protect him from the other dogs. Here she is standing guard while Austin ate breakfast (though she may have also been waiting for some food to fall!).

The new Dalmation puppy, Jackson (Jack for short) was a little more trouble for Austin, just because he is a new puppy (~10 weeks old) and still behaves like a puppy. He tended to jump up and nip at Austin, which frightened him and a couple of times, scratched his face. Austin got a little more comfortable with Jack by the end, but still was a bit scared of him when he got too close or jumped up on him. Here is Jack chasing bubbles with Austin.

Maybe Austin is more of a cat person. He had lots of fun meeting the barn cats! (Barney and Betty)

We had a nice Easter with a big breakfast at which I got to try breakfast tacos - very yummy! Austin had a fun time playing with Easter eggs, putting them in a basket then dumping them out and putting them back in again, etc.

On Monday, we visited the Dallas Arboretum, which is full of beautiful landscaping and gorgeous flowers and plants.

Then we headed back to Minnesota on Tuesday and stayed overnight at Nanny's so that I could go to my dentist appointment on Wednesday. We also got to visit GiGi (great-grandma) on Wednesday afternoon and Austin and GiGi had fun playing with a beach ball and giving Eskimo kisses.

Wednesday evening, Jeannie, Trish, and Christopher came over for pizza and we got to visit with them for a while. Unfortunately, Austin spiked a little fever on Wednesday afternoon and was kinda cranky while they were there, but he still had fun playing with Christopher. After dinner, we headed home. It was a fun trip, but as always, it's nice to be home after a trip. We're getting settled back in and back to work. I finish up my outpatient rotation this week and go back to being on call for the next month starting on Sunday. Now that we've had a taste of lovely spring weather in Texas, we are eager for the spring to arrive in Minnesota! Happy Spring!

Here are a few other cute pictures from the past few weeks...

Unloading the turnaround cabinet and running around with the pack of fluorescent bendy straws.

Snuggling with daddy and his soft blue teddy bear from Joni.

1 comments: 

Flakymn said... 

Love that dalmatian puppy! If he is in anyting like Scrubs, at ~10 weeks old, he was a BIGTIME mouther ... non-stop. He couldn't be around kids AT ALL! Yikes!