Happy Monday! Was that the best loooong weekend or WHAT?! I’m a huge fan of 4th of July falling on a Thursday and turning the holiday into a long, 4-day celebration. Yes please.
I spent Independence Day here in Austin with Nate, and we just had a pretty chill, relaxing day doing our favorite Austin-y things!
All day long, I found myself thinking, “next year at this time my 8-month-old son will be here!” It’s so exciting to imagine ourselves doing this holiday weekend again next year, but next time as a family of three. I’m so excited!
Ok, here’s what our 4th of July 2019 looked like:
I woke up pretty early (no alarm, but this pregnancy thing means I have to get up to pee so I can no longer sleep in, ha) and I hunkered down in bed and finished a book that I’m reading for an upcoming book club, The Futures. This novel is was instantly addicting! It’s a coming-of-age story about a young couple living in New York City straight out of college.
Once Nate was awake and ready to go, we walked to Patika to get bagels and coffee for breakfast. They sell Rosen’s Bagels there; those are hands-down my favorite bagels in Austin.
We each put in an AirPod and listened to a pregnancy podcast on the way to breakfast. I’ve been enjoying working my way through The Pregnancy Podcast. I like this one because it’s concise, well-researched, and the podcast covers a wide variety of topics.
On this morning, we listened to the episode about birthing (super casual podcast, haha).
Lazy Thursday morning at the pool! I splashed around for a while and then got out to start another book (omg, another GREAT one! I’ll share a READS post soon because I have so many good summer reads to tell y’all about.)
Nate was scrolling through Instagram and told me that Soursop (my favorite Austin food truck) posted that they’re bringing their Mapo Dog back for 4th of July.
It’s basically a chili dog, but instead of chili on top, it’s smothered in Mapo Tofu and green onions. THE BEST. It was a regular menu item last year, and I was so sad when they took it off the menu! So when I found out it would be back for the 4th of July menu, I sprinted over there and ordered these babies for lunch.
Dinner was an easy-peasy meal of cheeseburger sliders, kettle chips, and cherries. We picked up a package of pre-made sliders from the meat counter at Central Market, and Nate grilled them in our backyard.
And sweet baby Storm is always ready to ask for her dinner, too. 7:30 am and 7:30 pm, on the dot. 😉
Post-dinner we walked downtown to watch the fireworks! Friends, I love this Austin tradition. I’m not a fan of huge crowds, so you’d think I wouldn’t enjoy sitting with 100,000 people to watch the fireworks…but it somehow doesn’t feel crowded. (I mean, it definitely is if you try to get a spot on the Long Center lawn to watch the symphony perform, but the music is piped everywhere and you can hear it in other places, too.)
We set up our lawn chairs and enjoyed the show!
And that was it! An easy, relaxing 4th of July with my husband. I love these average, simple days with him right now, because I know that our days of making memories as a family of two are coming to an end.
And next year we’ll be a family of 3. 🙂
Enjoy your day, friends!
What a lovely holiday weekend! I can’t wait to read your next book post. I’ve been reading a lot more lately and looking for recommendations. And, you’ve reminded me that I’ve never been to Rosen’s Bagels and need to try one!
They’re available at quite a few shops around town now, so pretty easy to find – yay!