Before and After: Our Austin...

Memorial Day Weekend 2023

It’s Wednesday but it still kind of feels like a Monday… That’s typically what happens after a long weekend. But Memorial Day Weekend 2023 was one for the books.

First of all, I have to start by recognizing what this holiday is actually all about: honoring those who lost their lives while serving for our country. I know that almost everyone in this country knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone, who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. I never know quite what to say here, because I hate that it had to be that way. And I’m thankful for many of the ways that I get to live my life now as a result of sacrifices people have made. And I know our country still has a long way to go. I suppose a version of I’m sorry and thank you is the best way I can articulate my feelings about Memorial Day in a single paragraph.

In Austin, CapTex Tri always falls on Memorial Day Weekend. And since we’ve had family members doing this race for the past few years (my mom in 2021, and then my sisters and I did it in 2022 and 2023) it ends up being somewhat of a family gathering weekend.

I will never ever turn down an excuse to have my whole family together…so I invited everyone to drive down from Dallas and spend the weekend with us.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend:

We kicked off the weekend by checking out this new brewery in Austin. It’s been in the works for a couple of years and we were so excited to finally get to visit it!

Soooo many stairs and levels.

I love that most of my food photos these days have a grimy little toddler hand reaching in the corner. 🙂

We had some pizza and pretzels and beer for dinner! I went easy on the beer (just tried a few sips of each beer style) since the CapTex Tri was just a few days away! But I carb loaded on those pretzels for sure.

Oh you know, just a calm and peaceful family dinner out…

The boys played for a bit outside at the brewery and got nice and hot and sweaty, and then we came home and they got baths and clean jammies before bed time. I love reading nighttime stories to these two boys when they’re all clean and fresh out of the bath tub.

Good morning! Dayton had some gardening to do on Saturday morning.

And Milo had some “party planning” to do. I told him we had a lot of family coming in town that weekend, and he IMMEDIATELY starting “getting ready for the party.” And that included getting these giant red buckets that were on the patio and filling them with “party food,” aka anything who could reach in the pantry that seemed slightly festive and fun to him: marshmallows, sprinkles, crushed tomatoes, organic pop tarts, peanut butter, sprinkles, chicken broth, and peanut butter.

I sat outside in my pajamas and drank my coffee and watched him get ready for the party. Haha. This child.

My sister and her boyfriend arrived on Saturday evening and agreed to babysit for us, so Nate and I got to sneak away for a date night! We saw a movie at Alamo (we used to do this ALL THE TIME before kids, and now it’s a rare treat when we can go to the theater. We ate dinner during the movie and it was so wonderful and relaxing.

And then we went to Dolce Neve for gelato! We used to live walking distance from this little gelato shop, and it was the first Austin food spot that Milo ever visited after he was born.

^ Aww! Baby Milo at 2 weeks old sleeping in the stroller while Nate and I ate gelato. I remember the it was unseasonably FREEZING in early November in 2019, hence the coats and beanies and multiple quilts on top of baby Milo.

Anyway, Nate and enjoyed our date night and were sooo thankful to have some family dealing with bedtime/bathtime for the two boys on Saturday night!

Salted Caramel + Pistachio + lots of smiles.

I love you, Dolce Neve!

Sunday was a pretty chill day! I was trying to stay off my feet in order to save my legs for race day on Monday. Milo requested to do some art, and his favorite place to do it is on the kitchen counter.

Morning snuggles with daddy!

And in the afternoon Kylee and I checked in our bikes at the race expo in downtown Austin! I’ll share a full recap of the expo and the CapTex Tri 2023 soon.

The rest of Sunday was full of carb-loading, rest, and an early bedtime to get ready for the race!

We were awake at 4:45 on Memorial Day! The triathlon was a BLAST. Seriously can’t wait to share every single little detail with you. My mom and dad, my sister and her boyfriend, Nate and his parents and Milo and Dayton, Kylee’s boyfriend, and another dear friend who lives nearby all came to the race to cheer us on. It was soooo fun to have friendly faces around every corner of the swim, bike, and run to keep us motivated and “up” during this race. I love this family.

And the rest of the day we hung out at my house! We had a bunch of craft beer in the fridge, watermelon tequila punch, and a bunch of snacks all afternoon. ^ Milo and auntie Kylee made a batch of rice crispy treats (Milo call them “Crispies) and he was very excited to decorate them with red, white, & blue sprinkles.

^ He 100% snuck in a few handful of sprinkles. And didn’t even try to hide it.

Whoever got that middle piece got all the sprinkles.

For lunch I picked this loaded grilled steak salad and this German potato salad, plus brats, hot dogs, and watermelon. It was a feast! Everyone helped out getting the meal on the table so it wasn’t too much work for any one individual, and then we all just sat around enjoying the meal and enjoying spending time with each other. It was perfect.