Summer

Summer is winding down, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. Better late than never, eh? We've had a fairly relaxed summer, which works just fine with me.

We played our final softball game of the season last night. We won the first game and lost the second by one run. I think this has been the only summer that we have not had one single game rained out, which is why it feels strange for the season to be over before July ends. Overall, it was a fun season. My favorite part about playing softball is seeing my Meemaw and mother-in-law sit in the stands to cheer us on. That's one nice thing about living in the city you grew up in!

On June 29th, our precious Abby girl turned 5 years old. I cannot believe she went from this:

to this:

I remember visiting the breeder and kneeling down before the pen that she and her litter mates were in and she walked away from her litter mates towards me. That's how I knew she was "the one." We brought her home that day at 6 weeks old and I remember carrying her around everywhere so she didn't have to walk. Michael still teases me about that. :)

And she slept in a box by my side of the bed for several weeks so I could comfort her in the middle of the night when she whined. She's definitely a momma's girl. Whenever Michael and I are talking and Michael is sharing about a stressful day or his voice gets a little tense, she'll place herself in between us and give him a look like, "Um, Daddy...watch how you talk to Mommy." It's so cute how empathetic she is.

Now if only I can get her stop aging so I could keep her forever! Dogs really do go to heaven, right? I certainly believe so, and no one will convince me otherwise.

And we mustn't neglect our Ginger girl, who pushes the boundaries of our rules every morning. We do not allow the dogs to enter our bathroom (they're supposed to stay on the carpet), but as you can see, she tests us often to see how serious we are. Such a stinker.

We went to our first-ever "First Friday" in downtown B. Some friends were playing in a bluegrass band and we went to watch them play for a little while, and then walked around the downtown area. There's one restaurant that we've eaten at before, where we ordered a Green Apple Mimosa. Well, in typical Yager fashion, we decided we could make our own at home instead of paying for drinks at the restaurant, so off to Kroger we went. About a half hour later, we were enjoying our homemade mimosas...yum!

Last weekend we visited our friends, Mark and Jocelyn, in Round Rock and had a fun time seeing some sites in Austin. We walked around with the peacocks at Mayfield Park, climbed Mount Bonnell (not really a mountain, just a tall overlook of the city), briefly went to Barton Springs to check out the swimming but quickly left after seeing an overweight topless woman walking around...with children nearby...in broad daylight...in public...eek! Austin truly is weird.

But in some ways, we fit right in, because then we ate dinner at a restaurant tailor-made for us: Casa de Luz. It's an oil-free, gluten-free, vegan restaurant. Though not the best tasting meal we've had to date, it was so refreshing to eat out and not have to worry about asking questions about what's in the food. I kept telling Michael, "This is how it used to feel to eat out!"

Around dusk we went to the Congress Avenue bridge to see the largest urban bat colony in North America -- up to 1.5 million bats -- flying out in search of food. It was so cool to watch! Then they took us someplace really special. Some place we've never had the pleasure of going to before.

Whole Foods.

Oh my goodness, we were like kids in a candy store. But a healthy candy store. With the largest bulk bin section I've ever seen. And some really exotic produce that I never knew existed. We bought a couple purple sweet potatoes (will be cooking them tonight!), a kiwano horned melon, and a few rambutan (pictured above). The rambutan was my favorite - it tastes like a cross between a kiwi and pear...very sweet and delicious. The only thing that would have made the trip better was if Rip Esselstyn had been present (he works for Whole Foods and frequently appears at the particular store we were at). But we left a shout-out to him with the cashier. I'm choosing to believe she actually told him about our shout-out. :)

We had a great weekend...thanks Mark and Jocelyn!



Hope you all are having a lovely summer!