Austin, Texas - Grandson Visit!

Dear Friends:

During the first week of December, my oldest son came to visit us in Austin with his family.  His wife and my grandson came to our house...and we had an absolute BLAST while they were here!

Here's a video clip of "Mimi" interacting with little L.  I think it's hilarious...

While at our house, my grandson had lots of time to play with his aunt and uncle - my youngest children.  I know, I know...it sounds strange when a 3 year-old is an aunt to an 18-month old, but that's how it works in our family.  Trust me, it's a lot of fun with all the kids playing together.  We love to have dance parties:

While in town, we wanted all of the kids to take a picture with Santa.  Unfortunately, only one of the three kids enjoyed talking, and having his picture taken, with Santa:

The 3 year-old doesn't want to get near Santa.  My grandson, as with so many kids his age, had developed a fear of Santa.  It's hard on little ones, when they don't know someone like that.  Here's how the scene unfolded:



The bonus is that we will have this picture to save for when he's in high school and we might need to embarrass him for fun:

His mom jumped in to save the day, and we actually got a decent picture of the group:

While the pictures were being processed, we decided to let the boys play on a little Christmas train that was set-up nearby.  My grandson seemed to like the train.  Everything was fine, when G-Man and L were in the car:

However, the poor little guy got scared as the train started moving.  He's such a good kid, and the episode with Santa didn't help.  Lesson learned.  Although he didn't think it was funny, we found it humorous when the train was going in circles and we could hear him crying the whole time.  I know, Grandpa is cruel:



While my son's family was in town, we took advantage of the time to shoot some portraits of their family.  It sure doesn't hurt that they are all good-looking!  We took them to a nearby golf course and had fun trying to keep my grandson from running onto the fairways:

This is one of my favorites, for sure...it captures this family quite well:

How stinkin' cute is this guy?!?!? I mean, seriously...

We also spent some time inside my wife's photography studio.  We caught a few pictures that were pretty cool.  I love his little tie.  His mom picks out the BEST clothes for him:

To get the boy moving in front of the lights, we invited G-Man to move with him on the platform.  It was so fun to watch them playing together. Check out the expression on G-Man's face...he's so good with little kids:

Whenever the kids come to town, we always try to take them to a new restaurant.  There's just so many fun and interesting places to eat in Austin, that we never run out of new places.  This time, we took them to brunch at St. Phillip.  It's a fun place with an eclectic menu.  I decided to try the Big 'Ol  Biscuit & Gravy.  With an on-site bakery, anything that has bread in the recipe is super delicious.  This dish was unique, in that it was a chorizo gravy with fried egg and potato slices on top.  Yummy!

While waiting for the food, my grandson and I played around.  What else would you expect??



The kids were also in town for our annual Christmas Dessert Party - however, I'll save that for another post.  The last evening they were in Austin, was the opening of the annual Trail of Lights in Zilker Park. This is a massive event with millions of lights set-up in really creative displays.  The entrance was like a gauntlet of lights.  It was beautiful, and a great way to start the Christmas season:

The displays were set against the Austin skyline - which is gorgeous all by itself.  While a little cold, it was a magical evening:

Food trailers are big in Austin.  For the Trail of Lights, they brought in about a dozen of the food trailers, and it sure made a fun way to eat dinner.  We sampled food from a Korean truck, a trailer that specialized in grilled cheese sandwiches, and the Krispy Kreme food truck!  Here's a clip of G-Man sharing a donut with my grandson:



The pinnacle of the Trail of Lights at Zilker, is the Christmas tree, made of lights.  It's huge - about 50 ft in the air.

When you stand underneath it, you get a weird feeling of movement.  The tradition is to spin around under the tree...and you'll get dizzy quite fast:

We capped the evening with a picture of the entire family.  This was so fun, and I think we may invite my son's family EVERY Christmas, to have this as a tradition:

Sadly, it was time for their family to return to Dallas, but we took one last picture together.  I sure love my son and his family.  We LOVE every time they visit, especially as my grandson gets older.  All of the kids play together well, and it's a special time for this grandpa: