Last Summer Trip to Austin

As summer was coming to a close, we decided that we would make one last trip to Austin. Sidney's cousin Brittany and her husband Jefferson have been living in Austin for the last few years and we haven't connected with them since moving to Houston. What a perfect opportunity to see family and have some fun! 

We drove up Friday afternoon and met the Cloward's at their home. We spent a few hours talking and catching up before heading out to the famous Salt Lick Barbeque. It was delicious and we had a great time together.

The next day, we hung out with Brittany and her three dogs. They loved Arrow and wanted to lick him all over. He had never been around dogs this big before, but he was so brave!

In the afternoon, he we went to cool off down at a famous river amongst the city's central park. It felt nice to get in the cool water since its been so hot and humid in Texas this summer.

We also had some of the best food Texas has to offer. One place is called Torchy's Tacos. They are very famous in Texas and we really liked the unique taste and flavors they had. We also hit up the best donut food truck in the world. Seriously! It is called Gourdoughs. They had tons of fun flavors and they are huge donuts piled up with toppings like you wouldn't believe! Sidney got one called "Black Out" which had Cream cheese filling, brownies, chocolate fudge syrup, and chocolate chips. I got one called "The Puddin'" which had vanilla pudding, wafers, and whipped cream. So good!

That night, Brittany and Jefferson watched Arrow while we went to a Sam Smith concert that we had been gifted a month ago. We had a great time together! One of our best date nights ever!

On Sunday, we had one last place we wanted to visit before we headed back home. The Texas State Capital building. It was gorgeous and ginormous too. Everything is so detailed and beautiful. We even learned a bit about Texas politics. 

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to the Cloward's after visiting the capital. We had a great time with them and they did a great job hosting us and showing us the best of Austin.

Our Little Tree Miracle

It has been extremely hot and dry this past month and a half. We have had nearly no precipitation, which is quite unusual for Texas, especially considering our record breaking rain in the month of May.

One week after moving into our new house (mid July) we noticed that the little tree out front was looking a little bleak and dry. The leafs were brown and a bit crunchy. We became really concerned and immediately began watering it two to three times a day, hoping to reverse the death that was engulfing it.

We watered and watered for over a week. Everyday we checked to see if there was any improvement, but we saw none. In fact, leafs continued to dry up and fall off.

We prayed everyday for the tree to somehow recover. We didn't know if we would have to replace the tree completely. We really didn't want to have to go that route, but it seemed the only way unless some miracle happened.

One day, about two weeks of relentlessly watering the tree, Dan went to water the tree, and noticed something interesting at the end of some of the branches, little red leaf buds. The tree was alive!!! Over the next week, it grew back its leafs and even began to bloom beautiful red and pink blossoms.

Here are the pictures of our little tree miracle!

We Love Houston!

There so much that we love about Texas and living in Houston. Like all places, there's the ups and downs to every place in America. We wanted to share our top three favorite things as well as our least favorite things about living here. Then maybe we can convince more of y'all to come live down here! ;)

Our Top 3 Favorite Things about Houston

1) The people are so friendly.  We have met so many nice people since moving down here nearly one year ago. There really is something about "Southern Hospitality" that rings true. Even strangers at the store are more open to conversation and being friendly to you. People watch out for each other too. We have made tons of friends down here and have enjoyed all the time that's been spent with them. 

2) Comfortable living. What I mean by this is that Texas has a decently low cost of living and people generally get paid pretty good here. I don't know if that's attributed to the oil industry or not, but the economy seems really healthy here, and that means a comfortable life for most people including ourselves. 

3) There's lots to do. We love being close to Houston because we get the benefits of a big city. There are also tons of parks and malls here too. We love to spend time just walking around and exploring somewhere new that we've never been to. Recently we went to the Houston Children's Museum. It was recently ranked as the best in the U.S. according to Forbes magazine. We were definitely not disappointed. Best of all, most of the museums and the Houston Zoo have a "free day" so it makes it more affordable to go out and do things like that.

Our Top 3 Least Favorite Things about Houston

1) The traffic is horrendous! With a big city that's booming with growth comes a major problem...congestion! The traffic is awful here. We will never complain when we live in Utah again. There are times when it's worse to drive than others but really it's a 24/7 thing. We live right by highway 290 which is one of the worse places to drive and they are doing construction to try to widen it, which makes things even worse. But overall, there's too many people here (2.2 million in Houston, 6.18 million in the greater Houston area), and it's growing too fast to keep up. 

2) Its Hot and Humid! Especially during the summer. The winters are nice we'll admit, but the summers are pretty bad. We find things to do inside...almost always. Swimming is the only thing that's bearable in this kind of heat. Here's a look at the 10 day forecast. Keep in mind that the humidity makes it feel 10 degrees hotter.

3) The Bugs. When they say that everything in Texas is bigger, we think it's most true for the bugs. There's tons of them and there's more of them. We have been so thankful for pest control, which we didn't know was important until our ant invasions. It's as important to have pest control as electricity and water. We've also had to say goodbye to laying out and walking bare feet in the grass. So if you decide to come down to Texas, remember your bug spray!

Ants and Cheesecake

Here in Texas, pest control is a must! Everything in Texas is bigger, including the bugs. We learned the hard way that we NEEDED pest control, and now we are full supporters of it. Here's 4 ways to ensure that ants will not invade your home:

1. Don't leave dirty clothes on the ground. Once in a while, at the end of a long and hard day, we would throw our used clothes on the ground. Slowly, it started to become a pile in the back of our closet. One morning I came into the closet and quickly grabbed a bra off the pile of clothes. I put the bra on and realized that there were tons of fire ants crawling all over my bra! I screamed, tore the bra off, and threw it across the room. Long story short. that's when we KNEW we needed pest control. We learned that ants like the proteins in our sweat, and to never put our clothes on the ground again. *I was incredibly lucky I didn't get bit by the ants. I owe it to my garments for protecting me!*

2.  Don't ever let any food/crumbs stay on the floor for more then a couple days. Ants love anything sugary and they'll go after it. I had made Dan a "congratulations on getting past your first week of school" brunch, and some frosting from the cinnamon rolls I made landed on the ground. Needless to say, sugar ants loved that and invaded our kitchen. *pics uploaded of the food I made for him*

3. Make sure your toothpaste is always put away and that none of the extras are anywhere! I.e., not in the sink, the ground, the drain. Once again, the sugar ants love toothpaste, so they loved our bathroom.

4. Seal up any holes, or things that look like cracks in your entire home. Ants will find a way, whether the crack is smaller than a grain of rice, they will find it. After seeing some ants on the kitchen tile, I found a TINY crack in the corner of our home, and thats where they were coming from.

Sheesh! It sounds like we are slobs or something, but actually we are some of the cleanest people I know. We even just moved into a newly built house, but guys, in Texas, ants WILL find a way. Get pest control, I'm serious. In Utah you could have all these situations above happen and you will most likely never have a pest problem. That's why we had to learn the hard way.

On to more happy and yummy things, it was National Cheesecake Day July 30th! We took advantage of the 1/2 price cheesecakes from the Cheesecake Factory. I surprised Dan with strawberry cheesecake, and indulged in an oreo cheesecake for myself. Totally worth the price, and the calories!