I have always said that we hit the jackpot when it came to "baby friends." We met some spectacular people when Norah was born that became forever friends, and the L-J family is an integral part of that group. They moved to London right around the same time we moved to Texas (yes, they are that cool), but thank goodness for blogs, Facebook, and Christmas cards because we've gotten to keep up with their adventures. Norah has a photo of C in her room that she looks at every night and loves to hear stories about all the fun they had together as "little kids." Among a million other things, she remembers spending one Christmas with them and having a water party in their backyard.
Lucky for us, a friend's wedding in Austin brought them to our neck of the woods and we got to spend a fun long weekend with them. We have kept up with photos and funny stories, but nothing could quite prepare us for the awesomeness that are little kids with British accents. C was three and K was two when they moved so it is no surprise that two-and-a-half years in they are full fledged Brits.
Friday morning Norah had to go to school but Lou played hooky and we met up at the Thinkery (children's museum).
C really wasn't this much bigger than Lou, I think it is just the angle I was standing at.
We had to head back north to get Norah but planned to meet up at the original Salt Lick for a bbq dinner. It was 75 degrees and stormy and because it makes perfect sense, we got caught in a torrential hail storm. I don't quite understand how that's possible, but apparently it is.
As always, I severely underestimate how much Austin traffic sucks. What was originally a long drive ended up being an exceedingly long drive. Thankfully, food was good, beer was BYOB, and company was even better. Norah was really nervous about seeing C (will she remember me? will she like me? has she seen Frozen?), but within about 30 seconds they were thick as thieves (the Frozen song below was recorded after dinner).
Saturday was spent with Norah's face pressed up against the front door waiting for C and as soon as they got here it was sleepover game on. S and J made their way to their friend's wedding and the kids made their way into the hot tub. C was disappointed that the big pool was too cold to swim in (and in all actuality I think she would have been just fine if we had let her go in), but the little one ended up being a lot of fun for everyone. C and K are both great swimmers and K cleaned up all of the leaves off the bottom for me.
Norah and C got to be ladies of leisure and take a bath in the fancy tub.
They put on their nightgowns, said hello to me, then immediately turned around and went back into Norah's room. When they came back out they had switched and C was wearing Norah's glasses. This sent them into hysterics for at least a half hour. For the rest of the night they kept saying, "who is the real Norah?" and "who is the real C?" and cracked up every time.
K was a formidable opponent for Lou. For one, he likes to wrestle just as much as Lou does. Also, he doesn't back down in the way that Norah does, truly giving Louis a run for his money. Lou couldn't get enough of him. Every time K was out of his sight he would yell, "where dat kid? I gotta find dat kid."
The rest of the night was a ton of playing. The plan had been to watch a movie but they never stopped long enough to get it going. C and K slept in Norah's room and Louis got banished to his own room. It was a success of a sleep over for sure.
The next day we went to the garden festival at Zilker park. It's so nice to have friends in town for this kind of stuff because otherwise we would never do it. The weather was perfect and I am so glad we went. We did not end up seeing much of the festival, but that's okay. We did get to experience face painting, a picnic lunch, the fairy house trail, and a food truck park with Amy's ice cream.
The food trucks were in this beautiful grove with picnic tables, ample room to run around, lots of shade, and a cool breeze. We intended to make just a pit stop but ended up staying a while because it was so pleasant to be there. It was also where Lou pooped in a port-a-potty for the first time. Now, I didn't have high hopes for him and being out of the house for that long so newly potty trained and broke the #1 rule of potty training and tried to convince him to put on a diaper for the day. He would have none of that, so I just packed lots of extra underpants with the expectation that there would be accidents throughout the day. What a rock star he was. Not only was there not a single accident, he pooped both in a disgusting port-a-potty and at the restaurant at dinner. I was very impressed.
I think Norah got gluttened (it must have been the ice cream although I can't imagine how it happened since they guy even used a brand new scooper), but rallied pretty quickly and was able to enjoy the rest of the day.
We had dinner at Guero's Taco Bar, one of my favorites, and I looked forward to the day where I would get to eat a meal with my friends without Louis destroying my spirit. After dinner, S and C went boot shopping and Norah and I went along for moral support. It convinced me that I definitely need to get a pair of real cowboy boots.
I thought this taxidermy armadillo drinking a beer was really funny.
It was such a fun weekend, but way too short of a visit. Norah and I are already planning our girl's trip to London. Watch out!
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