Easter

Easter was a big event for Mateo this year, though he frequently kept saying it was his birthday. Don't bother correcting him,though, as he'll likely snap back telling you you're wrong.

At Mima and Papa's house he not only got to hunt eggs all over a big backyard, but he also got to skip his nap! Thrilling indeed. He needed some direction here and there, but he found all the eggs but three. (Those eggs were found later, but unfortunately one of the dogs had found them first and, ahem, peed on them.)

The Easter Bunny was hiding in the tree. I bet you can spot him faster than Mateo did!

Mateo had so many eggs that he needed an assistant to hold a spare egg holding bucket.

Some of us wore bunny ears.

Some of us attempted to fly kites.

And one of us climbed a tractor.

Sometimes dogs have the most fun.

This one is just plain handsome.

All good things do come to an end, though. Thank you to Mima and Papa for serving delicious enchiladas and cake, and creating a fun Easter egg hunt for Mateo. He had a wonderful time hunting for and then examining his loot.

(P.S. I apologize for the large thumbnails, resulting in extra scrolling, but I had already put them up that way and decided to call it quits.)

A Family Day.

The day started slowly. For me, anyway. Everyone else seemed able to get out of bed, but I had a really difficult time. A Saturday morning shower helped, as did a quick batch of pancakes. At Rafi's urging we headed off to the bike sale at Mellow Johnny's (Lance Armstrong's bike shop here in Austin). I really liked the first bike I tested and had it set aside with my name on it. It was a hybrid with straight handlebars. But then while I tended to Mateo, Rafi kept looking and discovered this beauty:

Say hello to my new bike! I need to think of a name for her. I still can't believe I own a $1700 bike. Now, I want to make it perfectly clear that we did NOT pay that much for this bike. The sale was really REALLY good, so I got it for 60% off. I just love it when the discount is higher than the actual price!

And for our money I not only got this beautiful bike, but I will also be receiving a custom bike fitting (which I'll do next week), a woman specific seat, a year of brake and derailleur service, two tuneups, and an espresso (they have a coffee shop inside) included for free.

Thank you, Rafi, for my new bike! It's much nicer than what I would've ever picked out for myself, and it inspires me to ride again. And thanks to Victor who dropped everything to come help us with our bike decisions, and thanks to his wife Ingrid for coming with him! Oh, and a big thanks to Mellow Johnny's for not only giving me a kick a$$ deal on my bike but also for providing a fun atmosphere, music, and free food and beer!

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All that biking got our tummies to growling, so we grabbed some healthy lunches and drinks and headed to Zilker Park for a nice picnic. There was evidence in every tree of kite catastrophes from the kite festival a couple of weeks ago. We sat under a nice shady tree, and our friend Andres joined us. Mateo and Rafi had lots of fun running around.

Eventually we lured Mateo into the car with the promise of a cookie. He ate half of it, handed it back, and conked out for the rest of the ride home. It had been a long day for all of us. He watched a Veggie Tales movie and then went to bed early. Rafi and I stayed up working - he on actual work stuff and me on the Peru blog posts. Going through 510 photos is a lot of work! (Hence why I didn't edit any of them.) And now that I'm all caught up, I hope to get back to my frequent, but short, blog posts.

Mima's Vist.

My mom, Mima, left this morning after a long weekend visit. It was really cold, so we didn't exactly get out and do a lot. We did some shopping, but it proved to be fairly unproductive, aside from some turtlenecks. Mainly we enjoyed HGTV, and watching Mateo run around.

The big college football BCS game was on Thursday, and while Rafi went downtown to watch it with friends, Mom and I stayed in and watched it together with our new best friend - a bottle of the most delicious wine either of us had had, Saracco 2009 Moscato D'asti. The game had its ups and downs (still can't believe Colt McCoy's poor luck), but we had a great time. We had prepared for the evening by making some slow cooker Mexican posole paired with Asiago cheese bread and garlic bread. Oh, and bread in the shape of a football from HEB. The wine went perfectly with everything we ate.

Rafi and I took both Mateo and Mima to their first UT basketball game. She agreed with me that their burgers and fries are really good. We also enjoyed a most delicious bag of kettle corn together. Hmmm, are we going for the game or the food? Let's say both.

Mat was excited to pick out his own foam hand, which we put in his room later. He loves to say "Hook 'em, Horns!" and gives his own version of the horns sign. Rafi will definitely have a fellow game goer as Mateo gets older.

Mateo especially enjoyed his time with Mima. She made special pancakes for him with sprinkles! She also gave him a new book to read and awesome Buzz Lightyear pajamas (not to mention the laundry and dishes she did for me!).

On our last evening together, we all watched an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives where he visited a hot dog shop where they fried the hotdogs. When the host bit into it, it had an insanely appetizing crunch. So off Rafi went to HEB for some hot dog buns! We were slightly disappointed in our fried hot dog results, as they tasted just like they had been grilled - no real crunch. Perhaps we used too good of a hot dog? Ours were organic, all natural, and uncured. Maybe you need the cheap ones with the fat and fillers? Oh well. It was worth a try.

Thanks, Mima, for your visit! We all had a lot of fun!

Cadle Christmas

This weekend we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. My parents came with their two dogs, and we opened gifts and ate... and ate... and ate. (I'm still eating the leftovers.) Ham is so delicious!

Mateo was very excited about his Handy Manny workbench. We had to build it immediately after it was opened. Thanks to Mima and Papa for gifting it to him! And thanks for Rafi's and my gifts, as well. I think I'm set for kitchen gadgets - can't wait to use the garlic slicer. Rafi's new iPod alarm clock was MUCH nicer to wake up to compared to his old one.

Rafi with hair.

This is my niece Nicole, aka "Rafi with hair." She is Rafi's brother's oldest daughter. She is also Rafi's goddaughter. Rafi thinks she hung the moon, and I think she thinks the same of him. :-) And now she's graduated 6th grade. Amazing. Time really does fly, as they say. Felicitaciones a Nicole!

First doughnuts.

Mateo had his first trip to the doughnut shop this morning. First he drank his own milk. Then he drank Daddy's orange juice.

Yummm!!!

Some people (who shall remain nameless) can get a little testy when the the camera is turned on them. First they try to ignore it.

Then they get annoyed and give you the stink-eye.

And then they hide.

Sleeping hard.

If ever there was evidence of sleeping hard, this would be it.

Austin Ice Cream Festival.

Last Saturday we checked out the Austin Ice Cream Festival. It was hot. Therefore I needed, NEEDED this green apple Italian ice. I figured if I pronounced it "Eye-TAL-yun" it counted as being a Texas food item. Mateo wouldn't eat one bite of ice cream or Eye-TAL-yun ice. He's weird.

They had popsicle sticks to play with.

Our friend Connor met us there.

Mat enjoyed fanning the ground.

He worked up an appetite.