Our First Time in Austin, TX!!!

Austin Texas is such a cool place.

We only spent a long weekend here but we had so much fun. We didn't do anything too extreme and still there were interesting things around every corner. On our way there we stopped at The Picnic which is a little park of food trucks serving all different types of foods. Everything we had, including cupcakes, was delicious.
We stayed at The Archer hotel which is in an area called "the Domain", about 15 minutes from downtown Austin. Scarlett walked into the hotel and was immediately in awe at the HUGE horse mural that ran the whole side of the stairway. She ran to it and the excitement on her face was pure joy. In fact she had to say hello and good-bye to them every time we entered or left the hotel. This involved running up the stairs to pet their legs and say, "I'll see you soon, girl".
The rooms were pretty and non-traditional, just the way I like them. We checked in and as we stepped outside, we found that we were in the midst of a very cool atmosphere. Dining, shopping and parks surrounded our hotel. We had planned to go visit downtown more than we did but we took a day and just wandered around the Domain, shopping and eating, more shopping and exploring fun restaurants. Of course our hotel was right next to Nordstroms and it happened to be Black Friday when we arrived, so I took it upon myself to buy myself some gifts! ha ha. It's sad that the only person that I bought for on Black Friday was myself. But to my defense, I had my shopping done a week earlier so we had no plans to shop on this day for anyone else. Every store that I love was walking distance to our hotel. Which was bad and amazing all in the same thought. The kids found a store called it's Sugar that was a horrible place to take them, lol, and we also discovered some fun eating spots where the kids could run around and play with some outdoor games while we enjoyed drinks and apps, like Culinary Dropout.

Our hotel pool/lounge area was spectacular! They had a huge screen tv with the loveliest round pool and bar to top it off. We spent most of Saturday here. It was just nice to get some Vitamin D and do natta. The kids didn't object and spent all their time in that pool. We also spent evenings here becuase it was just too cool not too. I watched the game one night while I swam in a heated pool with a drink in hand. I mean... #lovinglife. ;)
On Friday night, we went to a local coffee place that had a lights and music show. We grabbed hot cocoa, snacks and glow bracelets and watched the entire place light up to the festive music. The kids really enjoyed that and it was FREE. Can't beat that!

We explored a little around downtown Austin but not nearly as much as we wanted to. We found the Barton Spring Pool, which is a spring fed pool that stays about 70 degrees year round! Then we drove by the graffiti park on Castle Hills, which may I add was SO extremely smelly (like paint fumes)  that we could only take driving by it. The kids were sleeping anyhow. We didn't even stop to look. But it was cool to see. We ate dinner one evening at Olive & June's. This place was so cool. The food was upscale but on the patio, a huge tree lives in the middle, giving it a treehouse vibe. I of course, loved all the white detail in this restaurant. But I would not recommend this for those with kids. There were literally no kids options and the kids ended up eating bread mostly, lol. The kids choice was Chuys. Which the kids ate more than I've ever seen them eat before! And the margaritas there are pretty spot on! I must say.

One of my favorites from this trip was going to the 360 Overlook! We went after breakfast one morning and it was beautiful! I had it in my mind that it would be a good hike, but it really wasn't. It took us all but 5 minutes. But when we got to the top, wow! Pretty views for sure. We wanted to take the kids to do something that they would enjoy so we decided to stop at the Austin Zoo for a few hours. Scarlett loved that they are a non-profit zoo that rescue animals. Maxwell really enjoyed it too.

I had it on my list to go see the infamous "I love you so much" wall but found a WAY better John Lennon wall that I made out with Ty under ;) Austin has the best walls, as you will see as you scroll through my photos. Even Chevy Chase was present!!  All in all, we made the most out of this long weekend trip. Austin is a very trendy, hip and cool city that we will definitely visit again! There is so much to do and see here! It's only an hour and 1/2 drive from us so I'm sure we will spend more weekends here. If you know Austin well, give me all your best places to see and eat!!!!

And now.....for picture OVERLOAD. sorry. #memoriesinthemaking