Milla's Birthday Camping Weekend

For one of Austin's 3 day weekends we went camping near Austin, Texas at Inks Lake State Park. It was also to celebrate my 27th birthday. We spent the first night by ourselves in the camp site and the second night we were joined by our good friends, Spencer and Rachel Wallin! They are seriously the coolest friends. Spencer had just had a birthday too so we did a joint birthday song and we stuck candles in our cake filled oranges that we cooked in the camp fire. 

We did a lot of exploring and bug catching, swimming at the coolest water hole called the Devil's Waterhole, sliding down the natural rock water slides, wading in the river, eating delicious food, roasting s'mores, and trying to survive from the HEAT. Ugh! Texas heat is pretty awful. It's definitely clear why camp sites are easy to come by in the summer time here. haha! But, we still had tons of fun and playing in the water hole so much definitely helped.

We also spent half a day on a tour of the Longhorn Caverns. It was a few miles of exploring and it was super awesome being in the dark, cool caves for that long. We were even lucky enough to see a few bats up close. Austin was so happy about that! 

We all had such a great weekend! Saying "goodbye" to Spencer and Rachel is always sad, but we always find a way to see each other no matter where we live. So, we know we will have more adventures with them in the future!

On the first day I accidentally tripped over Oliver and fell on top of him on the cement steps. He smashed his cheek pretty good. Poor kid!

Oliver and Calum were troopers! Even with the battery operated fan the tent was pretty hot. They still slept great!

We explored some nearby caves called the Longhorn Caverns

We got to see some bats up close. Oliver loved exploring in the dark caves!

The shallow spots in the riverbeds were SO much fun since Calum and Oliver both don't swim yet. 

There were lots of cool water slide spots that we found

Calum most enjoyed throwing rocks... haha!

Eating watermelon with our favorite folks, the Wallins!

Happy Birthday to me and Spencer!

Visit from the Wallins!

Any time the Wallins come for a visit we have such a great time! 

We were so lucky to have them come down for a few days and stay with us at our house here in Houston! We went on some bike rides, we played tons of games every night, we ate the most delicious food.... they made us the most incredible Bahn Mi (korean meatball sandwiches) and we also had an epic cheese night for old times' sake! It was a really fun visit!

We also met our other Ann Arbor friends (the Stathams, who currently live in Houston) at the beach in Galveston for a beach day. Afterwards we drove to a seafood joint that we ate at with the Wallins last summer and we just had to try it again! You order shrimp or fish or frog legs or whatever you want by the pound and they fry it up and serve it with a bunch of french fries. It was so good!

At the beach with Spencer and Rachel

Rachel, me and Brittany

Spencer and Calum are buds!

Eating some fried seafood after a day at the beach!

Having a little cheese night for old times' sake!

Weekend in San Antonio

Since Austin works 9 80 work weeks (9 hour days) he gets every other Friday off! It has been super awesome because we get to travel on the 3 day weekends that he has. We decided to pop over to San Antonio since Austin had never been. It is a pretty cool city!

We spent some time on the river walk, we found a really cool food truck park with amazing food, we saw the Alamo, we visited a few of the other missions in the Missions national historic park (they were way cooler than the Alamo), and we took the kids to the rainforest cafe (even though the food is awful... haha!). The kids loved it! 

The San Antonio riverwalk

We found an awesome food truck park with incredible food and music. Definitely a cool find!

Visiting the Alamo

The boys loved the Rainforest Cafe!

The Mision Concepcion was my favorite! 

This mission is the oldest stone building in the United States that hasn't been changed or renovated. 

Hannah and McKaid's Wedding

In May Hannah and McKaid got married! I flew out to Idaho a week early to help with getting ready and prepping food and also making Hannah's wedding cake! I was so honored that they asked me to do it! It was my first time doing a wedding cake so I kept the design really simple and focused on making them really tasty! 

I made chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream, vanilla cake with fresh raspberries and swiss meringue buttercream, lemon cardamom cake with lemon curd and buttercream filling, chocolate cake with mexican spiced chocolate ganache filling and also chocolate cake with salted caramel and swiss meringue buttercream filling. 

It was a lot of work but luckily it all came together in the end! Every single piece of cake was eaten which is a good sign! Also, the bride and groom were SO happy with it, which is really all that matters anyway! 

The wedding was held at the Logan, Utah temple and the reception was at my Dad's institute building in Pocatello. It all turned out really nice and everyone had a great time dancing on the dance floor and eating all the delicious food and taking pictures at the photo booth and what not. I'm so happy for my sweet little sister and her new hubby, McKaid! He is one lucky guy, let me tell you that! 

Calum walking through the mall with Auntie Hannah and Papa

I got to attend Hannah's endowment session at the Brigham City Temple a few days before the wedding. It was so great!

The two love-birds, as happy as can be!

I'm so happy for this little sis of mine!

Hannah learning how I fill the cakes

Lemon cardamom is one of my favorite flavors!

Rissa, Devrey and I decided to try on our old wedding dresses too and get a picture with the new bride in hers! 

It has been almost 7 years since I wore this dress and I'm glad to say it still fits! 

Oliver thought I looked beautiful like a princess in my dress. He was almost embarrassed to see me in it! haha! So cute! 

The cake table just before the reception began

I was very relieved to be done and happy it turned out ok! 

Calum loved seeing Auntie Hannah in her wedding dress!

Austin made the wire cake topper for me! He is so talented!

Sending off the bride and groom to their honeymoon!

Cutting the cake! My Grandpa says this is what tells how successful the marriage will be. I think theirs is going to be great!

My beautiful sister!!

My Little Family- April 2016

Taking family pictures.... ugh! It is definitely a chore. A chore that Austin would be completely fine without ever doing. And, I really mean EVER. Now you can see where Oliver gets his stubbornness when it comes to being behind a lens. Both of them despise having pictures taken of themselves. So, I came prepared with a bag full of mike 'n ikes and other goodies to bribe some smiles out of them. :)

Since it was important to me to finally get pictures as a family of 4 we decided to schedule a quick (and I mean really quick) photo shoot with our good friend, Silke Masullo. She is incredibly talented! 

Everyone was really happy to dress down into our play clothes. These pictures are how life really is for the Boles family. We live in our chacos and t-shirts!