Austin rocks!

Before I begin about my trip, I want to say 'congratulations' to Hannah and Merrick!! They are now parents to Grace Marie who will be a week old tomorrow. (She's beautiful and you can check her out at www.teambrownlee.blogspot.com/). Can't wait to meet her in person! :)

In other news, our friends, the Morrison family (www.morrisonsinmichigan.blogspot.com/) moved from MI to St. Louis area last week! I hope you all are getting settled and that things are going well as you explore your new stomping grounds. We are thinking of you and praying for the remainder of the transition to be smooth. Love you!



Last week I was blessed to go down to the cool city of Austin, TX to celebrate motherhood and friendship with some dear girlfriends. Mauria, Missy and I flew down to meet up with Amber-Rose for a long Girl's Weekend (AR calls it a 'Mom's Weekend,' but for some reason that doesn't seem to quite capture all the fun we had. I mean, does staying up until 3am+ seem like something involving a mom's weekend? Well, maybe if someone had their baby along, but that was not the case this time)! There was plenty of laughter, catching up, freedom from changing diapers, telling secrets - all the girl-stuff I've come to expect from time spent with these beautiful ladies. We went out to eat, spent a night in a cool, funky hotel in downtown Austin (thanks to Adam) - ironically, the room we got had a huge mural of what looked a lot like Mt. Hood on it), watched a great band at the Lucky Lounge (www.myspace.com/mattwhiteband), spent 2 nights at Amber-Rose's aunt and uncle's lake house (absolutely beautiful and relaxing - right on the lake and even had a hot tub), went tubing, got caught in a thundershower (while it was 80 outside), attempted wake-boarding, visited the Zimel's new church (www.austinstone.org), tried several espresso drinks at various locations (even introduced one coffee shop to the ever popular (at least in my world) Black & White Mocha - GFU people might know this as the Zebra), shopping at awesome outlets, and so much more. It was an amazing weekend!

Those girls are SO funny and it was truly a blessing to be with such uplifting, Godly, encouraging people who have the same heart to be great mommies, wives, and friends, and most importantly, to follow God with everything in them. I can honestly say there were both tears of laughter and melancholy (though, way more envoked by laughter) and any girl knows that's the sign of a hugely successful weekend of bonding and fun. :) On Monday night, I think Craig (Maur's other half) was honestly a little concerned about all the "fun" we were still portraying for him when he met us outside baggage claim and we were still laughing histerically at eachother.

Amber-Rose, thank you for all the thought you put into the weekend and for your generous spirit. The devotionals you chose were perfect and I felt like God was such a big part of our weekend (from finding the "princess" parking spot (well maybe not the best example), to being out or the lake, to the quiet times, to the light traffic after the thunderstorm on the way to the airport) Thank you! Also, a huge thank you to all our wonderful family who shared Cade and Callum while I was gone for 5 days. You are truly a blessing!! The boys had great times with you all and it gave me such a peace to know the boys were with people they love and who would I knew would give them plenty of loves and hugs while we were apart. (I'll try to round up some pics from the other trips and post those as well).

Well, I'd better go, Cade and Kevin are napping (Thank the Lord Kevin made it home safely from Malaysia this morning but has a very bad chest cold), but while I've been blogging I see Callum has been unloading my large baking drawer. There's an entire roll of wax paper unraveled on the kitchen floor and he has now moved on to my food dye. He's emptied all the colors out of the box and is going to town, gnawing on bottle of red dye. (Poor teething boy)! Better go take care of that. Ah, it's good to be home.

P/S This pic sort of sums up some current personality traits of two eldest Zimel boys. We sure do miss the Zimel family tons and it was good to see where they now live and meet some of their lucky friends. :)