The Trail of Lights

Last Thursday Madelyn and I went to Zilker park in downtown Austin to visit the Trail of Lights. The Trail Of Lights is a popular Austin Christmas destination. A bunch of local businesses each take a tree, and the surrounding area, and decorate it with lights or other type of "Christmas" decorations. I am not sure where an armadillo playing the maracas and banjo falls under "Christmas" decorations, but it was entertaining none the less.

This was the first time we had been to the Trail of Lights after a failed attempt to go last year. This year my sister is in town for the holidays so we all packed into the car (after eating at Madelyn's favorite restaurant.... Matt's El Rancho), and hit the trail. The weather was actually a little chilly (50 degrees) which made the experience even more festive.

Here are some pictures from the event.

(Madelyn and my sister in front of an awesome lighted tree)


(Everyone liked the star tunnel)

Austin has these things called Moonlight Towers (This is a really interesting link. Good history lesson). The city of Austin is the only remaining city in the world to have these Moonlight towers, and one of them serves as the Zilker park Christas tree. The big thing to do is to walk into the middle of the tree and spin. This made both of us extremely dizzy, but was really neat, completely disorienting, and cool. My mom said that this is the largest man made Christmas tree in the U.S.. I have no evidence to support that fact, but I wouldn't doubt it, the thing is really big, and you can see it for at least 3 miles in each direction. Also, the tree is in Texas.... and I don't know if you are aware, but EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas....

(I had to lay on the ground to get the entire tree in)

(Do we look a little dizzy? We had just stopped spinning)

Wasn't Thanksgiving a month ago?

Yes, Thanksgiving was a month ago..... but we never blogged about it. When we started this blog we thought it would be a great way to stay in contact with our family and friends back in Utah. Since we spent Thanksgiving with all of them, it's hard to come up with something to write about. In fact, I didn't even take ONE picture. But we did want to say that we had a great time in Salt Lake visiting. It was so great to see everyone and actually get to see it snow (as I am sitting with my windows open in short sleeves on December 20th). Since I didn't take any pictures I did my best to use MS Paint to help describe our trip.

(This is a sad attempt to depict Madelyn and I flying off to Salt Lake. Paint is harder then I remember. An airplane is nearly impossible. )

Thanksgiving in my family means Dallas Cowboys football. The Cowboys won, and the food was great.... as always, scalloped corn (my favorite) and Honey Baked Ham. My little brother (Jackson) and I played hours of Star Fox Assault (his B-day present from me), I watched hours of football (poor Utah....stupid BYU) with my dad and grandpa, and even got to celebrate my grandma's birthday.

Madelyn's family is a lot like the Post Office..... "Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow" Madelyn's mom and sisters will always go shopping. I'm pretty sure they had a great time (although I wasn't anywhere near the scene). I somehow always found myself back at the Fowles residence around dinner time......we both had some great dinners out with the family, which included my birthday dinner at Market Street. Of course, it was amazing.

We also got to hang out with some friends (thanks, Barbara and John, Suzanna and Jeris, Eric, and Scott and Courtney) which was like riding a bicycle. Even though we've been gone an entire year, when we hang out with our friends, it's like nothing has changed. The only big difference is that we end the night at 10:00pm because we're tired.

We got Elfed

Today my dad sent us an email titled "You got Elfed", inside was the below link, which had both of us laughing hysterically. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

We got Elfed

Presenting: Shy Girl Designs!!!

My two sisters and I have been really busy lately. It's the most fun we've had in a long time. Together, we've been creating:

Shy Girl Designs; clever accessories for girls.


Click on the link to check out our brand new website. Tell everyone you know that may be interested in our adorable products for little girls. We are offering a Friends and Family Discount so if you have not received our welcome email and would like to, please leave your email address in the comments and I will send the promotional code.

First of December...... here comes Christmas

Madelyn and I just spent the First of December filling ourselves with Christmas spirit. We started off the day with a trip to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm outside of Austin to pick out a tree for our house. Since we live in what has previously been called a hotel room, we had to get a small tree. Here are some pictures from our First of December Christmas festivities.

The first step in going Christmas tree farming is to hop on a trailer full of bales of hay for sitting, pulled by a tractor.



The tractor then drops you off in the middle of a Christmas tree forest.




Before you get off the tractor they supply you with a saw and a tag. Chop down your tree, tag it, and throw it on the next round of tractors.


Once you get back from the Christmas tree forest they put your tree in what is called "lil Shakee", which vibrates your tree so that all the excess needles fall off your tree.



Then they bag your tree for you.



Then you take the tree home and decorate it. The finished product makes all of the work worth it. I think it looks like a Pottery Barn Catalog!



Since we don't have trees..... or a yard. I put up lights around out apartment door. I hope our neighbors don't mind our Christmas spirit.


Stay tuned for next post....Thanksgiving in Salt Lake!