From Hot to Not

Jay and I returned home a couple of days ago from a visit to Austin. Wow!  It is beyond hot down there.  The Central Texas area is just burning up.  Green grass is nowhere to be seen.  Lake Travis is alarmingly low. Such a terrible drought.  We are praying that fall brings healing rain to the poor, sun-scorched state.

This is a sight we saw often on a drive from Austin to Edna to see my folks. The poor cattle all gather under any available tree. The area around where my parents live is usually green and lush. You can tell by this pic how brown everything is right now. So sad.

So now we are back in Montana where the high today is 67 degrees and it feels a lot like fall.  From one extreme to the other.  While it is nice to be cooler after melting in the Texas heat, I will be glad to be heading out of here before the long, cold winter sets in.  No more will I have to deal with 9 months of gray skies, freezing temperatures and snow covered ground. My freezing feet will be so thankful to finally thaw out after 17 years in Bozeman.  :-)

Time Flies

My goodness, the last few weeks have been a busy blur around here.  Unfortunately, the weeks to come will likely be even busier. We are all well, however, and are getting geared up for the big move to Austin, Texas.  While I am looking forward to our new adventure, I'm not at all looking forward to the actual moving of the junk.

Anyhoo...we've just come to the end of a 2 week long Pierson family gathering time.  Jay's niece, Dani, got married in Bozeman last week, so the whole clan (well, nearly the whole clan--sadly, we were missing a few) came together for what really turned out to be quite the family reunion.

Dinner on the deck with Jay's parents, his sister Raye, and niece Erin.  Raye and Erin stayed with us, along with Erin's sweet kids Charlie and Gracie.  So fun!

Kyra and little Gracie.  I think Gracie smiles more than any baby I have ever seen.  Just stinkin' cute!!!

This is Charlie.  His favorite activity was throwing the ball for our Lab, Tucker.  Such a sweet little boy!

All in all, it was a great couple of weeks.  Thanks to Raye, Erin, and the kids for being such fun, thoughtful house guests.  We love you!

A little bit of Africa in Texas

It is my opinion that one of the fabulous things about traveling is eating.  But...what is more fun than going to a new place and trying out new restaurants?  Going to a new place and trying out new restaurants with old friends!  Jay and I were recently in Austin, TX.  While there, we met up with some of our favorite Montana friends who happened to be in Texas at the same time.  Perfect.

Going on a recommendation from a local (the best way to choose a meal in a new city), we decided upon a little hole-in-the-wall place right off the interstate in downtown Austin,  Aster's Ethiopian Restaurant.  http://www.astersethiopian.com/   Honestly, without the recommendation I doubt we'd have looked twice at this place.  Sad, but true. A big fan of both cooking and eating African food, I found this place to be a delight with it's down to earth atmosphere and amazingly fragrant, spicy fare.  Yum!!!!  If you ever find yourself in the Austin area, mosey on over to Aster's for a great lunch. :-)