Not a Texan

*Side note: This has been sitting in my drafts for  m o n t h s  now, so ignore the fact that it's all old news.

This post is going to be all over the place {literally}. Even though I don't have too many fond memories while living in Texas, I don't want to completely disregard the first 4 1/2 months of our married life... so here's the overview.

Our First Home

I'll admit, when we arrived I pretty much fell in love with our first little home {apartment}. I loved unpacking, organizing, decorating, and getting nice and settled. I especially liked the dark floors, the black appliances, and the huge walk-in closet. I was excited for this new chapter in our lives! It makes me sad that the dang cockroaches {which we started seeing about two weeks after moving in} ended up ruining that experience for me. Once the bugs moved in, I wanted to move-out BUT I don't want this post to be about that. All of the furniture we had was rented, which made moving a whole lot easier.

Our First Meal

I'm ashamed to say that the first meal I made as a wife was kraft mac & cheese... in an apartment with no furniture whatsoever. We went about a week before our rental furniture arrived so there was a lot of living room floor picnics, a lot of waking up on a deflated blow-up mattress, and a lot of laughs because we were the epitome of every newly married couple. I'm proud to say that I have since mastered some delicious crock pot recipes! I know Jason appreciates it ;)

Our Family & Friends

We were lucky enough to have some friends and family close enough to come visit us. Ryan and Karlie were living in Dallas at the time {which is only about a 3 hour drive from where we were} so they made a trip down to explore Austin with us and we made our way to Dallas to go on a five-couplet date with them. It is always such a fun time with those two!

We had a couple of dinner dates with some of Jason's cousins that lived in the area. It was seriously such a blessing to have so many familiar faces in such an unfamiliar place. Tiana {pictured above} was oh so kind and treated us to a fancy dinner one evening in downtown Austin. It was literally the fanciest, most expensive, and delicious restaurant either of us had ever eaten at. I so wish we got a picture of the three of us that night! She treated Jason to dinner another night while I was home sick. So sweet of her! 

We also went to this unique hot dog place called Franks with another one of Jason's cousins, Kayli. She told me that she fan-girled my Facebook and we instantly clicked. I love my new family!

About a week before we moved out of Texas, we met up with half the Billat clan for lunch as they passed though Austin. We went to Moonie's Burgers, mine and Jason's favorite local burger shop. The food was great, but the company was better. It was so fun spending time with my Texas framily!

 Our Dates

Some of our Austin outings included hiking Mount Bonnell, seeing Jurrassic World in IMAX 3-D {by mistake}, swimming while taking underwater pictures, exploring Zilker Park, mini golfing, driving all the way to the mall only to get a wetzel pretzel, watching fireworks on the 4th of July, along with lots of midnight taco bell and 7-11 slurpee runs when we were feeling the munchies.

The Last of Our First Car

Jason was sad to see his baby go, but even he will admit that selling his 2002 S-60 Volvo to the junk yard was the best option. We didn't have to worry about the car turning off every few minutes AND we were riding luxuriously blasting the A.C. on our 14 hour drive back to Colorado! You truly don't understand the blessing of A.C. until you've had to live a summer in Texas without it.

We picked up the rental car, dropped the Volvo off at the junk yard, packed up the remainder of our belongings {thankfully one of the guys Jason sold with had a truck and took over half of our stuff with him}, turned in our apartment keys, and left Austin for good. We were both so, so, so, so, so happy as we were driving away!

For those of you who haven't been, Austin is extremely lush and green-- no wonder the bugs love it here! The roads are lined with thousands and thousands of trees. It made for a very scenic drive home... but the views ain't enough to bring me back. So long Texas!!!