Horse Affairs

While I was in Boise I got the best surprise ever!  Grant came to visit!  We had been apart for two weeks (with only eight or nine left... blech), so it was great to spend a few days together.  While Grant was there we headed out to meet the two newest members of the Peterson family:

Oh, no, it's not my mom & Grant...

Hollywood:

And Cougar:

We even got to ride Hollywood around.  Baby T wasn't up for an adventurous ride so Hollywood just walked around the arena for me.  

I am a total expert now...

Cougar has a bit more of a spunky personality.  Spunky meaning he forced my dad to bail into a barbed wire fence... so we just took pictures and didn't ride Cougar.

Grant got some lessons from Grandpa Mike and got to ride Hollywood as well.

Here's Dad showing off his speedy skills:

Then my mom, Taylor, & I took off and left Grantie & my dad for a little ride in the foothills.

Soon, Baby T can have his first ride on Hollywood too... heh heh.

Favorite Baby Boy Ever... (for 4 more months...)

Last week was Spring Break in Texas so I took I much needed trip back home to good ole Iderho.  It was great to be home especially because Linds, Taylor, Gavin, Gma, & Papa Logsdon all made it to Boise as well.  Gavin, as always, was the star of the show.  

Unfortunately Gavin forgot all his clothes for the plane ride. (Babies can be so forgetful sometimes!)  So he got to try on some of Baby T's clothes to hold him over.  Our favorite is this Polo outfit.  Oh man, cutest thing ever!

Grandma & Mama are getting him all dressed.

But Gavin is hyper aware of cameras and video cameras.  He is the ultimate poser.

He is way into the open mouth stare:

And he has recently discovered his tongue as well.

Again, distracted by the camera.  Or is it his favorite aunt and cousin fetus behind the camera?

Gavin is also becoming very mobile very quickly.

He has mastered the army crawl and occasionally ventures into actual crawling.

He moves so darn fast that my camera wouldn't focus and take a picture quite fast enough.

Luckily he's easily distracted...

What a winner.

Look at him and his cute mama!

While I was definitely a picture slacker over my trip, I did manage these pictures of Gavin as well as a few of the newest members of the Peterson clan.  Those will be coming soon...

The Lonely Grower

Grant has been in Denver for about three weeks now.  Striving to remain positive about this unfortunate, but luckily temporary, situation I've compiled a short list of the good things:

-I get the whole bed.  Me and my seven pillows.  I also bought a body pillow.  It's for Baby T...
-Oh man, I just ran out of good things...

Actually being away from Grant has forced me to document life in a different way: Cell phone pictures.  Baby T is growing quickly, so consequently, I'm growing quickly as well!  Every few days I send Grant a picture of his ever expanding wife and baby to be.

19 weeks 5 days:

20 weeks 1 day:

20 weeks 6 days:

21 weeks 1 day:

21 weeks 3 days:

21 weeks 4 days:

22 weeks 3 days:

22 weeks 5 days:

23 weeks:

This set of photos is clearly not intended to glamorize my hair, face, fashionable style, and especially not my tidiness...  But little Baby T is definitely in there!  Yay!

PS - It is still a boy!

I can't help but be pumped about having a little guy on the way.  I was openly hoping it would be a boy for some reason.  I don't know, I just wanted a boy.  Anyways, he is due July 17th.

Any favorite boy names [warning...if the name is good enough, we will steal it]?

Short Update, Short Pity Party...

My brain is exploding (for multiple reasons).  Share in my small pity party if you so desire:

1. Bad morning for head and tummy.  I have been so blessed to have good days for the last month or so.  But today is not one of those days...

2. Grant is gone :(  He got transferred to Denver (yay) and started working there last week.  I have to stay here until graduation (boo) and although having the bed to myself is oh-so-glorious, I'm really really not a fan of long-distance marriage... (More details on the move later)

3. I'm going home to visit Boise tomorrow!  Not only do I get to see my parents but Linds, Tay & Gav are coming too as well as my Gma & Gpa!  Only negative: I fly through Denver... and don't get to see Grant...

4. Because I'm going home I'll miss my ballet final on Thursday.  I was going to tape it today so I can make it up, but seeing as it's not a good head/tummy day, that just might not happen...

5. The rough draft of my culminating project is due in less than two weeks... ahh!  Considering I'll be home for quite a few of those days, it will be quite an adventure attempting to get that finished...

Such is life at the Tanner, or rather, the Kelsey Tanner household.  Excuse my pity party.  My mama always told me I was allowed to feel this way every once in a while & then I have to move on... I'll move on tomorrow... after my 2nd flight leaves Denver far behind...

Cooper's BBQ

Next up on our BBQ trip was Cooper's BBQ in Llano.  I think you say that "Lah-Noh."  But Grant liked to call it "Yawn-oh."  Go figure.

They were all stocked up for the lunch rush on the last day of our trip.  Pork & beef sausages, brisket, chicken, pork and beef ribs, and even a little goat somewhere in there.  That pot on the end is a giant bucket of Cooper's sauce, a kind of thin, sweet BBQ sauce.  

You tell Mr. Bartlett there what you want and he hacks it off and covers it in sauce.  (His name isn't really Mr. Bartlett, but he looks creepy like my high school calculus teacher in this picture.  On one hand, maybe it really is Mr. Bartlett... moving to nowhere, Texas to chop up BBQ'd animals sounds like something he might do...)

Then you take your food inside where they cut it up and you can pick up all sorts of sides, desserts, etc.  The line wasn't nearly as long as at Salt Lick, but considering it was lunchtime in a tiny town, the 20-30 minute wait seems fairly significant.

Then you take your place in the crowded dining room next to Cowboys and trophies alike.

We got a lot of meat.  I think we were feeling down about our trip being almost over so we made up for it in food...  Sausage, pork, ribs, brisket, and maybe something else... can't remember.  Like at Kreuz's they wrap your food up in butcher paper and you get free white bread to supplement your meal.

Cooper's also has a self-serve bar where you can get endless beans (they were awesome), onions, and sauce.

The brisket and ribs were excellent.  Grant was especially excited to finally get some ribs on the trip.  We liked the flavor of the sausage more than at Kruez's- a little heartier and less sweet.  However, Grant still claimed Kreuz's sausage had the better crunchy factor for its casing.  

We had a lovely conversation with a few other Cooper's patrons after they overheard us reviewing Cooper's vs. Kruez's.  The man next to us told us we should have our own TV show because our descriptions were so enticing. Hah.  Winners.

This is how Grant felt about that:

We ended up with a fair bit left over so we wrapped it up in foil, filled up a take-out bowl with Cooper's awesome beans, and said goodbye to the cowboy hats, suspenders, and of course, the deer on the bright red walls.

Now, I'm starving.  Baby T is begging for brisket... Yes, he speaks now :)

Tiny trees, Texan bricks, and long, long, long..... lines

After spending the night in Austin we headed South & West in search of some more good grub.  Our chosen destination was the Wimberly Pie Co. but unfortunately it was closed.  But in our brief tour of Wimberly, I saw these Texas bricks, laughed, and had to take a picture:

We also found a cool Bonzai exhibit outside of town:

Grant was excited.  Mostly because in his inner heart of hearts, he wishes he was Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid...

I never realized that Bonzai trees aren't genetically different than normal trees, they're just kept teeny-tiny.

Pretty cool.

Now I want to grow a tiny little tree!  But considering I'm still working on keeping my tiny green pepper plants alive, I think my hands are plenty full right now :)

So we headed off for The Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood.  Unlike the other BBQ joints we visited, Salt Lick is a sit-down restaurant (however informal it may be).  

It is also extremely popular.  The hostess told us the wait was about 1.5 hours so we bought a fresh squeezed lemonade & settled in.  Salt Lick is a BYOB place and people plan for the long wait, bringing drinks, snacks, games, etc. to keep entertained while they wait.

After an hour of waiting Baby T was getting hungry and we still had a few hours drive to our final destination.  We checked with the hostess and we still had about an hour left to wait.  Blech.  So we thanked them for the lemonade (in our hearts), said goodbye to the crowds of people more patient than us, and peaced out.

Meat, Meat, Meat (in that order...)

Grant acted as our BBQ researcher for this trip.  He found the website Full Custom Gospel BBQ, a site by people who travel all over Texas and review all the best BBQ joints.  Our first stop, Kruez Market, was in Lockhart.

Central Texas has big German roots hence the name Kreuz (pronounced krites).  

Baby T was hungry after a long drive from the big D.  

After waiting in line for about 20 minutes we made it to the "pit room" where you choose your meats and they weigh it out.  You pay by the weight of your meat.  

I'm not sure these guys look German to me... but those sausages are making me salivate...

It was about a half hour before close on a Saturday night so we only had a few choices: Brisket, both lean and fat, and sausage.  Kreuz doesn't believe in BBQ sauce, claiming their meat is already perfectly seasoned.  You also have the option of bread and/or crackers with your meat.  They're really sophisticated: Wonder bread and Saltines :)

Overall, Kreuz was pretty awesome.  Grant was highly disappointed that he didn't get to try some ribs, but we were highly impressed with the flavor of the brisket.  The black, crunchy rub on the outside was phenomenal and Grant claimed the fat was especially flavorful.  I prefer my meat juicy and somewhat fatty, but can't handle eating just fat, so I let Grant eat it all and hoped it might help add a few pounds to his string-beany-ness :)

We also loved the sausage.  The flavor was good but what Grant really raved about was the skin.  It had just the right amount of crunch.  What not to get: the German potatoes.  Blech.  One bite of sauerkrauty, pickley potatoes was one bite too many...  

Next: We head West of Austin for an in-demand BBQ joint...