1st Anniversary Weekend

This past weekend we spent our 1st anniversary in New Braunfels where we had our first "mini-moon" last year. If you don't know us, we LOVE the Texas Hill Country and New Braunfels is one of our favorite places. We stayed at one of our favorite places, Heidelberg Lodges which is right on the Comal River. Friday night we drove in and got to Heidelberg around 10. We sat out on the balcony for a while listening to the train pass by and some college guys playing guitar across the way and then hit the sack. We woke up early to head to (of course) Naeglin's Bakery for kolaches and donuts.
After Naeglin's we decided to walk around the square and happened upon a pretty awesome little Farmer's Market.

Handsome hubby at the Farmer's Market

We walked around a bit talking to the vendors and bought Casey's mom a beautiful orchid plant as a thank you for watching the pups.
After a Tiger's Blood snow cone and a little more perusing we headed back to Heidelberg for a dip in the river. It was SO. Freaking. COLD. I couldn't get in all the way so I just stood knee deep in the water for a while watching Casey swim around. We got out, showered, and headed up to Austin for my beautiful friend Christy's baby shower (see separate post). While Casey was waiting for me to get finished with the shower, he hung out at Frank - Austin. I didn't get a chance to eat anything (I ate at Maria Maria where Christy's shower was) but according to my BFFITWWW (best friend forever in the whole wide world) Leigh Anne (who happens to be a manager at the new Nacogdoches location) the food there is AMAZING. If you are in Nac - they are having a grand opening in a week so you should check it out! (Shameless plug over)

After Austin we headed back to NB where we ended up taking a glorious 2 hour nap before going out to eat at Huisache. Nom. Of course after a delicious meal you have to go home and pass out and that is exactly what we did.

On Sunday morning we woke up and headed to.... duh. We had to pick up some Apple Strudel for the folks as well as some yummies for us. Then it was back to Heidelberg for another dip in the river before checking out. We snorkeled (yes I got all the way in finally) and it was wonderful having my core body temp drop a little because it kept me cooler in general for several hours afterward. On the way out of town we stopped by the Christmas Shoppe to get a baby ornament (a cute star with a pea in a pod in the middle) and then to the outlets at San Marcos for a few hours to browse around and we ended up at Cracker Barrel for a yummy lunch before heading back to Houston. Ahhh what a nice relaxing weekend.... here are a few more pictures.

My ever expanding pregnant belly and me in the Comal River

Anniversary dinner at our favorite restaurant Huisache. I'm wearing all of the same jewelry I wore on our wedding day. :)

This deer reminded me of our sweet Zac pup, don't they look alike?

After snorkeling in the river.

Pool Puppies

This afternoon I took sweet Riley and Zac to my friend's house to go swimming. Riley absolutely loves to swim and hardly gets to go swimming now because we don't live near the big dog park with the bone shaped pool he so dearly loved anymore. I was hoping Zac would be interested in swimming too since he's never been, but alas... he just sat in the shade behind the bushes the entire time.
My friend Krystal and I spent about an hour straight throwing the ball in the pool for Riley so he could run and jump in and bring the ball back. I swear this dog could do this for hours. Unfortunately, Riley was having so much fun that he really hurt his paws and didn't even seem to notice. Krystal finally noticed that his back foot was bleeding a little and upon further inspection I saw that he had worn ALL of his back nails down to the quick (a couple were bleeding) and he had rubbed his toe pads raw on a few of his toes as well. Poor puppy!! I made him sit out the rest of the time and rest but he was not happy. He kept pacing the fence and barking for me to let him back in the pool. When we finally left he limped to the car and I had to lift him so he could get in. He has been passed out in the same spot since we got home. Zac on the other hand is of course fine and seems to be worried about his big brother. He keeps nuzzling Riley and laying near him. Our dogs are so flipping adorable. Here are some pictures from Dog's Day Out.

Krystal and I

4th of July & Pancakes

Happy Independence Day!!

Yesterday was Independence Day and I woke up with one thing and one thing only on my mind. Not America, not my freedom... no.... that one thing was.....Pancakes. I had to have them. I never want pancakes, but yesterday morning I could not stop thinking about them. I got up and looked in the pantry and *GASP* there was no Bisquik. This is probably because I make pancakes about once a year. Luckily the internet is my BFF and I quickly found an easy recipe and my first time pancakes from scratch turned out wonderfully! The batter made way to much so I made the dogs some extras and made one "MEGA pancake" for Casey to use as a frisbee for the dogs.

Behold MEGA PANCAKE!!!!

BOW to MEGA PANCAKE!!

After "Pancake Mania" we rearranged the guest rooms to consolidate into one room so we will have room in the nursery.

Yesterday afternoon we headed to Chris & Jessica's for their 4th of July block party. Normally we have a 4th of July party at our house, but this year it was nice to have a break. Here is a pic of Casey, myself, and the bump. :)

Summer time and the living is easy...

Update time!

I have been a lazy, lazy blogger, and while I seriously doubt that anyone reads my blog enough to notice, I still feel like I should be updating more often. So here's what's been going on in the life of Sarah, Casey, Riley, & Zac (our new official spelling of his name):


1. Instead of going to New Braunfels for the weekend after the flooding that happened, we opted to make it a day trip and ride up to New Braunfels with Casey's parents to show them around that area (neither of them had ever been) and then to drive up to Austin for our wedding food tasting. On Saturday we took the Pages to New Braunfels and showed them around. We made our first stop at Naegelin's, the oldest bakery in Texas. This is always a must when we go to New Braunfels for 2 reasons. 1. We love supporting family owned small businesses. 2. Everything they make is incredibly delicious and very affordable. We ended up buying them out of kolaches so that we could take some back to the Chagla's who weren't able to take their family trip this year due to the flooding. After Naegelin's we went over to check on Heidelberg and were very sad to see that they were hit pretty hard with the flooding. All of their downstairs lodge rooms were flooded so all of the rooms were being gutted and repaired. Hopefully they will be back up and running by the time Casey's bachelor party rolls around in a few weeks.

2. I have been subbing at TWYLA and am loving it.

3. The weekend of June 18-20 I went to Nacogdoches and was lucky enough to be asked to help plan my best friend's proposal! James proposed to my beautiful best friend Leigh Anne on June 18th and it was perfect. I also got to hang out with my other best friend Sara Baker! Here are some pics from the weekend:






4. Upon getting home from Nacogdoches we celebrated Father's Day with Casey's family at Shannon's house. We got Casey's dad a bunch of miscellaneous gifts and among them was this book. I HIGHLY recommend it as it has made me laugh harder than I've laughed in a LONG time- WARNING: it obviously uses very explicit language- use discretion if you are offended by curse words. After getting home from Father's Day festivities we had Casey's (dog) Father's Day from the boys:




4. We went to Longview this past weekend to help my dad with some stuff and go to my cousin Lily's 5th birthday. Later that night my mom helped Casey and I give the pups a hair cut. Here are some pics from the party and also our hairless hounds:

Our God daughter Abby crawling all over me

My cousin Jen & I

Ms. Lily opening her gifts!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

5. I've been missing some things lately... I really miss cooking, fashion, and photography. I used to be so passionate about all three of these things and I've really let my passion for these things go by the way side. So in addition to planning a wedding, trying to stay fit, helping my best friend plan a wedding, keeping the house in order, and working part time, I am going to try to also put some effort into bringing more artistic and creative endeavors into my life again. What this means for you blog readers is that from time to time I might post an outfit, photograph, or meal that I have cooked and that I am proud of. Whether these things will truly hold any artistic value will remain to be seen, but they will be things I am proud of and this blog is about self expression and finding myself so yeah... lol. Here are some meals that I have made that I am proud of:

I may have blogged about this dish before, but it's my signature dish and something I make all the time so I thought I would share. I call it Italian Flag Pasta (because of the red green and white)

Italian Flag Pasta:
-Any pasta - I usually use angel hair or penne and I mix 1/2 whole wheat pasta and 1/2 regular for texture
-Cherry or Grape tomatoes - quartered
-Chopped fresh basil (does not work with dried basil)
-Kosher salt (my secret ingredient in everything)
-Fresh cracked black pepper
-Olive oil
-Lemon juice

I usually add shrimp that I have sauteed in olive oil and fresh minced garlic, but you can have this as a side dish (I'm planning to have it as a side for our 4th of July party) or you can add grilled chicken or shrimp and have it as a main course. It's SO easy and so yummy! It's a perfect summer dish.

This is a pasta recipe that I got from HEB Cooking Connection. It's pasta with this amazing imported tomato sauce with chicken sausage, fresh basil, and parmesan cheese. You can really do this with any pasta, tomato sauce, and chicken sausage. I have been adding basil to everything because my basil plant is thriving - yay!

Okay so I think I have successfully overloaded this post and it just might be the LOOOOOOONGEST post ever. More later!