Cheese!

After our Oregon Tour, I killed a few more vacation days and headed to Austin, Texas to visit my adorable nephew, Vaughn.  Oh yeah, my brother and sister-in-law (Jeff and Kathy) were there too ... details details!  ;)

The weather was HOT and the baby was cuter than cute.  He's talking a mile a minute (but in his own language) and does his best to repeat whatever you say.  In my typical fashion, I took hundreds of pictures, so he learned the word "cheese!" pretty quickly.  Literally, all I had to do was take out my camera, and the little ham would stop what he was doing, look at me and yell "eeeeeee!" (his version of cheese) -- too cute.  He even grabbed my camera and I showed him how to snap a picture ... here's one of his masterpieces ... focusing intensely on pushing the button.

Just when Vaughn started to learn my name ... it came out like "ace" ... Jeff started calling me Aunt Cheese.  Typical big brother ... but I guess I deserved it.

We cooled off in a few splash pads around town - no other way to beat the Texas heat.  And the smile a splash pad brings to Vaughn's face will just melt your heart.  Aunt Cheese would take him there everyday if she could!

Like most little boys ... V loves trucks, trains and motorcycles.  (Boy is he going to love his Uncle Kyle!)  We are not sure where he picked it up, but whenever her hears the roar of an engine or the whistle of a train, he stops to listen like this ...

And when it rained for the first time ever on all my trips to Texas and the wind started picking up, he stopped and looked up to the sky to feel the wind in his curly brown locks.  A very sensory-aware little man ...

Here we are enjoying some of the best BBQ I've ever had - great setting, great food, real Texas pit BBQ.  We'll definitely go back next time I visit with Kyle.  At 18 months, Vaughn has already eaten more diverse foods than I did the whole first 12 years of my life.  He's not surviving on mac & cheese like some of us insisted on doing.

 

Here we are reading the iPad to Vaughn.  Amazing that he can do the sweep with his little finger to turn the page and knows where to touch the screen to navigate back to the start.  Pretty sure I still have trouble playing a DVD.  (Side Note - Check out Jeff's shirt ... it says "Ohio - Come Visit Cleveland ... Or Not" Love you, Ohio, but that's hilarioius!)

My 5 days flew by.  As always, I ate great food, drank strong coffee, sweat from body parts I didn't know I had, and thoroughly enjoyed quality family time with Jeff, Kathy and Vaughn.  Makes me sad I won't see them until Thanksgiving, but at least we have Skype.

A bonus kiss goodbye was a sweet treat for Aunt Cheese.  Vaughnie sure aims to please.  Thanks, V ... and see you in Minnesota in a few months!