Vacation to Austin!

We are back!!!! Back from Austin and we sure had fun! AND, guess what? I took pictures! Me, Leah Trowbridge, I took LOTS (for my standards) of pictures!


Are you ready for this?

Ok, here we go.........


Here are the boys on the drive up....





Jake and Dave gettin ready for some "Salt Lick" BBQ. Which deserves it's own post all together.



Me, Steven and Jake at the Salt Lick restaurant, anxiously awaiting our food. I REALLY regret not taking pictures of the restaurant outside. This was by far the coolest, most unique, most original restaurant I have EVER been to. We first found out about this place when Man V. Food (love that show) featured it as a hot spot in Austin. I am SO glad we went. The food was AMAZING! I really could sit here all day and do nothing but talk about the food. It was SO good! Each dish had its own spin, for instance, the cole slaw (which I normally hate) had toasted sesame seeds and a bit of sesame oil all mixed up in there, oh, it was SO GOOD! People, heed my words, if you are EVER in Austin, you need to check this place out! You will not regret it. Not only is the experience awesome, but it is in the middle of nowhere, so the drive is absolutely beautiful. Its just out there in the hill country, just waiting to be discovered.




Here is Jake at the Hotel jumping on the bed...



Silly boy




Steven after a LONG day.....




Steven yelling at me for taking his picture instead of putting him in pj's and sending him off to bed...



Steven (much happier) and I the next morning




Jake and Steven on a giant turtle. They both loved it


Cheese!


THEN we decided to do something just for Jakers. He is such a good big brother, he tries very hard to listen to mom and daddy, so we wanted to take him to a fun place, just for him.

So, we took him to "Kiddie Acres"
Which according to their website, was full of fun activities, pony rides, cotton candy and everything else a little boy could dream of...


When we got there we were pretty surprised. It was pretty ghetto. The grass was dead, they taped up a bunch of rides with duct tape, their solution to the metal burning the kids backsides was to put towels on the seats of the rides....

But did Jake care about any of that?


NO WAY MAN!!! He had a BLAST!








Here is Steven about to have a heat stroke, so we left.

We went back to the hotel and had a little rest.
A few hours later we met up with......

Grandpa and Grandma! Jake was SO happy to see them!


Grandma and Steven at Salt Lick(yes, we went again)


Dave and I


Jake and his new picture pose.....



The second time we went I allowed myself a 2 minute break to snap a quick picture, but I wish I had done it before we started eating. Just look at that meat! And its 10 times better tasting than it looks. I will dream about this meat......


Cheese!


The waiter forgot a spoon for Stevens ice cream, but I don't think it was a problem for him.......


Then the next morning we went to Round Rock donuts



Jake LOVES donuts! LOVES them! So he was super excited

We went to this particular donut shop because we knew there was something Jake would just go crazy over.......

A donut that weighs more than 2LBS

He tried so hard to cover up his excitement






Steven enjoyed the donuts too...
We played for a while longer, then it was time to pack up and go home...


Jake cried his eyes out when we said bye to grandpa and grandma. He loves them so much.


The boys on the way home, very unhappy about the fact that we just left grandma and grandpa. And the fun hotel. And that they were going to be in the car for the next 5 hours, with us. Stinkin mom and dad.

This weeks deals

Hola!

Here is a recap of this weeks deals. I didn't do much shopping this week because are headed to Austin this weekend for a little getaway! Woo Hoo! Whenever we get away from the Valley its always a joyous occasion.

Anywhoo, here is a recap of what I did this week

First stop, Walmart



The only highlights from this trip were to free baby wipes $5 diapers and all the free bic highlighters. Staples is selling their Bic highlighters for $0.50 this week and there is a $1/2 manu coupon so you get two for free! But, I didn't want to drive all the way to Staples, so I just printed the ad and had Walmart price match. That is just about the only thing I like about Walmart. The fact that they will price match just about anything.


Moving on,
My friend Deb and I went to three stores last night. She likes to coupon too, so we find all the great deals together.
CVS
Oh how I love CVS. But this trip made me a little sad. I actually paid a lot of money on this trip, probably the most I have EVER spent out of pocket there. But I got all my favorite things



All my favorite household items, mascara and candy
I spent $25.40 REAL DOLLARS (single tear)
and I saved $30.65
AND I received $13.00 Extra Bucks (money to use at the store)
So, it's "like" I paid $12.40 for all that. Which is still a lot considering I usually pay for my groceries there with pocket change. Can you tell I'm upset about it? The cashier thought I did a great job but I was pretty sad about the fact that I was actually paying REAL MONEY. MY real money. Ugh, I think I will have to go back and get all those free sobes I have coupons for just to make myself feel better...

OK, moving on. Again

Next stop was the Harlingen Walmart. It was pretty busy so we tried to hurry and i did manage to find a few good things



I got the kettle chips, dried mangos and bunnies for our road trip. So in other words, I didn't have any coupons for those, (GASP) but I didn't really care because I'm just so excited for our trip.
The Kraft Mac n cheese was on rollback for $1.00 and it just so happened that I saved the $1.00 off coupon from a few weeks back which made them free. I'm telling ya, don't throw away coupons! Even if you don't use the product (which we don't eat this stuff) because it can be donated, or given to a friend, or the missionaries. Those boys always need food. Plus, I love it when I get something for free. Especially at a place like Walmart, where I rarely cut my bill in half.
Oh, I also got the post its for free. They are $1.00 at Walmart and you can print that $1.00 off any sticky post it coupon online making them free! I love free.


Then we ran to Target


There was a lot of clearance in the freezer section, so we spent a lot of time there.
We found the rolls on clearance for $1.24 and I had a $1.00 coupon so $0.24 for rolls is a great price. Especially if you are like me, and lack a certain baking skill when it comes to dough.
I also found the cinnamon rolls on clearance for $1.46 and I had a $0.50 manu coupon. Cinnamon rolls just under a buck is a great deal because again, I'm lacking that dough making talent. Maybe it's altitude, yeah, we will just go with that.
The Tonys pizza is $5/5 this week and there is a $1/2 manu coupon you can print online, so that's $0.50 a pizza! great deal.
The tide stain release was $6.99 then I had $4.50 is coupons making my favorite laundry product $2.50! awesome!
The annies fruit snacks are also for the trip. And I made the mistake of leaving them on the kitchen table (it was after 10 when I got home) so now my Steven is trying to climb a chair so he can reach his all time favorite snack. Now, he is pulling on my shirt, holding the box of fruit snacks, telling me, nak mama nak mama! And it so happens, that I am sleep deprived enough to allow him to eat fruit snacks at 9 in the morning, while he is still in his pj's. While "I" am still in my pj's. Sigh.....

But look, he didn't even need my permission. He just opened the box!



I think his hand got stuck...

And he got a fruit snack.....

Well, maybe I can finish writhing this post in peace now that my 1 year old son is sitting quietly on the floor, eating fruit snacks.

Now that I have suckered you into reading this crazy blog for the past 15 minutes, I will let you go...


Have a great day!

Cabin Fever!

It's hot down here. Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Hot. Did I mention it's hot outside? like 115 heat index hot. Like my little white boys (ok, fine, me too) can't handle being outside for more than 15 minutes at a time, kinda hot.

Which has resulted in us spending a lot of our time "indoors". Which has resulted in a certain little boy acting a little....well, crazy.

Observe.....


He is shoving his poor toy soldiers into places they both don't belong or want to be.

Can't you just hear those little toys? Oh man, not this kid again! I didn't sign up for this crap....


He has been eating things that he just shouldn't be eating. I think he was pretty upset I found him. Hence the "squinty" glare.


Steven doesn't really learn his lesson the first time, or the 10th time for that matter. It ALWAYS ends up in his mouth, no matter what it is.


Mommy, help me!


So, as you can see we are in dire need of cooler weather. Luckily, Jakers hasn't caught the fever yet. But, I'm sure it's only a matter of time.......


That is all.

Last weeks shopping deals

Last week was crazy for us. Not really sure why, it just wound up being crazy. Tax free weekend was part of the craziness. But we got some great deals on clothing.

Anyways, last week at CVS was really great and I went a total of 4 times.

Here are the pictures of each trip






I paid a total of $14.48 which is way out of my $5 a week budget, but I saved over $170 at CVS this week.

Then I went to Target. Target didn't have very good deals last week but I still got a few things.


The soup, ice cream, glade candles and pens were free. I had to buy more kashi bars because my kids ALREADY ATE all 6 boxes I got a few weeks ago! Can you believe it?
I spent $21.07 and saved $20.04 Not bad

Then to oh so fun Walmart




The Cinnabon cereal is $2 a box and there are $1.00 off any Cinnabon product in last weeks Parade magazine. So a buck a box is a good deal for cereal down here. The crest kids toothpast was free from the $1 off any kids crest coupon (you can still buy these on Ebay) so I grabbed 12 free toothpastes! There was a lady in the toothpaste isle getting the crest toothpaste as well, so I offered her one of my coupons. I was explaining to her that if she used the coupon it would make the toothpaste free. It seemed like she was having a really hard time understanding that the toothpaste could be free. I think she thought I was trying to scam her or something. She just kept looking at my funny, trying to understand what I was telling her. I'm sure I would have been the same way before I started using coupons. Its VERY surprising all the products you can get for free or cheap using coupons. I for one am very happy to coupon. I've also been thinking about teaching some couponing classes down here. It doesn't seem like a lot of people down here do it, so it may be an opportunity to earn some money. But then I keep thinking I would create an army of couponers (do you like all these new words I'm inventing?) that I would have to compete with. Hmmmm......I will have to think about it for a bit.