Mini Vacation to Liberty Hill

We finally made it to Liberty Hill this past weekend. While there, the kids enjoyed plenty of playtime with Mercedes and exploration in the woods. Matt & I had a great date on Saturday night at the Iron Cactus & Alamo Drafthouse. We also had a few photo sessions of course. On the way home on Sunday, we stopped by Inks Lake. What started as just a look quickly turned into a swimming session– clothes and all. Afterwards, we tried to stop by the Mansfield Dam but found it closed to public access.

Baby V Is Finally WalkingI

As you know, Viola has been very serious about her walker toy for the past week or two. And then she finally did it! That little stinker took her first steps on her own on Friday night, while I was out with Emma. We got her to perform a little bit for us today.

Impromtu Carlsbad Getaway

On Friday of last week, Matt said, "We should do something special with the kids tomorrow...maybe a movie or something..." And somehow that turned into a quick trip to Carlsbad Caverns. It was a trip which turned out to be a bit longer than we had anticipated- we left at 10am and dragged ourselves home at 9:30pm– but was worth the time. We did the "Big Room" tour, which involved about 2 hrs of walking. But thankfully, we went down via elevator and spared ourselves the steep descent. The kids were very excited, but it did wear them out. In fact, if you look closely at the last picture, you can see that Emma is wailing as I drag her up the path. Viola was living the sweet life, riding high on Daddy's back all day.
After the Caverns, we drove to the town of Carlsbad and had some really spicy Mexican food at Lucy's.

Baby V is 15 months old

Well, she's still not walking on her own. But she has recently begun zipping around with her walker. As you will see from the video, she is plenty agile enough for walking– she's just a big faker!
She is also giving big hugs, saying a few new words ("sister","brother", "amen"), and scribbling with crayons. These pics were taken a couple weeks ago. The video is from a few days ago.

Rembrandt Film Festival in Dallas

While I was in Austin for SXSW I was notified that my film Open When Johnny Can Read had been accepted into the Rembrandt Film Festival in Dallas and had received the award for Best Narrative Feature. We decided to make a round ten days out of our trip and Ashleigh and I took off for Dallas from Abilene on Friday. The Festival was held at the Dallas Convention Center on Saturday, March 19th. The film was well-received by the audience (small though it was) and we had a great Q&A session afterward. Venus Monique and Kari Jones were able to travel up to receive the award with me as well. I also had my family there (Mom, Dad, Sister) and my sister's friend Melissa and her husband.

Spring Break in Abilene & Paris

The kids and I headed to Abilene while Matt went down to SXSW. We were supposed to spend Thurs-Sun in Abilene and then join him in Liberty Hill. But things didn't go exactly as planned. We found out on Saturday that Aunt Gerri died the night before. That meant the kids and I traveled to Paris on Sunday night. We had the funeral and big family dinner on Monday, then returned to Abilene on Tuesday. Just a few hours after our return, we got big news from Matt about his acceptance into a film festival in Dallas. That meant further traveling to Dallas for the weekend (while the kids remained in Abilene). We returned from Dallas on Sunday, picked up the kids, and made it home to Midland just before bedtime.
In between all the long drives, we squeezed in two trips to the children's museum, Six Flags for me & my sisters, picnics, artwork at the literature museum, bike rides, and other fun stuff.


We had Chick-fil-A in Pepaw's office building on Friday.

Pepaw's office is on the top floor.

Morgan & Emma working at Pepaw's desk.

Viola making herself at home on Pepaw's office floor.

In front of the Titan ride...



The kids cozied up in the bed at Darenda's house.

the "kids" table!

Viola's special spot in the corner.

Emma is loving this...

...and this!

These kids are all related somehow, just don't ask me to explain it.

Matt at SXSW 2011

While Ashleigh and the kids stayed in Abilene, I went down to SXSW 2011 Interactive and Film Conference in Austin, TX. I stayed with Papa Wes and Gigi in Liberty Hill for the week and traveled every day back and forth from the convention center as I've done for the past four years or so. The plan was to have Ash and the kids meet up with me half way through but the unexpected death of Ashleigh's great aunt required an extra trip to Paris, TX for Ashleigh and the kids and they weren't able to make it down this time. Here are a few photos from my time in Austin. I got to meet Danny Devito, Rosario Dawson, Carla Gugino, Rainn Wilson, and Ellen Paige. Ash will post a separate blog for her Abilene and Paris Trip.







During my stay in Austin I was also able to visit my Grandma in New Braunfels. On my last evening at my folk's house I went out with Kate, Ryan, Mercedes, and Mom and Dad to a little restaurant in Liberty Hill called Dahlia's.