Last month (yep I behind), Brian treated us to a weekend at a cute log cabin near Austin, TX named “Austin Heaven” to celebrate our 2 year anniversary.  It’s a cabin on 26 acres of land with a big front and back porch, grill, picnic tables, and a neat wooden swing set. It was very peaceful with NO TV for 2 days, (barely) any internet and no radio. Just an old record player with some pretty sweet tunes.   We decided to keep it low-key since we’ve got a little one on the way and we both just kinda wanted to get away to a retreat weekend. And of course, we took George with us and he had a blast.

It’s sorta a “hippy” cabin, which was all for the better. There’s a room dedicated to practicing yoga, which was nice. You can also call in this lady to lead a yoga session or give you a massage. Brian will tell you the coolest feature of the cabin was the incinolet (think incinerator and toilet). It’s a toilet that literally burns your waste each time you go.  It was interesting, but boy was I glad to return to a normal toilet at home.

The cabin had 2 “official” bedrooms, but you can put a bed in the yoga room. Our bedroom was on the top of the loft (which was fun getting up at night to go to the bathroom- hah). It was cool though.  There was a main room which consisted of the kitchen, eating area, and a fire place/lounging area. The bathroom was broken into two rooms. Once with the incinolet & sink, another with a claw foot tub/shower with an open ceiling.

It was very quiet and peaceful all weekend. The weather was pretty nice, too. Kinda windy, so napping outside was a plus.  I was still in my first trimester so I was still tired all the time therefore, I mostly cooked and sat around outside and read a book. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the time to finish a book in a weekend. How nice!

The first night we arrived, we drove down the road (literally) to The Salt Lick for dinner. It was super crowded (since it was Friday) with live music outside, but we walked in and were seated right away. We finished the evening by sitting on the back porch at the cabin with the stringed lights across the “backyard”, a nice breeze, and shared a pint of a new Blue Bell flavor. Dreamy!

The rest of the weekend was chill. We went on a quick walk around the property and then napped/lounged the rest of the day. We enjoyed some yummy steaks we grilled while listening to the old record player. So peaceful. I wish every evening could be similar. Seems like we’re so tied up in our TV shows/sports and keeping up with Twitter, it was such a breathe of fresh air to get away from all that, even if only for 2 days. I try to make it my goal when I get home from work to stay off my phone/internet (since I’ve been on it all day and I want a break when I get home). I’ve tried playing more music in the evening while I cook dinner, which helps to relax me. It’s so important to make time to “unplug”. We used to practice an “Unplug” night once a week, but has kinda dissipated. Maybe I’ll bring that back into action soon?

Here are some of my favorite shots from Austin Heaven.