Our family — Brad, Kristen, Harry (11), Annie (10), Shep (5), and Ellie (an 18-month-old doodle), has lived in Balcones Village for more than 6 years now.

We found the neighborhood quite by accident.

We previously lived in the Anderson Mill Limited District. Our first home was on Star View Trail, where we welcomed Harry and Annie. At Christmastime, we’d load up the kids, get hot chocolates at Starbucks, and drive around looking at lights.

We fell in love with the holiday spirit in Balcones Village.

In 2020, with Harry set to enter kindergarten in the fall, we started looking for our next home. We found a small fixer-upper on Spring Hollow Drive, just four houses down from the 14th tee box. The owners accepted our offer in March, and our little family went to Cabo Bob’s to celebrate.

It was in line at Cabo Bob’s that we saw the news on TV: The NBA would be shutting down its season because of COVID-19. We panicked, of course, worried that the worsening pandemic would undermine deals to sell our old house and buy our new one. But, miraculously, it all worked out, and we moved into our new home on Cinco de Mayo 2020.

It’s hard to believe how many years have passed since then.

We welcomed Shep in spring 2021. Harry and Annie both entered Spicewood Elementary School and joined several clubs and activities. Harry plays i9 flag football, plus Town & Country baseball and basketball. Annie performed in the Nutcracker last year through Dancer’s Workshop, where she’s also on a performance team. Shep, who’s been attending First Foundations Preschool, just completed his first real season of tee ball, and he’ll start at Spicewood in the fall. All three kids are proud members of the BCC Sharks swim team.

We’re blessed to have both sets of grandparents in the Austin area, plus aunts, uncles, and six cousins. We love to attend Westwood and University of Texas sporting events, and we regularly make the trip south of the river for Matt’s El Rancho. We’re also members of the soon-to-open North Hills campus of Austin Ridge Bible Church.

But there’s nothing quite like the place we call home. 

We love everything about Balcones Village: the mature trees, the wildlife, the wonderful schools, the community spirit, the friends we’ve made, and the best neighbors one could hope for on Spring Hollow Drive. We also appreciate the multi-generational nature of our neighborhood. We often encounter people who are just a few steps ahead of us in life, and they always share the same sentiment when they see our young kids:

“Enjoy it while it lasts.”

That message has always resonated with us. If the next 6 years pass as quickly as the last 6 years, we’ll be saying “goodbye” to our two oldest kids in the blink of an eye. We’re well aware that we’ll look back on these as our Camelot years, that this life in this neighborhood with these kids under our roof is a true blessing.

The time will come when we would give anything for one more Fourth of July parade with our kids on their bikes, one more Spicewood carnival, one more dance recital, one more swim meet — just one more day in the sun at Town & Country. And so we do our best to treasure these fleeting moments and appreciate each one for how special it is.