Austin Anniversary Edition

Tuesday was our Anniversary- Happy 14th!

We went to the park across from the job site and played in the water. Joseph went to the site for a few minutes so he could pass off some scout stuff. 

Peter took this picture in an effort to capture the adorable way Lily was running with all of her might swinging her little arms to get to the splash park as fast as she could. It was adorable. 

This was when he was returning Joseph to us. Doesn't he look so official?

Peter had been told about a great BBQ place in Austin and so we decided to try something yummy for dinner! It was delicious! Countyline BBQ you have stolen my taste buds and it will be hard for any other bbq place to compete. 

Plus we had this awesome chicken-e-lope watching over us while we ate. 

Even better was that the kids were really well behaved. That may have had something to do with the 2 hours at the park and another 1 1/2 in the hotel pool. 

Oh how I love this man! Thanks for so many wonderful times! I look forward to an eternity of more of them!

Austin Day 2

Monday, I survived getting everyone fed at a hotel continental breakfast (each day went a little better).

Then we headed to the capital and a museum on the University of Texas campus. 

Somehow my pictures have become all jumbled and I don't want to fight to fix them so I will just give captions. 

 Arabella loved the Agates at the UT museum.

 Lily posing as the Goddess of Liberty which is the name of the statue on top of the capital building.

The Texas capital building is the tallest in the country including the US capital in DC. Yes, apparently everything is bigger and better in Texas.

 Arabella learning all about how the capital and it's statues and grounds are maintained and preserved. 

 A picture of part of the UT football stadium. To say it was huge, seems like an understatement.

 I can not remember the name of this dinosaur but Joseph liked it and so we took a pic.

 I am thinking that one day I may need a skillet this size to cook for our family. 

 The boys staring up in awe at the ceiling in the capital building. 

 It is beautiful!

We found some bugs for Jon to pose by.

The kids were troopers because we walked ton and it was 101 that day. They were rewarded with ice cream at the end of our long walk. If you ask Jon about that day, he will tell you that the best part was eating at the Capital Grill - the cafeteria in the basement of the capital building where we ate lunch. He told me he knew why it was called the Capital Grill - because it was the best! What a funny kid. 

Peter met up with us for dinner at Fazoli's and then we surprised the kids by taking them to a discount theater to see How to Train Your Dragon 2. We all loved that!

Austin Part 1

Peter has been working on a job in Austin for years now. He goes down once or twice a year to meet with a

group of other people and they assess this parking structure. 

Anyway, he was going to be in Austin for a whole week while some work was being done that he needed to monitor and so we tagged along. The hotel was paid for so, why not?!

On a side note, we left Sunday after church but 5 minutes before we loaded up into the car it started pouring rain- sheets of rain. Peter did not dry out until the third hour of church. It was crazy!

 Do You see the water spraying up the side of the car? Our windshield wipers could not keep up. 

Our drive to Austin was weather free but we stopped at least 3 times and we hit traffic- it seemed like it was taking forever. I wanted to start asking myself  "Are we there yet?"

 We made it in time to witness the bats fly out from under the bridge.

It is the largest urban colony of bats in the world. They are tiny but there are close to 1.5 million bats and it is a sight to see when they start to come out to eat at night. 

 Lily just wanted to find the daddy bat that was caught in a tree. She said it over and over and finally, we connected this to a picture she saw of a bat in a tree on an informational poster near the bridge. She was quite upset when we did not find a bat in a tree. 

Samantha looked like a little Mary but we were told to cover her up because her skin would not do well against the bat guano that falls from the sky as they fly out. That sounds disgusting but really you just feel an occasional drop of wet but see no poop. 

We saw this same thing almost 10 years ago to the date when we visited our friends the Maas' in Austin. Boy, we have come along way!

A little bit of Samantha in our lives

The other day I came downstairs and Arabella had put this little chair up on the couch and put Samantha in it. It was about like being in her bouncer and they were watching TV. Arabella was sitting right next to her with her hand on her hand. It was really sweet. 

 Sunday Peter wore his pink tie so he could match his girls that were all in pink. 

He is the proud daddy of 3 princesses.

 I can't help but cherish the times I get to hold a sleeping baby especially one that is rocking her bright pink swimming suit. 

 This was the day she turned 4 months old. She had shots earlier in the day but is still smiling.

She weighed 14 lbs 10 oz and was 24 1/2 inches long. I love that she has some chub to her little arms and legs and cheeks. She is so precious! 

Lily had her 3 year check up and is growing so big too!

Joey and Samantha at the park the other day. It was so hot but Lily was begging to play at the park. I needed to run errands and Samantha needed to eat so I drove to a park and let them play while I fed her and then we headed out on the errands- everyone was happy!

Missionaries

We have had some great missionaries lately.

The other night we fed the missionaries and Samantha was not very cooperative as far as my timing for getting dinner on the table on time.

I put the elders to work chopping some vegetables and then they played with the kids. 

Elder Toolsen was playing some great music on that princess guitar.

Elder McMurray was looking at books with Lily.

They are doing a great job of teaching people and working with members.

They are excited about the gospel and about being missionaries and it is infectious. 

They made this game to help teach kids. Elder McMurray is the artist. Apparently he is truly an artist and has paintings that are amazing! There were some cards with drawings on them and they were so good. 

Both of these elders are from Utah county and it has been fun reminiscing about things back home with them. I do not follow basketball closely but you might recognize Elder Toolsen from a national championship high school basketball team. I love seeing my kids getting excited about the gospel because they love the missionaries.

A few more pics of Lily

Thank you balloon artist (who happened to be LDS) at Chili's for making this amazing Elsa doll for Lily.

We told him she wanted a doll; he looked at her shirt and said he had it covered.

Arabella wanted a dog and Jon chose a Minecraft sword; Joey said he did not want one. 

Lily's 3 (almost a week late)

Lily,

You bring our family so much fun and spunk! You say the funniest things and I am pretty sure you believe you are in charge most of the time. You are so sweet with Samantha. You love baby dolls, princesses, play makeup, your "boyfriend" Christian, pancakes, orange juice, playing in the water, and trying to do things by yourself. You are growing and learning so much all of the time. You love to sing Let It Go at the top of your lungs and you love Minnie Mouse. Thank you for being our little blond ray of sunshine.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Camping from Peter's Phone

As mentioned a few posts ago, we lost our camera so these are some of the pictures off of Peter's phone from our fun time in Arkansas.

 We were going to attempt a selfie just before loading up to head home but the nice lady camping next to us saw us and offered to snap a few pictures for us. We are a sweaty crew but we are a happy crew!

 Peter took Jon and Arabella at 6 am one day to fish. Peter went to check out another sight and left Jon. On his way back he saw Jon happily casting away and doing a good job of it. I will add that Jon is the only to catch a fish of which I had an awesome picture of on the camera. It was a tiny fish about 4 inches long maybe and he hooked it as he was reeling his line it, it did not actually bite the hook. We threw it back. 

 More of Samantha and her light sabers.

 Our van loaded up and ready to head home. It was a low rider with all of the weight in the back. We do like our new cargo carrier on the back. We hope to get a few more years out of this well loved van. 

 We hit a torrential down pour on our way there while I was driving. The wipers could not keep up. Peter snapped this photo but it does not really do it justice. You know when you see those radar pictures and there is the red area where the most severe rain or weather is going on, well that is where we were. We pulled over and waited it out in a Sonic parking spot and I fed Samantha. 

 Two pictures of the sunrise. 

I am so glad we chose to do this for our summer vacation this year. It was wonderful!