It's A Bird, It's A Plane...

no it's bats!!!

Aunt Jennifer, Avery, and Grams came in for a visit this weekend so Saturday we ventured out to downtown Austin for a little bat watching. This has been on my Austin bucket list for awhile so I was excited about finally going. I had made reservations for all us to take a boat cruise to take in the whole experience. The cruise was really interesting and my in house paparazzi (Taylor) captured a few of the sights we took in as we went up and down Town Lake.

First up is the swan paddle boats

The bat cow hanging from the Congress Bridge.

There are forty decorated cows around the downtown area right now!

Graffiti on another bridge

The Frost Bank building that looks like an owl, pretty cool.

Thanks for the tour Taylor

The guide told us that the bats have been coming out later and later and also not in big groups like they usually do and they believe it is because of the drought therefore fewer insects to eat. He was right, it was almost 8 (time for the boat to go in) when they started coming out, which made it hard to see them, and they didn't fly east (what they normally do) towards us which made it even harder to see them. So for that I was little disappointed but it still was really interesting to see them and learn about them.

Avery and I on the boat

It was amazing to see how many people line up on Congress Avenue bridge just to watch the bats fly out!

Look close and you can see all the people on the bridge

Even though the pictures of the actual bats didn't come out because it was so dark, it was a fun and educational evening!

I had to include this self portrait that I found on my camera also!

P.S. I think I will do it again next year but in August and just stand on the bridge? :)

Soccer Season Take 4!!!

It's soccer season again for Taylor and we are all so excited that we are back with our old coach and lots of familiar faces on the team! This season we Team Juventus "Juve"!

We have had our first two games, the first one we won and this last game we tied (it was a really good game). But Taylor scored her first goal of the season!!!

Team Juve after a great game (Taylor is #54)

Tooth Fairy, no thanks!

Taylor came home last week with a tooth box!  She lost a bottom tooth during class.

So I immediately said we will have to put it under the pillow for the tooth fairy and right away she said "no I want to keep it".  Well ok are you sure you don't want to put it under your pillow and get money from the tooth fairy but she was adamant about keeping it.  I honestly that after a few days she would want the tooth fairy to come but it has been two weeks and it is still in her nightstand.  So the tooth fairy saved some money on this tooth.

Taylor always has and probably always will walk to her her beat and that is just one of the million reasons I love her.

Grandparents Surprise!

Friday was Grandparents lunch at the girls school and Ryan's parents had made plans long before we found out about this to come in town for a visit.  So I as soon as found out about the lunch I gave Mimi a call to see if they could make it in early enough to make it and of course they could.  They wanted to surprise the girls and not tell them that they were coming to the school which I thought was a great idea.

First up was Taylor,  Here are a few pictures they snapped while they had lunch (or bunch! Taylor's lunch is at 10:45) with the girls.

Mimi, Poppy, and Taylor 

Her hair was fixed when she went to school so I am not sure what happened?

Kendall's lunch was right after

Mimi and Kendall, she was super surprised :)

Poppy and Kendall

 Thanks Mimi and Poppy for making their day!

The next day all the girls headed to the outlets to do a little fall/winter shopping and the guys stayed back and did A LOT of football watching!

The girls playing around with some silly sunglasses

Fire!

On Sunday we had invited our good friends The Caswells over for dinner and a little football watching of course.  Right before they got here Ryan got a text from another friend here that they had just been evacuated because there was a fire in the front of the neighborhood!  I really didn't think much of it but not 15 minutes later and about 10 minutes after The C's got here the electricity went out and about 5 minutes later we got an email from the HOA that the ENTIRE neighborhood was being evacuated!  So after packing a few essentials and a small bag of important documents, computers, hard drives, and the wedding album and the dog and we were out the door. 

We had to drive right by the area where the fire was to get out of the neighborhood and I could not believe how bad it was.  Seeing the flames, smoke, and all the emergency vehicles made it real in a heartbeat.  My heart was in my stomach thinking about all the families and homes being affected.  It was really sad.

We ended up meeting up with The C's in the H.E.B. parking lot and feeding the kids a pizza that the pizza place was handing out and a plate of food from H.E.B.  It was amazing how fast and supportive the local companies were at taking care of the community.  H.E.B. had dog food, cat food, water for the animals, water bottles, food, and much more sitting out in front of the store for all the people to take and use for FREE!  After filling the kids bellies and collecting our thoughts we checked into an animal friendly hotel for the night by this time it was close to 10.  Needless to say Ryan and I didn't sleep much that night for trying to find out as much information as possible about the fire.

Monday morning we all headed out to have a wonderful breakfast at Kirby Lane.  Yummy!  From there The C's went to go back to the hotel and the Gillenwater's headed to The Huston's.  We needed some space and the kids were in need of a nap.  Rachel and Peter was kind enough to let us hang out with them and let the kids and dogs play.  We stayed the night there which was way more comfortable than 2 kids, 2 adults, and a dog in one small hotel room.

Tuesday after breakfast we headed out, we had heard that they were going to start letting residents back in at noon.  I don't think have ever been so excited to head home.  We were blessed that our house was not affected from the fire at all.  We did have to throw all the food out from our fridge and freezer but that is a small price to pay compared to all the families that have lots everything.  

Thank you to all our friends and family that reached out to us during that time to check on us.  We are truly blessed with some wonderful friends and family.  Our hearts go out all the families in our neighborhood and Central Texas that have lost their homes, you are in our prayers.  This whole experience definitely makes you step back take a look at what is important and what is not.

Baylor Football!

Baylor had it's first game of the season last Friday evening against TCU.  So of course we headed up 35 to Waco.  We car pooled with our good friends The Erickson's (and Ryan's old college room mate) up there which made the ride even more fun.  

Ryan had some "work" friends meet us up there also:

Craig (or better known as Baldwin), Matt, Ryan, and Dan

This was undeniable the best game that I have ever been to.  The game started off with a bang and when downhill and then ended with a BANG!  It was an emotional roller coaster.

The final score was Baylor 50 TCU 48!  

We got to go down on the field after the game and it brought back all kinds of memories from when Ryan played and I use to go down on the field after the game to meet him.

We have a bi this weekend but can't wait till next weekend when we play SFA.

Happy Birthday!!

August is a busy birthday month for our family.  We have my mom on August 25th, Papa's on August 26th, and Ryan's on August 31st.  So Saturday we headed down to San Antonio for the day to celebrate. Papa wanted to go some place where there was live music, luckily there was a great little pizzeria called Fralo's with lots of shade, live music, and great food.

Jennifer and Me

Almost the whole family made it in to help the August birthdays celebrate.   Aunt Kay bought all the girls new dolls which was a blessing, they played with them the whole evening.

Ryan, Papa, Mom

August 31st was Ryan's birthday.  All he wanted to do to celebrate was to have some friends over on that Saturday to BBQ and watch football (it was opening weekend).  That's easy, but I couldn't not do something on his actually birthday, I love to celebrate birthdays!  So the girls and I did a little birthday shopping, wrapping, card making, and baking for him.  

The girls doing stunts!

A few days before hand I asked the girls what they wanted to get Daddy for his birthday.  Kendall right away said she wanted to get him a gift card to "buy songs and apps"!  Ok, again easy.  

Then I have the following conversation with Taylor

Me: Taylor do you have any ideas for Daddy?

Taylor: I know what I am going to get him, I am going to get him what he ask for

Me: Ok what is that

Taylor: I will tell you when we get to the store

Me:  Well I need to know what it is so I make sure I go to the right store

Taylor:  He said he wanted new underwear

Me: WHAT!, he told you he wanted underwear

Taylor: yes

Me: OK

So I headed out to buy him some underwear so she could give it to him.  Yes this sounds wrong on so many levels but that is what she wanted to give him.  So I bought some and she wrapped them up.  So later that evening I told Ryan about my conversation with Taylor and he was completely surprised and taken back.  So no he never told her that he wanted underwear but that is what she had in her head that she wanted to give him.

The girls with their new dolls

Then the following Saturday we had some friends over, kids played, guys watched football and BBQ ed, and had a great time hanging out.