Trip of the Summer 4

On Tuesday Carolyn and I brought the kids to Austin's children's museum, The Thinkery. The AMSE pass got us in for free again. We have gone in the past but this time was fun to have Millie old enough to enjoy it.

We skipped the water room altogether this time because it was chaotic and I wasn't in the mood for soaking wet kids. We did spend a ton of time in the food mart/kitchen area. 

I took Sadie and Elise to a class on minerals, which ended up being a private class when no one else showed up. Elise held up her magnifying glass and told me she was doing "science experiences". We learned all about fools gold (pyrite), graphite, several different gem stones and more. The girls paid really good attention and still talk about how to tell the difference between real gold and pyrite. 

We tried out a new exhibit where you push buttons to release melted wax. You can move the lever all over and up and down to make different shapes. 

Sadie concentrated hard on launching the foam airplane she built. This exhibit is always fun but gets a little harder when it is crowded and you can't get all the airplane pieces you want. 

There is a super cool sea dragon mosaic figure across the street from the museum and we forced the girls to take a picture. 

I wanted a picture of the whole thing but I ended up capturing Mimi in paparazzi mode. 

That afternoon Mimi and Paco took Sadie and Elise to the bookstore where they got to pick out books and a toy.

Sadie immediately started in on her A to Z mysteries while snuggling with her new Beanie Boo. I had never heard of Beanie Boos but apparently they are popular toys. My girls talk all the time about which other ones they want.

 That night was Nielson sibs (plus me) dinner. We returned to our old reliable, Hopdoddy. Then we went on a Round Rock memories tour. We drove around the new high school to a rousing rendition of the Round Rock High School fight song performed by the Nielson siblings. A true highlight of the whole trip. We visited the actual Round Rock (pictured).

We also drove around the Nielson's old neighborhood and checked out the old house. They sold that house in 2006, so it was where I visited the 2 1/2 years we were dating and the first year of our marriage. Obviously Daniel and his siblings lived there for a long time so they reminisced and the conversation naturally turned to basketball games in the driveway, Daniel crashing into the neighbor's mailboxes, and their old dog Cosmo.

 The next morning I snuck this picture of Tyler, Ruby and Millie out on the golf course.

On another day Daniel heard the front door close softly and then no one walked in. He sat there for a minute and felt like he should go check on what it was. He opens the door and Camille and Ruby are sitting out on the golf course. Millie had packed the girls' small rolling suitcase with her blankie and a book and Ruby was sticking with her. It was kind of terrifying because the street on the side of the Nielson's is super busy and neither Ruby or Millie is very responsible. It was also kind of hilarious, and we are glad we can focus on the funny part of it.

 I also snuck this one of Whit reading to Sadie with Millie snuggled up with her new Finding Dory book. We went back to the neighborhood pool for more swimming that afternoon.

 More A to Z book reading. Sadie can and does read them alone but she loves to have someone read to her as well.

That night we had a family party out on the golf course after dinner. We attempted a few pics of everyone with the iphone self timer.

 

 And a goofy one for good measure.

Thursday morning Daniel and I took the girls Texas Museum of Science and Technology. Our AMSE pass saved us another $55 of entrance fees. Our first activity was a scavenger hunt through their exhibits on dinosaurs. The girls were promised prizes for finishing it, which were.....very cheap paper bookmarks! Sweet! There were a bunch of different exhibits about sound, light and motion.

 Everyone enjoyed playing the drums.

 Another fun first for our kids was the planetarium. Sadie and Elise were both slightly scared, but we watched a couple of cool programs about constellations and the sun.

Following that we grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-A and met up with everyone at Courtney's house. We all swam in her neighborhood pool. I think it was 106 degrees as we walked over to the pool? Maybe 104?

 You had to either be in the pool or splash pad.

 You know how I love kids in goggles.

 We left Sadie and Elise at Coco's for a sleep over and headed back to Tom and Carolyn's.

Millie enjoyed getting all the adults' attention.

 That night Daniel and I went out to celebrate our 11th anniversary. We went to dinner and then made an exciting trip to Walmart.

The next day I drove down to historic Gruene (pronounced Green) to meet up with one of my dearest friends Julia. She lives in San Antonio.  I did a TERRIBLE job getting pictures. I took this of the water tower from the parking lot and this one of Gruene Hall from the car. Oops.

 Gruene is a charming town along the Guadalupe River. Neither of us had been to Gruene so we met up at the Gristmill for lunch and then walked into some of the shops. Then we headed to the San Marcos outlets, which were a total madhouse but we both found a few things.

I threw my swimsuit on as soon as I got home and Carolyn and I took Sadie and Elise to the Rock 'N River Water Park. It was super fun. Sadie was the perfect age for it because she could go on every slide. She had to pass a swim test to go on one of them, but she did that easily. Elise loved it as well and didn't seem to care that she couldn't go on the bigger slides.

 We stayed until closing and I made the girls pose in front of the biggest slide/splash structure.

 We hung out with everyone for a few more hours and packed up our stuff to get ready for the drive to Albuquerque the next day.

Not pictured: watching the Olympics each night after kids were in bed, watching Stranger Things on Netflix, eating Round Rock donuts (I think twice?), walking around the neighborhood in suffocating humidity, possibly getting ripped off when I got our oil changed, seeing Hunt for the Wilderpeople late one night (SO GOOD!),  and more that I am sure I am forgetting weeks and weeks later.

Day one of our drive back to Utah was a doozy. One of our windshield wipers flew off in the rain. We were very lucky it happened when we could stop at the next tiny town and buy a new one. Daniel got a speeding ticket in New Mexico. When we arrived at our hotel in Albuquerque Daniel had booked our hotel for the night before we arrived. He had used Marriott Points, so at least it wasn't cash, but you can't get Marriott points back and we had to pay cash for the night. Still trying to get over that gaffe.

We made it back home Sunday night and we managed to empty the car before collapsing in bed.

Trip of the Summer 3

Our flight to Austin was long. But Mimi was there to greet us at the airport. Tom/Paco had Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery less than a month before we came so I was slightly nervous about us creating chaos in their home for a week and a half. The surgery involves having electrodes placed on your brain connected with a neurostimulator that is implanted in your body. While we were there Tom's doctors were still adjusting medications in conjunction with the electrode stimulation, so basically, he was still recovering and we were there to "help" :).
Plus, Tyler and Whitney drove in for our visit. So we had a full house.
Daniel arrived a few hours after we got to Tom and Carolyn's.

He and Millie promptly napped/snuggled together. Details on the rest of the day are fuzzy for me. Millie ran to Sonic with Mimi, but it seems like, if there are no pictures I have no memory. 

The next day the big event was swimming in the neighborhood pool. The girls were not over the excitement of hanging out with dad. 

Plus, Daniel can do things like throw them high in the air.

 Millie enjoyed the kiddie area. 

Saturday morning's activity was Mt. Playmore, self-touted as Central Texas' biggest and best indoor playscape. Playscape is Texas speak for playground. It has taken me this long in our marriage to realize that Daniel uses that phrase for playgrounds/swing sets because it is a Texas thing and not because he is just weird. 

It was a massive play structure. This picture includes maybe 1/6 of it? Can you spot Sadie and the awesome uncle who crawled around with her? Could this picture of Lou and Coco be cuter? Only if  there weren't netting in the way. It seemed fun at first for adults. Then we all discovered it was like 80 degrees in the playscape and it was hard work to crawl up, around and down things.

 One of the many reasons it is so fun to visit the Nielsons is that they are all willing and excited to do activities for our kids. 

Millie was very hot and cold with it, but in the end liked it. Although, she probably spent as much time in the arcade with Paco and Mimi as she did in the playscape. She never had any tokens, she just climbed in and out of the rides.

She also spent a good amount of time on Snapchat with Courtney.

Don't worry, with all these fun outings we still fit in plenty of play/book time at home with Tom and Carolyn's toys. 

That evening Mimi arranged yet ANOTHER birthday celebration for Sadie. My sister Alicia always  hated having a summer birthday because we were frequently traveling on her special day, but Sadie got hooked up on our trip.  Especially considering we already went to Disneyland this year for Sadie and Elise's birthdays.

We went to the neighborhood pool and ate pizza and cake.

 Kid-throwing and poolside cheer jumps ensued.

Sunday was church and hanging out at home with a tasty family dinner. Carolyn caught a cute picture of the girls after church.

 Sadie did lots of crafting (AKA gluing tons of stuff together) and some coloring. This Nielson family portrait is pretty awesome. 

Monday we headed out to Blue Hole with Tyler and Carolyn. It is a swimming hole outside of Austin with a slippery rock slide. Apparently usually water spills over the stone wall to the left behind Tyler and Daniel.

Sadie was skeptical when we arrived, but soon changed her tune. 

 Camille had a meltdown so we didn't even last 2 hours there. It was too bad since Sadie loved it. Elise would have been thrilled to sit in the shade with the 2 sleeves of Ritz crackers we brought. Do all kids pack away Ritz like mine? I never buy them because they are gone immediately.

While Millie napped at home some of the girls got our nails done. This is Sadie's fingers and toes with my toes. The flowers on Sadie's toes lasted for over a month! 

Just a shot of my kids in what they think is the play room.

 Millie continues to love Ruby, even if Ruby doesn't return it. Camille is not bothered by growls or barks, which is good in some ways, but bad in others, since she doesn't pick up on it when Ruby wants to be left alone. Usually an adult needs to be close by so they can intervene when Ruby is done with the pesky 2-year-old. Ruby only enjoys Camille for her food potential. Camille likes to sneak Rubes food from her plate as well as dog treats from the pantry. 

Millie helped Mimi bring Ruby out for a potty break or something and ended up doing a little photo shoot. Goofy close-mouthed smiles included.

Then the whole fam went to Chuy's for their amazing Diet Coke, and some food. I don't take food pics- I take Diet Coke pics. I don't know what Chuy's does, but their soda is just better. 

 Per usual, Camille sucked creamy jalapeno dip (it is both delicious and spicy) off of chips for a while.

She also prettied James up with some desperately-needed lip gloss.

 The older girls happily colored some pictures.

 Elise and James had a stare down. Elise loves to joke with Uncle James. I have overheard her telling several friends about her Uncle James who can scream like a girl and his favorite color is brown. She thinks both of these facts are hilarious.

 That night we played on the golf course for a bit before bed. Camille was just looking too cute. Lots of pictures of her from this day. She did have to change her shirt after dinner due to a creamy jalapeno mess.

Just an old married couple

Fourth and final installment coming up....