My Birthday In Austin!!

                                

































I love love love Austin. Especially Lake Travis and all the other out door things you can do. Let's not forget the beautiful scenery. So for my birthday I just wanted a couple of days in Austin.
It was such an amazing 2 days. The first day we got there we spent it on Lake Travis. It was a little windy so the water wasn't as calm as i'm used to it, but everyone still had a great time.
Our second and last day we went to Hamilton Pool in Dripping Springs. It's a natural spring fed pool with a 50' waterfall. It is a preserve and sadly this day was a no swimming day. The water had too much bacteria in it. I thought it was from all the rain, but I was wrong. Are you ready?!?! It was from all the bird poop!! So this day we just watched the beautiful pool and waterfall. A great sight. We will definitely have to go back and swim in it.
We had dinner at the Oasis over looking Lake Travis. Such a breath taking view. Just gorgeous!!!
After Hamilton Pool we had lunch at a bbq place and than went canoeing on Town Lake. I have to tell you it was an ordeal getting Hana in the canoe. She was determined not to get in it because she was convinced there was a waterfall and we were going to go down it. Once in she was fine. Daddy paddled the entire time 1.5 hours. He did have a little help from little Ricky. I offered many times to help but was turned down. It was fun and our entertainment was people jumping off the bridge into the lake -- CrAzY!!
After Town Lake we went swimming in Barton Springs. This is a spring fed creek. I believe I read it stays a constant 68 degrees, brrrrrr. Definitely has to be a hot scorching day to get in. It was very refreshing. I never got in past my tummy, big Ricky and the kids took the plunge. Cold. Cold. Cold. Barton Springs is probably one of my new favorite spots.
It was an amazing couple of days!!

Fourth of July 2010!!

We had another great 4th of July on Lake Conroe. We were invited to Angie's parents lake house. It was perfect and so much fun. You can't ask for more than family, great friends, good food, sun and water. This combination is always a home run!!!
The kids love jumping off the dock. Lil Ricky was thrown and did some great flips in the air. He seems to amaze me all the time. Every time I don't think he'll do something due to fear he proves me wrong. Hana is great at following her big brothers lead and jumped off the high dock!! She did belly flop a few times, but it didn't seem to affect her.
WHAT A TERRIFIC FOURTH!!

I am grateful for the man and woman of this country who fight for our freedom. Happy Independence Day Everyone!!

MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE

Today we decided to go to the museum of Natural Science in the museum district of Houston.
We have heard from our friend, Stephanie who just went how wonderful it is.
We learned so many wonderful new things. We got to experiment with science. Ricky was chosen as a volunteer to help out with a science presentation. We saw dinosaur skeletons. Which amazed me. Hard to imagine something so big roaming the Earth. We learned about the Indians. Which was very interesting. They had so much respect for the land and animals and they're people. They didn't destroy everything like we do today nor kill so many animals. They only killed what they needed and used. In which they also shared with their community. Very uncommon these days. They learned how to use every part. An interesting trivia I learned that a woman in one tribe was known for her social status by how good she was in cleaning, crafting, cooking etc.... Lets just say I would be very low on the social status ladder. One thing is for sure they all worked extremely hard.
Another favorite exhibit was the butterfly exhibit. You got to go into this beautiful tropical enclosure with 100s of butterflies flying around. All the butterflies are beautiful but there were some more beautiful than others. If you got lucky they would land on you.
Another exhibit they had was about insects. I can not believe how big some insects get!! If one of those flew past me I would literally have a heart attack. There were some roaches, that were so big I thought they were replicas. Than they started moving. It was gross and mesmerizing at the same time. Lets just say they were so big that they had a bowl of cat/dog food out for them. Insane!!
I did find out that roaches are very big on their hygiene. Go figure?!?!
It was a great day. We had a great family day and at the same time learned a lot.

Smmer Days At The Pool!!

This summer we have been spending most of our days at the pool. The kids love it!! Ricky is becoming such a great little swimmer and Hana is quiet the fish.
Here are some pics from one of our days at the pool. This day we had a special treat. Dad was able to join us.

 

Helpful Money Saving Links

Oh no! My inspection sticker is out on my car and we're into the next month. Ok I purposefully wait for the next month because it gives me an extra month next year.

One afternoon the kids and I went to go get my sticker. I thought I picked a slow time. Apparently not because it was an hour wait. But I was determined to stay at this place because I had a $5 off coupon. For a SAHM $5 could go a long way!!!
So the kids and I settled into our seats. Well actually since the waiting room was full I settled into my seat with a magazine. My kids played with the owners son and another kid. While I read my magazine and found some money saving websites that i'm excited to share.

Now at one point in this hour long wait (if you have kids than you know that an hour feels like 3). I hear a lady tell her son "come over here I taught you better than to act like that" referring to my kids and the owners son. I was speechless!! The funny part was I really thought my kids were behaving. They weren't real loud or running around the place. They were just interacting. Except the one time Hana started pulling her dress over her head, but that's a whole different story.

So since my kids were behaving I continued on reading my magazine.

Here are some helpful money saving sites:

www.restaurant.com ----- Get a restaurant gift card for less i.e. $25 value for $10

www.mommysavesbig.com ----- Get coupons online and in store to retailers

www.silverjewelryclub.com ----- Get free silver jewelery with a small s&h fee

protonic.com ----- Free computer help

800 free 411 ----- instead of dialing 411 and getting charged a $1 dial 1 800 free 400 and you get your # for free. You might have to listen to a sponsor ad.

Dealnews.com ----- I'm not sure but most of thought it was a good one.

mybargainbuddy.com. ----- Internet bargains

slickdeals.net ----- more deals

I just found these websites in an article. I have not tried them yet but I am looking to finding great deals and saving a lot of money.