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.