Austin Trip

So, this past weekend, we went with my cousin Summer and her family to Austin for the weekend.  We had a great time together.  Our boys always have so much fun together (sometimes a little too much fun).  They are like wild animals when they get together and pretty much drive us all crazy, but they have a great time.  Here are some of the highlights from our trip!

On the drive down to Austin, we stopped in Waco to go to the Zoo there.  They actually have a great zoo.  The animals were so active- I've never seen them so well.  The bear was actually up pacing (not sleeping, like usual), the tiger was up on display, and the elephant put on a show for us, by drinking water right in front of us.  But the best was the lion.  The male lion came right over to the glass where we were all standing and starting roaring at us.  It was way cool.  He roared probably 10 times right at us.  (I didn't get any pics of it because I was holding Nathan up to see.) We all had a great time!

Friday evening, we went to Phil and my favorite restaurant in Phoenix called Z'Tejas.  They have it in Austin.  It was so yummy!  Then afterwards, we went over to this park that had all these big cow statues.  So, of course the boys loved climbing all over them.  We got some cute pictures though.

After dinner and the park we went to see the bats at the Congress Bridge. From the website (they can explain it better than I can): "The Congress Avenue Bridge spans Town Lake in downtown Austin and is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America.  The colony is estimated at 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats.  Each night from mid-March to November, the bats emerge from under the bridge at dusk to blanket the sky as they head out to forage for food."  It's was pretty cool.

The next day, we drove out to the LBJ State park.  It's where Lyndon B. Johnson had his ranch and lived most of his live.  It had a farm where the boys could pet the animals and lots of walking trails to explore.  They could see old farm houses and see how they used to live back in the day.  

Then, we had a little easter egg hunt for the kids.  

That afternoon, all the boys went swimming at the hotel- which for my kids was a major highlight.  Phil was a good sport and went in the pool with all the boys.  Thanks Phil.  

Then, we celebrated Caden's 6th birthday by ordering pizza, opening presents and have an ice cream cake.  After that, we took the boys over the Chuck E. Cheese and let them play games for a while.  Overall, we had a great trip.  Thanks Summer and Ben for inviting us and planning it all!