Weekend in Austin

Joseph had two weeks of training for work in Austin. In hindsight, May is a really busy month and being down a parent was rough. Lots of driving and shuttling kids around. But we made it.

The weekend between Joseph's two weeks in Austin, we either could have him drive home or I could drive the kids there. Since his work was helping pay for lodging and food for him for the weekend, we decided to go join him in Austin. Our first stop by seeing the bats fly out of the bridge Friday night. Except, they didn't come out! I think it was going to rain later that night and I read somewhere that the bats sense the rain coming and don't come out. Ugh. We waited for about 2 hours at the bridge, playing charades and eating ice cream. We saw a few bats here and there but nothing like the millions of bats that come out all at once. We'll try again another time. The kids weren't too happy with me.

Saturday was spent hiking around some fun areas. We went to McKinney Falls State Park and found lots of water to play in. We saw a coyote too, which was cool. My cousins live in Austin and they joined us for the state park.

After the state park, we had a picnic lunch and regrouped. I really wanted to do another hike in another part of the city so we cooled off in the van, some kids took a quick nap, and we hit the hiking trail again. We hiked up to Sculpture Falls, which was well worth it. It reminded me of a place in Wisconsin called Eau Claire Dells. We went growing up. Sculpture Falls had a nice quiet "upper falls" spot where the littles could wade in the water and not need to swim. Then the water trickled down into a pool where the big kids could swim and jump in from the rocks. We spent about 2-3 hours at the falls and then hiked back down. All in all, I think we hiked about 6-7 miles that day, which I consider a success.

Saturday night, we went to a restaurant for dinner. I think it was the first time we went to a restaurant without a play area that we actually sat down and ate dinner. We didn't have to chase kids around or take turns eating our food. Maybe that chapter of our life is over!

Sunday morning, we went to a local ward and then drove to San Antonio to see some friends. Then Joseph went back up to his hotel for work and I drove back with the kids to Houston.

Of course, the ending of his work trip to Austin wasn't so great. He left his training Friday afternoon and was rear-ended by a semi-truck within a few minutes of leaving town. So that has been "fun" to deal with. The car is totaled so now we have to buy a new car and deal with the insurance of the semi truck driver/company. Thankfully, Joseph's work is being really great about it all and helped get Joseph home from Austin. Joseph is sore and moving slowly but hopefully he gets better soon. The damage to the car is pretty significant. I am grateful there wasn't a child in the back seat. The rear window shattered, and there was glass all over the car seats.

Easter

Normally we go camping every Easter weekend. However, rain and thunderstorms kept us home this year. Instead of camping, we got to participate in all our friend/ward Easter activities instead.

Some families from our elementary school got together Friday morning at a local park and we organized a picnic lunch and Easter egg hunt. All the kids play together well, so it was nice to catch up with parents.

Tanner went to a local high school's playoff game, which kept him happy. On Saturday, we went to our ward's Easter activity and then Ashton and Tanner had birthday parties to attend at the trampoline park.

One of Tanner's favorite young men in our ward recently started his mission. He did the "at home MTC" for two weeks, which means Tanner got to see him a few times as a missionary. He left for Germany this week and his family is moving to Utah this summer. This means we won't see him when he comes home. Tanner is pretty sad. The young man donated all of his kicking equipment (he was the starting kicker/punter for the local high school) to Tanner.

Gemma's preschool had an Easter egg activity Thursday morning. She had lots of fun trying to find the eggs with her names on them. Her teachers are much more patient with her than I am.

We also tried to do more Easter-focused activities at home. We skipped Easter baskets again. I haven't done one for a few years. The kids don't seem the mind. I made some cool sensory play dough kits for the long weekend and they enjoyed those. On Easter Sunday, I did a small activity with the kids to focus on the events that led up to the resurrection. My hope is the kids understand a little bit more about Easter.