Good Ol' Texas Exploring!

Hi Ya'll!  A few weeks ago my family came to visit! It was so nice to have them here and it was a great excuse to go try new things here in Austin!  We went swimming at Barton Springs pool. That was way cool. Literally... it was like 60 degrees in that water. VERY COLD! The boys got in, my mom and I preferred to watch with our feet dangling in!

We also got to check out the H.O.P.E art gallery.  Its just a bunch of cement walls in downtown Austin that people cover in graffiti. Occasionally the city of Austin will paint over all  of it and hire artists to come decorate the walls for charity events! Its one of the things I've really been looking forward to seeing here! It was super cool! I took A TON of pictures. I'll try not to overwhelm you with them. Especially since they're hard to format on here.
 

Right after this, we piled into the car and headed to San Antonio!!!

In San Antonio we had two goals... Sea World and the Temple.  We started out at the temple. It was a great way to start the day. I loved getting to go with my cute husband and wonderful parents! It was a very close call since we didn't know we had to make a reservation to do a session.  There was something very comforting about getting to go in when we were told there may not be room! It was beautiful!!!














Next up... Sea World! It was really cool! Since we haven't been since we were younger, it was exciting to see it all. The sharks were cool to watch. but we really enjoyed the shows. We bounced from show to show watching the seals then shamu, and ended with the dolphins and the TMNT dressed divers!






Also.... since when are there like 20 "Shamu's"  I thought Shamu was just one whale. They can't all be named Shamu! I was so deceived.


It was definitely hot and we were all pretty tired by the end of the day, but I had a great time and it was even better to have all my family here! :)

Then this past weekend was also pretty eventful. When Steven got off work on Friday we loaded up the car and drove the 3 hour drive to Dallas where we were meeting Sam and James for a nice weekend getaway!

Friday night we went to see "The Heat" at Studio Movie Grill. For those of you that haven't been there, you essentially have a call light and waiters come take your order and bring your food ALL while getting to watch the movie! It was pretty funny. The food was mediocre.  In theory it's a good idea, but probably not for someone like me. I get distracted so  easily, I was watching people walk all around the theatre instead of watching the movie! Poor Sam got a pizza that wasn't cooked at all! Gross!!

Saturday we got up only to find that the continental breakfast James paid extra for wasn't really continental.... whatever continental even means! It was a very confusing situation and even then it wasn't great food. After breakfast we headed to Six Flags!!! You should know that we had just heard that someone died the day before at that Six Flags, we hoped that would keep the crowds down. We were wrong.  Before even riding our first ride we had sweat running down our faces and who knows where else.  However, by the time we reached the front of the line on our second ride, we were told that we couldn't ride because it was storming! Seriously? Don't worry... we finally got to ride it.  My favorite part of that wait was the guy that worked there started telling jokes over the intercom.  "what do you call a gummy bear...."  A few minutes later he starts over " what do you call a bear with no teeth?" He ruined his own joke! :)
After a small lunch we got in line for Mr. Freeze! My favorite!!!! Guess what.... closed again, because of weather! booooo. We spent the next 3.5 hours waiting for it to stop storming. We did play some games, and make friends with the people sitting around us!


We did a lot of waiting, but I guess that's to be expected when you go to Six Flags in the summer anyway, right?
The good news though, was after this bigger storm quite a few people had left. So after Mr. Freeze we were able to get in line for titan and wait maybe 5 minutes total for that one.
At the end of the day we had spent 11 hours and got to ride a whoppin 6 rides! Impressive huh?  Apparently 30% of rain in Texas means something different! :)

 

It was great to get to spend some time with Sam and James though! I'm glad they could come visit for the weekend! I, personally, still had a great time!

summer lovin.... havin a blast

Did you think I forgot about ya?  I figured now would be a good time to update. We are about halfway through Steven's internship at National Instruments.  He has enjoyed it, and really likes to come home and tell me all about the boot process that he has been working with! :)

It's been an eventful few weeks here in Texas. We've had the wonderful opportunity to visit Oklahoma a few times.  The drive isn't wonderful but the company sure is!  Our most recent trip was our most action packed.  My parents definitely spoiled us!! We got to go see Lion King with my parents. It was SO cool!!!! I have no idea what I expected, but it was very fascinating to watch!  The costumes blew my mind! I'm very glad we got to go see it!!

 

 Next on the agenda for our busy weekend in BA was a mud run! It was on my dad's birthday, and I am sure it was exactly how he wanted to spend it!




We ran a 5k with a bunch of scattered obstacles and muddy pits!

 We had to climb over stuff, and crawl through barrels. We were expected to get muddy and sweaty and let me tell you, muddy and sweaty we got!!


It wasn't easy! There were quite a few times that I felt like we were slowing my super in shape dad down, but he didn't complain!  We had such a good time!!!

Who doesn't love climbing 12 foot walls, and crawling through mud?


It was definitely an adventure and I was so excited to get to do it with my dad and Steven! What a group of studs! :)








As if that wasn't enough for one weekend.... later that night they took us to a fancy place called Riverside grill right along the Arkansas.... river? After eating way too much we headed over to Riverside airport where my dad's friend had an R44 helicopter waiting to take us for a ride! As soon as he got out of the airport Chuck let my dad take over and my dad ended up giving us a tour of Tulsa at night! It was so pretty!!!!

I know Steven and I had a blast. Steven was super excited to have his first ever helicopter ride and what better place to fly over?









Sorry this has turned into a rather long post. Believe it or not... this is just ONE weekend of our exciting summer so far! Like I said, we are halfway through our adventure in Austin and look forward to many more new and cool things to experience! Maybe my next post will actually include things we have done in TEXAS! :)