Oy....it is end of August and I am now finishing up our JUNE Texas trip! At this point I am just proud that I am keeping the blog going, even if at a slower pace than I would like. It will eventually all get on there. :) We had such a fun, fast-paced summer. I can't believe it's over. I just finished/survived (ha!) my first week of school! I need to blog the summer bdays, 4th of July, and then probably just a big ol' summer recap. It was so much easier to keep up when I was a mommy of one! But that just means my life is full and I'm out there living it.
Sooo....here we go with Part 3 of our TX trip.
The day after the wedding was Father's Day. The boys had helped me pick out cards for Daddy and Papa before we left on our trip. We agreed instead of presents we would spend the money on doing some fun things in Austin during the day. Below are the boys in their, "I Dig My Dad" shirts with Jay. They love their daddy! Holden chose the Spiderman card with great care. ;)
Holden and Papa playing with his pirate scene magnet set.
We gave Holden some different choices, and he really wanted to explore a "bat cave." We found one called the Innerspace Caverns. They are called this because at the time they were discovered, space exploration had begun. The caves reminded the explorers of outer space, only they were inside the Earth. The boys took a real liking to the headlamps for sale in the gift shop.
Holden and the Wooley Mammoth. Ha!
Papa and Hunter checking out photos of the bats that live in the caves. Their nickname is the "chicken nugget" bats because they are the size and shape of said McD's food.
Getting ready to head down in the tram to the cave entrance!
Papa and Grammy in the tram
Entrance to the cave...a little spooky! Holden was all excited
and said it reminded him of Scooby Doo!
Love this one of Holden and Daddy walking along in the cave. Holden kept hiking up his pants and I finally checked them and realized they are the adjustable waist kind and I had failed to tighten the little belt things. They worked much better after that! You can see him grabbing them in the picture. :)
My buddy and me in the cave
Stalagmites and stalactites in the cave
Grammy and Holden walking through the cave together
Scenes from our cave exploration
Baby Hunter got nice and comfy on Papa's shoulder. I guess the dark, cool cave reminded him of nap time. Papa carried his dead weight through the cave for over an hour. At one point, he was snoring with his mouth wide open! Guess he wasn't too impressed with our tour.
Can you see the little bat? The tour guide (who reminded us of Velma from Scooby Doo! Same looks and voice, took her job VERY seriously...cracked us up!) shone her flashlight on it. We weren't allowed to use flash on our cameras because it can startle them and make them flap around people's heads. Eek!
We went to my Aunt Steph's house for dinner that evening, and enjoyed cooling off in her pool.
Holden was a great helper watering Aunt Steph's flowers. He took his job very seriously. :)
Apparently Papa is the best pillow in the world in Hunter's opinion. Second nap of the day he took laying on him. :) Papa looks pretty sleepy himself.
My aunt redid her upstairs living room area now that her kids are out of the house. She has TONS of Beatles memorabilia, and turned the room into a black and white Beatles themed room! It is so cool! I loved looking around at everything. These pics don't really do it justice.
Holden and Grammy playing Duplos in the Beatles room.
I had to snap some pics of Hunter during bath time at our hotel.
He is such a little ham!
On another day during our stay, Holden was bound and determined that we were going to find a putt-putt place. Who doesn't want to putt-putt in 100 degree heat indexes? Ha! We did find a quaint little place called "Peter Pan Golf." The boys loved checking out all of the storybook characters.
Does anybody else think the skateboard rabbit is kinda scary??
Family pic by the T-Rex!
We had to get a pic with Peter Pan, too. :)
After putt-putt, we went over to the state capital building. It was neat to look up, up, up into the round top with the star in it. Holden and I went up the elevator and looked down at Grammy, Papa, and Hunter below. Keeping with his trip theme of "baby who sleeps anywhere," Hunter fell asleep in his stroller and slept through this experience as well. We went to a YUMMY little Tex-Mex place called Serranos for lunch.
Holden had spotted a snow cone camper on our drive to putt-putt earlier in the day. Jay had told him we could stop by later. Apparently he was under the assumption Holden would forget. Are all of you moms laughing at this assumption? I know I was! As we were leaving the capital building, Holden pipes up from the back about the snow cone camper. Now here's the thing: we didn't exactly remember where it was at! Jay drove around looking that camper while Holden anxiously peered out the window. We finally did locate it. Hunter was asleep...AGAIN (we wore that boy our on our trip!) so the rest of us chilled (literally) in the air-conditioned van while Daddy and Holden braved the heat once again to enjoy snow cones. I did hop out to snap pictures.
I love that he is wearing his "Chill Out, Dude" shirt with the popsicle on it. Very appropriate. :)
Playtime fun with Grammy in her hotel room.
We stayed at a Doubletree, and it had fountains in various locations.
The boys LOVED them! Cheap entertainment.
Love them in their little Hawaiian shirts.
Brothers
Cool chair in the lobby.
Cute boys occupying it.
Make a wish, Hunter!
Make a wish, Holden!
Busy little boys
Family picture in the courtyard.
3 generations
Cute one of my parents
Heart!
My energetic, busy, crawling, toddling, tripping, button-pushing, mischief making Hunter
My giggly, happy, enthusiastic, inquisitive, running, jumping, climbing,
snow-cone loving Holden. (Who at age 4 will actually pose for me!) :)
