Spring Break - San Antonio!

This week was spring break for the kids from preschool, so we decided to go on a little mini overnight adventure to the San Antonio area, just for fun.

We started off with a stop at Natural Bridge Caverns. This photo kind of sums up how they were feeling about it - Carter was excited to go into a REAL bat cave, but Courtney was a wee bit apprehensive!


The trek down deep below the ground, past beautiful formations...


Our little cave explorer!


We walked around the grounds a little - it was a nice day!


They had a little area where you could go "mining" for gems - fun!


Courtney giving her loot to daddy...


They also had some dinosaurs to climb on!


My sweeties.


For dinner we went to a place called The Cove downtown. It's been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on Food Network! I had no idea - Joel picked it mostly because it also had a playscape for the kids to be entertained! Here's me and my sweet girl, sitting outside on a gorgeous spring evening.


Does this food look Guy Fieri-worthy? :-) This was Joel's dinner - a bison burger and sweet potato fries!


The next morning we went to the Botanical Gardens, where Carter took a birdwatching class!


Here's my boy outfitted with some binoculars, all ready to identify some birds!


Courtney got bored quickly in the birding class (and honestly, Carter did too - but he stuck it out!). Instead Courtney wandered around the gardens, especially loving the displays they had set up for Easter & spring...


My sweet garden girl!


Thanks for stopping by!

Giraffes!!

This past weekend the kids and I drove up to Dallas to spend the weekend with Daddy, who's up there on business. We packed in a few fun things, but for now I'm just going to show you one of them - because it was THE COOLEST THING EVER!!! We took the kids to the Dallas Zoo, where they got to feed a giraffe!! Some photos...

Here little giraffe, do you want some yummy lettuce?


Well hello there beautiful. Hungry?


Carter feeding the giraffe.


And Courtney.


He was so happy to be fed he even let Daddy pet him.


Thank you for a thrill today, gorgeous giraffe!


This was part of the newly-opened Giants of the Savanna exhibit. It's absolutely beautiful, you really must go see it!


Oh but maybe not in July - it was Africa HOT there in the African savanna! Ugh. But so worth sweating our way through to get to feed a giraffe!!

Last Day in CA - La Brea Tar Pits

And finally, the last full day of our California vacation. We decided to spend our morning on a bit of an Ice Age adventure by visiting the Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits!


We began the visit by walking around the grounds and looking at all of the stinky tar! There are several spots where it has bubbled and oozed out of the ground. This next photo shows a pretty neat site - they've constructed a little viewing building over a large pit. There are still some bones down in the pit, so you can see how it looks to the paleontologists - and see how dirty they get when they are excavating the fossils!


There were also some statues of Ice Age animals that the kids loved.


In the museum, the kids immediately found books in the gift shop that interested them and plopped down to look.


Finally we convinced them to come inside the museum - and Carter was glad he did. There were so many animal fossils - mammoths, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, giant sloths - very cool!


When we finished at the museum it was time for lunch, so we tried California's popular In-n-Out Burger. We got to drive around Hollywood a little, and saw the famous sign. Then we headed back once more to the California Science Center. We explored their very cool new "ecosystems" exhibit, and spent time in the Discovery Zone there - an area specifically for preschoolers. It was decorated SO CUTE!


After this big day of museum adventures, Courtney needed to rest!


The next morning we spent a little more time at the beach, then boarded our plane back to Austin. Such a fun vacation!

California Day 7, Part 2 - Waves & Wind

I decided to put the rest of Day 7 into a separate post, since I did a rotten job narrowing down the cycling photos in the last one and it was already so long! :-) After watching the Tour of California, we went on a scenic drive through the Santa Monica Mountains...


And back along the Pacific Coast Highway, where we pulled off for some photos.


Carter immediately began throwing rocks toward the water. He would spend hours throwing rocks into the ocean if we let him.


It was massively windy, as you can tell from Courtney's lovely hairdo...


But oh so pretty!


We made our way down to Santa Monica, where it was still insanely windy. We tried walking out on the beach, but the wind was whipping the sand up and it stung as it blew against our legs! So we went up on the Pier for a bit, where we played a little skeeball in an arcade and posed for a photo, then left before the wind blew Courtney out to sea...


But the seagulls sure were lovely!

California Day 7, Part 1 - Tour of California

On Sunday we drove up to Thousand Oaks for the 8th and final stage of this year's Amgen Tour of California bike race! I've been a big cycling fan since 1999, when a guy from Austin started winning the Tour de France. It was so exciting to see a cycling event live and in person! I had no idea what to expect at the starting line - turns out fans could wander around the parking lot with the team buses and wait for a peek at favorite riders. How cool! We opted to hang out by the Team RadioShack bus. We were surprised how we were able to get in so close to see the cyclists - Joel pointed out it may not have been so easy if Lance hadn't crashed out of the race a few days earlier...!


We saw Popo...


And Jason McCartney (I took this one for Lisa!)...


Jani Brajkovic (who I've learned, thanks to Twitter, has THE CUTEST little boy!!)...


A roughed up Chechu - he had crashed a few days earlier with Lance, but stuck around to finish the race. I had read he "had no skin left" - ouch!


And Levi - yay! This photo cracks me up, it's like the kid is saying "Can I touch you?".


Here's some fans waiting at the HTC-Columbia bus. Mick Rogers, who ended up winning the tour, was in there.


The BMC team car - they'd be helping to take care of George Hincapie along the route.


Carter & Courtney have a new favorite - Team Jelly Belly!! And yes, they were handing out free samples! We also got some free t-shirts from Team RadioShack, yay!


Jens Voigt! (Truth time - I had no idea it was Jens until now when I was looking up the numbers - note to self, next time you go to a bike race, bring a roster so you actually know who you're photographing! But yay, how cool that it was Jens Voigt!)


The ceremonial starting line...


The cars lined up, ready to go...


After the starting line we had lunch then found a spot along the route to watch them fly by. As you can tell, Carter and Courtney were so excited... (ha ha)

Here come the leaders, George is supposed to be one of these?


And the peloton. Recognize anyone? They went by so fast...


And the cars, rounding out the "cycling parade".


YAY! Fun day. Now let's hope I watch a live stage of the Tour de France someday... :-)