Saturday, December 18, 2010

Believe


We took the kids to the mall (what a ZOO!) to mail their letters to Santa in the mailbox at Macy's.  I love that they set that up!  Hannah said the lower box was packed full of letters, so they had to use the upper slot.  She also wanted to see if the "Believe-meter" would move when they put their letters in.


Don't you just love Christmas?  I can hardly wait until Santa comes!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

McKinney Falls State Park

Just south of Austin, near the airport, is a great state park.  John had camped there with the Scouts last year, and wanted to take our kids to ride bikes.  We packed up the bikes and lunch, and headed out.  Two waterfalls make for great scenery, but since the water is low, they are really just trickles and we could walk all the way across without getting wet.  During the summer, people jump off the falls into the pools below.

Standing on top of the falls


More wildlife--the turtles like to sun themselves on the rock.


On the ledge overlooking the pool


The waterfall is pitted with holes from the water constantly running over.  Some are large, some are small, some still had water in them like a tidepool.


Riding off on the bike path.


We rode two different bike paths.  One was easy and paved, one was more difficult single-track.  I was proud of the kids--Ellie and Seth don't even have gears, but they managed just fine over tree roots and up and down hills.  Sometimes we had to walk the bikes, but we had a great adventure. 

John stopped the kids partway through and said, "Was that hard?  See, you can do hard things."  Always a teaching moment!  I wish John could just retire and be on vacation every day forever!  I guess we'll just have to make the best of the rest of the year while he's off.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

It's Always Fun for Everyone When Grandpa (and Grandma) Come!

A couple of weeks ago, John's parents came for a short visit.  We did our best to keep them busy!  We went on one of those "Duck Adventure" tours of downtown Austin, where the bus also goes in the water.  It was interesting because we saw parts of downtown that we haven't seen yet.  I want to go back to Sandra Bullock's restaurant!  And everyone got a "quacker" to take home.  Yay for the quackers!  (They are really annoying.)




Seth and John trying to figure out how a bus with wheels can go in the water.



We went on a short bike ride around our neighborhood, and even Grandma rode a bike!  I was very proud of her--she was super adventurous.

Grandma brought a HUGE gingerbread house to decorate with the kids.  Candy Galore!




It was a nice visit, and the kids always love spending time with their grandparents.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Hanging Up the Lights

After much drama about the lights, we finally got them up.  Our roof is much steeper here than in Vancouver, so John was a little nervous up there, but it all worked out.