A day in Austin

Tanner tumbled into bed at around 6:30 this morning, and I tumbled out at around 9:00. I packed extra clothes, extra diapers, extra diaper wipes, extra food, extras, extras, extras while the girls got dressed twice. The first time, they came out wearing long pants, long sleeved shirts, socks, and Kate had slipped a dress over all of that. I explained that even though it was cloudy out, it was still hot, so back they went. This time with instructions that they were to find shorts, t-shirts and sandals.

Then instead of making breakfast which makes a lot of noise, I took mosquito killer and sprayed two cans of the stuff all over our yard. Then I took fire ant poison and spread that over a couple of new nests. Then I went back inside and checked to make sure the girls were dressed properly, did their hair, woke Tanner up. Remembered some odds and ends like bottles, baby food, sunscreen and mosquito repellant. Loaded kids in the car. Remembered that we needed the video player and videos. Loaded that. Remembered to call Uncle Howell to tell him that we were on our way. Loaded Tanner in the car. Then headed for Starbucks, gas and McDonalds.

Whew! All of that before 10:00. Boy am I good or what? It took us about an hour and 45 minutes to reach Uncle's place, but we didn't pull in till almost 12:30. Why? Because the "quick" trip to Starbucks, gas and McDonalds took almost an hour! We didn't leave College Station till almost 11:00.

The drive was spectacular. Unfortunately, Tanner slept through most of it, but I got to enjoy the wild Lantana and African Daisies growing profusively along the highway. Bold splashes of green and orange and red and then a sprinkling of purple or blue. All too soon we were pulling in to Austin.

We got to see Uncle's new house that he just purchased and we visited my cousing as well. It was a lot of fun getting to see where everyone was living, and then we headed to the little Celtic festival that was happening near their homes. The girls had so much fun, and Uncle spoiled them. They had ice cream and milk shakes and strawberries and grapes. He found balloons for them and little fuzzy purple bugs. He danced Irish jigs with them and chased them all over the park. My cousin joined us a little later in the afternoon for a late lunch and then we sat and listened to music.

After two melt-downs we decided that Reagan had enough and needed to go home, so we threw the kids in the car, swung by Starbucks again and headed home. Tanner decided that he could drive and we made it about 30 minutes outside of Austin when he turned to me and said that we'd better switch. So, we found a little driveway and I drove the rest of the way home. Well, almost. You see, I have this problem driving when it gets dark. I can't really see the road. So, as we were pulling into CS it got a little dangerous because I couldn't see the white and yellow lines to tell where my lane was. So, we pulled over again and Tanner drove the last 15 minutes home. We made it. We're safe. And we had a great time!