Wildflower Center Family Garden

We love going to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, especially now that they've opened a Family Garden!  It's a beautiful garden and a Landscape Architects dream......it's one of Micah's favorite places to go.

We always see a ton of wildlife there including owls, rabbits, turtles, frogs, and tons of butterflies!

The Family Garden just opened in May and we have visited several times since then.

There are 3 giant bird nests with wooden eggs for kids to play with.

This water area is the kid's favorite place to hang out.  Owen could stay here for hours catching and releasing tadpoles.

I'm sure we will continue to visit throughout the summer!

Field Trips

We've been on a few outings recently and I call them field trips because both times there were lots of kids on field trips while we were there!

Here we are at the Peter Pan Mini-Golf course.  We've wanted to play here since we moved to Austin and finally made it!  It's a really cool, old school course with lots of fun obstacles.

With Lovelace and Ayla

Anna and Adler

One day last week we had a picnic at the park with our friends and then spent the afternoon at the Austin Aquarium.  The Aquarium opened less than a year ago and is pretty low budget.  I wasn't that impressed with the facility, after being spoiled by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California BUT......the kids had a blast and totally enjoyed themselves.  I guess that's what matters most.  But I'm not sure I'll be taking them back there anytime soon.

The best part of the day was feeding the birds!

Road Trip to North Texas

We took a road trip to the Dallas area last weekend and enjoyed lots of family!  

 On the way we stopped in Ennis to see my Granny, who just recently moved into a nursing home.  It was great to see her, but hard to see her new living situation. She seems to be making the best of it though!

This was Titus' first road trip and he did awesome!  He sat with the kids in the back seat and slept pretty much the entire way.  He also enjoyed making new doggie friends all weekend long.

 The main reason for our trip was to find out if Matt and Jami were having a boy or a girl......as you can see by the pink on Matt's shirt, it's a GIRL!!!  We can't wait to welcome our new niece to the family later this year!

We also celebrated Father's Day with Micah's dad and brother.

 On our drive home to Austin we couldn't help but notice this amazing field of sunflowers!  We just had to stop and get a closer look!

Where's Owen??

Owen likes taking pictures now too!

Summer Fun

 We're enjoying summer so far!  The weather hasn't been too terribly hot and hasn't stopped us from getting out and about.  We took our canoe out again and even brought Titus along for the ride.  He did awesome chilling in the boat with us.

Here's Micah swinging into the water from a rope swing!

Adler at Barnes and Nobles

Titus Boy found a comfy spot!

Adler and her friend Ayla at the pool

Owen and Pop fishing in College Station

 The XGames moved to Austin this year and we went downtown on the opening day.  It was pretty awesome watching the skateboarders and bikers fly on this ramp!

 We sat on the Capital grounds for most of the night and watched the events and crowds. What an awesome event!!

Owen, Lovelace and Adler

Bathroom break at the XGames??  No problem.  We just went inside the Capital building for a quick break!

Gone Fishin'

Micah and Owen have been going fishing lately! 

This is officially Owen's favorite thing to do.

On this trip they were fishing on the Guadalupe River near Seguin.

Check out the Alligator Gar that Owen caught! It was about 2 feet 

long! They have long, sharp teeth so they let Garrett handle it.

Summer is Here!

School is out and Owen is officially a second grader......CRAZY!!!

This is Owen's class at their end of school picnic!

On the last day of school I brought Titus up during recess so Owen could share him with his friends.  He had so much fun showing him off!

 And here is our Summer Bucket List!

We had such a blast last summer with our bucket list, the kids couldn't wait to write down their plans for this summer.  Bring it!!

Introducing........Titus!

We did it!  After talking about it for months, we adopted a puppy!
This is Titus.

We decided to adopt from Austin Pets Alive and visited their facility regularly for about a month. As much as I wanted to adopt a older dog, the kids were desperate for a puppy.  Titus was actually born at Austin Pets Alive, as his mom was rescued while she was pregnant.  He was the runt in a litter of twelve and stole our hearts the first time we met him.  His foster family named him Titus and the name stuck.

Titus is two months old the Vet thinks he is a Catahoula mix.  

We can't wait to see what he's going to look like as an adult.  

Titus is settling in easily at home.  He was a little nervous the first few days, but is right at home now.  He sleeps through the night in his kennel, enjoys being outside, loves his toys, and likes playing soccer with Owen.  

We are all so thrilled to have a furry friend in our home again.  He is already bringing a joy back into our lives that has been missing since we lost Kirby and Sandy last year.  We look forward to many happy years with him!

Welcome to our family, Titus!