Quick Trip to Austin

Andy's work schedule really stinks the first 4 months of the year. It's never that fabulous, but it's especially hard at the beginning of the year. Working until 9-10 PM most nights and then Saturdays as well... So, when I found out my dad was going to be in Austin the first week of May and one of Andy's main clients was going to file May 5th, I figured it was perfect timing/reasoning for a weekend getaway. We've never been to Austin and have always said we wanted to get there.

So, on the morning of May 6th, we headed out. First on our list was meeting Papa Michaelson at Chuck E. Cheese. It happened to be a few days before Rachel's birthday, so she got to open her birthday presents from Papa and Grandma Michaelson while we were at Chuck E. Cheese. It was good to see my dad, as always. He did head home after lunch though, because he does tend to miss my mom like crazy....

Rachel was more than willing to give Chuck E. a big squeeze. Audrey was perfectly content staying 10 feet away. Don't worry, luckily this wore off by the time we got to Disney World later in the month. :)

After lunch we headed to the State Capitol Building. We enjoyed walking around and checking everything out. We even sat in for a few minutes to watch our lawmakers busy at work!

Just so you know, it's totally appropriate for little ones to dance in the Capitol:

Exploring the grounds outside the Capitol:
The girls really wanted to take a dip:

After exploring the Capitol we dined at P.F. Chang's, which was a fabulous choice! The girls ate more than I've ever seen them eat and Audrey mastered chop sticks:

After dinner we walked over to the Congress Avenue Bridge to watch roughly 1.5 million bats head out to look for food. There's actually a bat hotline number that you can call and we were on the bridge probably 10 minutes before takeoff. It was really quite amazing. We watched for about 15-20 minutes. It was pretty cool! At first we were on the wrong end of the bridge. But it was kind of like the wave you do at ballparks and the bats underneath us gradually took off as well.

Saturday morning we headed to Zilker Park. The girls had fun playing on the playgrounds and going on a train ride. And then once it got a little hot we headed to a swimming pool for the afternoon. We didn't take any pictures at the swimming pool (we were having too much fun!). But here's a few at Zilker Park:

There's lots of activities at Zilker Park including going kayaking. When the girls are older we'll have to go back! Once we packed the girls in the car to head back to the hotel after swimming, Audrey was out:

We headed back to the the hotel, Andy and Audrey took little naps while Rachel and I played in the hotel lobby. That evening we went out to Chuy's for dinner - one of my favorites! Andy eats there all the time here in Houston for work and I'm always jealous. So, he treated me for Mother's Day. :)

Sunday morning we headed to the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum. We weren't expecting much, but it was free so we figured it was worth a try. We really enjoyed it! We re-learned a lot about the 60's and probably would have stayed longer if we hadn't had the little ones with us... :) Although they were really good for the time we did spend there. Just an interesting fact - this is the only free presidential library in the U.S., which was a wish of President Johnson. We weren't allowed to use the flash on the camera, so not many pictures turned out. Here are a few:

The girls enjoyed listening to the audio clips:

After the museum we picked up a picnic lunch and headed back to Zilker Park to check out the botanical garden. The girls enjoyed (with the help of Andy) climbing up some trees:

Each morning at the hotel the girls and I enjoyed a Texas-shaped waffle. So, the girls were pretty excited to get their picture with this Texas-shaped rock structure:

We then took a quick walk through the botanical garden. It was free and very hot and wasn't that impressive. Definitely worth a walk through on a better weather day. We've just been spoiled to see some pretty amazing gardens in the past. Andy took a few pictures of the girls and I:

We then headed home after that. We definitely enjoyed our weekend getaway to Austin. We didn't do a ton of planning beforehand and it turned out great. For me, it was a fabulous Mother's Day treat as I didn't have to cook or clean for 3 days. After 4 months of not so much family time, it was nice to have a weekend to spend together! :)