18 posts tagged “austin”

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Originally uploaded by Phisch

Look at our pics. Edit: we did this last weekend, when soccer games were canceled due to recent rains.

The last few times we've hiked at the Greenbelt, we chose to exit at the Mopac frontage road and entered the trail from there (west side). We found that there was a trail entrance off 360, so that's where we went this time.

Good thing, too! This part of the trail was gorgeous. The weather was so perfect. It was in the 80s but there was a perfect breeze that made it just so nice in the shade and not awfully hot in the sun.

The trees are all green now, no real sign at all of the sparse grey of winter. We even found this very out of place poppy (made me wish I had a camera that let me pick the depth of field).

The boys had a great time and we could tell we were well overdue for a family outing!

I got tickets for all four of us to see The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley this Friday. Yay! I love me a good musical*. I hope the boys will enjoy it, too. The little one will like the larger-than-life feel of a stage production, I think, and the older one will love reminiscing because they did a unit study on Flat Stanley in first grade.

The musical will be staged at the Long Center, one of the first performances for this new facility. Adjacent to it is a large field, grassy knolls and a park with lots of water fountains for the kiddos to run through. Just another reason to love Austin :)

I went to buy tickets at the window in person mainly so that I could do a recon to figure out where to park. I was surprised to find out that I saved $30, all told, for our four tickets. Can you believe it? I thought at most I'd save the $1 per ticket fee to print the tickets via online ordering.

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Originally uploaded by Phisch

Pictures here. Many pretty pictures!

It's definitely wildflower season here in Central Texas. It's not hard to find patches of bluebonnets, primroses and black-eyed susans along the sides of roads and freeways.

Hubby decided to take off from work tomorrow and deal with taxes instead so we could have an afternoon outing today. We had planned to drive out to Fredricksburg since the road there is one of the better places to see flowers. No doubt, since the biggest proponent of wildflowers, Lady Bird Johnson lived in Johnson City which is on 290 near Fredricksburg and on top of that there's a big wildflower seed farm somewhere there. We didn't make it far. There was a marquis set up announcing an incident on 290. It had to be bad for the sheriffs to take the time to set that up (second bad accident we saw today...so sad*).

We turned around and headed to the Ladybird Johnson National Wildflower Research Center instead. The last time we went was in the middle of winter. It was nice, if a little stark and grey. This time, it was like pretty exploded everywhere. Hubby had a blast taking the camera away from me to take photos. It was nice because NM and J kept asking to get their photos taken, too =)

*The first bad accident of the day was on the way to church. Hubby had to let a police car go ahead of him and that guy did a U-turn on the freeway. We look to our left and on the other side of the freeway was a white minivan and there was a guy who was laying a tarp or sheet over something. Judging from the condition of the minivan, it was probably a person he was covering up. I hope it was to keep them comfortable. There were several other cars stopped nearby as well, probably to help.

At church, Bunjee's message was about witnessing. The thought of forever in hell is so awful. If we don't have compassion for others enough to share Jesus' love to them, in a very real way it's cruel.

When I saw the accident I just about cried because my first thought was for that person and to pray for the ones around him or her. What if they didn't know who He is? Forever is such a long time.

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Originally uploaded by Phisch

Photos over here.

Last Friday, I took the kids to the Austin Zoo & Animal Sanctuary which turns out is really, really close to where we live. I'm still amazed at how much open space is around here and I have to make myself stop thinking that in a few years it will all be developed. Maybe not!

Anyway, the boys would have had a better time if I'd brought them more food. Hehe. My bad...next time I'll do better.

Actually, it's really more of an animal sanctuary than a zoo. Many of the animals here are rescues from people who keep exotic pets then decide they can't or injured animals or similar situations.

The main reason I wanted to go was so that we could go over this week's science topic: primates. We did get to see most kinds: monkeys, apes (well, one kind of ape) and prosimians (ever-cute lemurs). There was also a huge petting area and J really enjoyed feeding the sheep and goats, but he really got a kick out of the axis deer (and not just because mom squealed "cute" but he said so, too). There was also a little train ride through the trees, not the animals. Both boys enjoyed that.

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Originally uploaded by Phisch

Yay! We went hiking again yesterday. J wasn't feeling too hot, but he was a trouper (they both were) and enjoyed it anyway.

At first, we followed my interpretation on the map and our NM was disappointed. I let them all astray; we took the route he said was the right way and, goodness, he was right of course.

The weather has been amazing. The temps in the 70s in the shade, a little breeze and humidity. It hasn't rained all that much so the creek has no water in it yet. We crossed it so we could get to the other side where the shade was.

The trail was interesting because it was split in two: one trail for only those on foot and the slightly higher trail that allowed for mountain biking. The way they separated it is by putting a fence at the beginning of the trail that made it impossible for a biker to get through. I'd never seen that before.

Of course, the boys had fun and we got to see new creatures as well. Well, only I saw the snake and I'm not sure what kind it was. I'm always listening for rustling around on the ground and the sound it made was really different from a bird or lizard spooked by our presence. It definitely was a "slither" and it caught my attention. It looked a lot like this one.

Central Texas is showing so many signs of Spring. The Creek was no exception. There were a lot of plants on the sides of the trails that looked like crab grass but with darker and wider blades. A little bit further, I found some of them that were topped with purple blooms. I wasn't manning the camera or I'd have photos of those and the other pretty flowers that were peeking out here and there, not to mention the trees' leaf buds beginning to unfold. Maybe we don't get snow here, but we sure get a sense of seasonal changes.

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Originally uploaded by Phisch

I'll go ahead and post this before all the photos are done uploading and they get their proper captions. Promise you'll go back for those.

Photos are here.

We drove 20-ish minutes to Hamilton Pool Preserve today. The drive was through some farm land full of what I think are called "gentlemen's ranches" which is another way of saying "I have cattle so I can have a tax write off, not because I necessarily like cattle." Granted, we did see someone with a few bison.

We get to the preserve which has a hiking trail of a little over a mile long from one end (Hamilton Pool) to the other (Pedernales River). The water looked so pretty with blue-green colors but at 53 degrees or so F, not at all inviting! Sorry, too cold. The trail was rocky in parts but the boys did well and really had a blast. I mean really, really enjoyed themselves. There were so many smiles and NM was asking me to take his photo. The only trauma was at the end when someone twisted their ankle but that was over quickly. We ate out afterwards and had well-deserved naps. We were all so tired!

So we decide, in spite of the loud protestation of our children, to head to Costco so the youngest kiddo can have milk and that we can all enjoy the luxury of knowing we won't run out of toilet paper tonight.

Most of the way to Costco we drive a highway where the north and south bound lanes are separated by a very wide island and there are also a couple of traffic lights to accommodate east-west streets (think: highway, not freeway like California).

We were stopped at one of these lights, us on north Mopac and the cross street was Slaughter. All of a sudden, someone heading east on Slaughter turns in our direction. As in, if she didn't tighten her turn, she would have hit us head on. She was going kind of slowly which is why she managed to make it onto the island and only scrape some of her paint on our bumper. I doubt she was drunk: if she were, she would not have been so calculating in the way she turned her car to avoid hitting us (much). More likely, she would have had some surprise show on her face but there was none of that. She looked upset, but not teary or lit.

Unfortunately, after she made the turn she sped up and her license plate was indiscernible to hubby who was driving (the truck bed hid the back of her vehicle from my view). The person to our right caught on to what happened and I asked her if she was calling 911 since we didn't have a phone. She did and made sure we were ok since the dispatcher was asking. Hopefully, the woman who was now driving the wrong way on the highway wasn't going to hurt anyone.

On our way home we noticed a patrol officer going south on Mopac. I wonder if they were still looking for her.

(I write with tongue in cheek)

I keep missing the chance to take a photo to prove this fact to you. In the tract of homes across from ours is a very obvious sign of love. There is a steer made of orange lights and steel and fan-aticism perched proudly atop a roof top for all passers by to see. Why? This is Longhorn town, people. The folks here wear it on their sleeves and roof tops. Longhorns? They love meat? No...they love college football.

Frankly, I love how people are so proud of their team even if I don't get into it. There's something to be said for almost a whole town loving the only really big team they have in spite of only one major win (i hear said) in recent years (they beat the Trojans. I hear you gasping!). There wasn't really any "spirit" of that kind out in California where I lived even though there was lots of sport type things to enjoy. Maybe there were that many more distractions? I don't know.

Anyway, I thought I better share that with you before I forget. I do still hope to prove it with photos.

From a mailing list I'm on and so I thought I'd share in case you are crafty enough to have stuff you want to sell:

Keri's Fairy Godmother Foundation
Is having their annual Fall Festival Fundraiser on October 28th
10am-5pm @ Woods Fun Center on IH35N, on the corner
of Braker and 35 near the Harley Davidson Store.

Were inviting 40 different vendors for you to shop from.

We will have a Moonwalk, Yummy food and treats,
Snow Cone & Cotton Candy Vendors.

Cinderella will be there to take pictures with the kiddos.

We have created a safe trick or treating environment for
your little ones so be sure to have them dress up in their costumes!

Silent Auction with tons of great stuff donated from local businesses.

local folk group 3 Townes Song will be there 12-4

We are looking for a few more vendors,
If you are interested in being a Vendor:
We have booths in the parking lot for $40 for an
approx 10X10 area and we have a few covered booths
approx. 8X8 on the front of the building with electricity for $50.

Were doing tons of advertising; radio, newspaper, web announcements,
flyers, email blasts and possibly TV (still working on it)

Were looking for local business's to be a part of our silent auction.
Were asking for goods and services to be show cased in our
silent auction to help raise funds for our Organization.
All items will be displayed at out event on October 28th.
We will display your business cards, flyers, brochures
next to your product! All donations will be posted on our
website with a direct link to your company website.
Please contact me if you would like to donate!

We are a 501 C3 non-profit Organization so your
donation is tax deductible; so be sure to ask for a receipt.

Thank you,

Hope to see ya there!

Your Fairy Godmother!
www.thefairygodmotherfoundation.com