Texas Part Two

The next day we Jeff took the kids to a military show while I took some time to sit and chat with John and Bettina during Alex's nap.  In the afternoon we all went out to play at another park.  There was a short hike to get to the playground area and I found a nice spot for a few blue bonnet pictures.

The kids flew a kite and a helicopter boomerang toy they found at Fry's that morning.

Not the ideal family photo, but look, we're all in one place! 

You can tell that Lincoln is thrilled to be a part of it.  :)

There were no hotels at a reasonable rate in Austin on Saturday night, so we went north a bit earlier than expected.  We stayed in Grapevine to cut our trip in half and then spent the day visiting my friend Mimi and then Jeff's sister Lesley and her family.  I wasn't feeling too well that day so I didn't even get the camera out, but it sure was nice to see everyone.  

Quick Texas Trip Day One

We loaded up the crazies last weekend and joined Jeff on his business trip to Austin.  He had meetings on Friday, so we drove down late Thursday night and found a hotel near his office.  I had the false impression that it was still another hour or two to John's house from there (apparently that is true during traffic hours), so I swam with the kids and then took them to a nearby park until lunch time.  Out of curiosity I plugged John's address into the GPS and discovered we were only twenty minutes away!  We headed straight down there and hung out with he and Bettina in the backyard while Alex slept.

After he woke up we headed back up north toward Jeff at a park they had heard about that caters to children of all abilities.  It was very large - we never even explored about a third of it.  The kids had a great time and the weather was beautiful.  We were there for about two hours and no one wanted to leave!

Do I have the cutest nephew or what?

His dad is a genius.

And he has an amazing mom!

John worked toward favorite uncle status by pushing the boys on this crazy disc swing.

Lincoln spent about an hour building a tunnel through the sand.  He had various helpers that joined him and he worked hard at protecting it from kids who wanted to try stepping on it.

Jackson was a hit with the kids on the merry go round.  He was being extra goofy and had everyone's attention.  John and I got a kick out of how opposite their personalities are and how they still led the groups they played with.