Last week we celebrated Brandon's birthday with Opa & G'ma Terri. They flew in that evening and we went to our favorite restaurant, North by Northwest, for dinner for Brandon's birthday. Afterwards we hung out in the hot tub at their hotel at the Renaissance. Wednesday we took a totally dorky but totally awesome and fun trip on Austin Duck Adventures and learned so many new, interesting things about Austin! We learned we have a natural springs pool that you can bring a floatie to and watch movies while floating in the summer, there's live music in the spring and fall in front of the brand new Austin City Hall with built into the building stone bleachers, there's a fault line to the west of Austin that separates the hill country from the east, and Johnny Depp had an apartment on Sixth Street while filming Gilbert Grape, among others. That evening we hung out at the park swatting bugs watching Justin's flag football team practice. Afterwards we indulged ourselves at the Cheesecake Factory with mojitos and cheesecake, for Brandon's birthday again, of course! We jumped in the hot tub and pool once more before we said our good-byes and thanked them for coming out and creating some wonderful memories.
Justin's Field Trip to the Alamo with his third grade class was last Thursday. At the last moment I decided to ditch class and join him after he asked me, "Why aren't you coming Mom?" Talk about melting my heart. Of course, after I realized they had an extra ticket for the IMAX theatre and an extra seat in the car Justin was riding in, he decided he didn't want me to go if I was going to be bossy. So I promised not to be and off we went. We watched The Alamo at the IMAX first which had tears streaming down my face. I asked Justin what he thought and he said he thought we were going to be watching Adventures of The Deep on the ocean. Oops, oh well. We walked to the Alamo from the IMAX and went on quite an indepth scavenger hunt. Well, I helped a few boys in his class go thru it. Once I helped Justin find the first two he was off finding the rest on his own.
Last weekend I took Justin kayaking on Town Lake, renamed the Lady Bird Johnson lake because she was the force behind the eight mile hike and bike trail surrounding the lake. We had intended for it to be a date with him and I, but it worked out for him and his friend to have a playdate on the same day so we decided to bring him along! The boys were experts at the kayaking thing - teaching me how to row in rhythm and steer. The steering thing I never got down, so they ended up taking over. We rowed to Red Bud Island, moored for a bit with the help of some islanders who got there by way of the not so islandy entrance, swam in the water, at least the boys did, and rowed back. On our way to P. Terry's for hamburgers and milkshakes we saw a sign for a Bengali New Year Festival at the Zilker Hillside Theatre with free admission. I asked the boys if they wanted to stop by and they were all for it, so we stopped by for our dinner and then spent the next two hours watching Bollywood (think Monsoon Wedding, Bride and Prejudice, etc.) acting, dancing, modelling, and concerts. They had a bounce house as well, which of course the boys loved at intermission. Completely exhausted, we made it home just in time for bed.
Doinky is a frog and a very special class mascot for Shawn's class. Once in the fall semester, and once in the spring semester Shawn got to bring him home and take him on our adventures. This time he took him to his friend, Kellye's house. When Doinky got back to class all Shawn's classmates made Shawn a very special book that included a picture drawn for him by each of his classmates.
Next week the boys have a special play and song they are singing for Grandparent's Day at their school. There's a few pictures of their classes and their school from their first rehearsal last week.
This weekend we went camping at Enchanted Rock with Justin's cub scout troop. We hiked up the rock, all 425 feet, barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs, watched a few skits and three cub scouts "pass on" to boy scouts, and endured two rain and lightning storms in our tent during the night. Now at least we know how to teach kids to sleep through thunderstorms - take them camping in one! Justin must be too old to climb in Mommy and Daddy's sleeping bags because we didn't hear a peep out of him except to see him wrapped up like a caterpillar in a cocoon. Shawn, on the other hand, alternated between Mom and Dad's sleeping bags throughout the night. This morning a fellow cub scout camper tapped on our tent and they'd figured out on radar that more rain was coming, so we packed up and got out of there. We made it home in time to shower and rinse and make it to church.
All of that was just this last week except for Shawn's class mascot, which was a few weeks ago, and kayaking with Luke and Justin, which was last weekend.
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