Barton Springs and Botanical Gardens

We headed out on a beautiful and hot Saturday afternoon to cool down at Barton Springs. The water was a little chilly, but felt good in the hot sun. Brett loved it for about 20 minutes and he was done. He liked laying on the grass eating his towel a lot more. After the water we went for a walk in the Botanical Gardens. They were beautiful and green with lots of blooming flowers and waterfalls. Brett got kind of bored and fell asleep. We ended the evening with yummy burgers on the grill.

New Tricks and New Ward

New Tricks
So little Brett finally learned how to roll over. I put him on his tummy for some tummy time. The next thing I know he is on his back playing. It's crazy how fast they learn and develop. He also loves to sit in his Bumbo and look at himself in the mirror. I was brushing my teeth and watching him and he was being so silly. He kept doing this motion of throwing his hands up in the air and then pounding them down on the bumbo seat! He probably did this 30 times in one setting. It was hilarious!


New Ward
We love our new ward in Texas. It is different from any ward we've ever attended. Last Sunday, Ty Detmer spoke in sacrament meeting (he was a quarterback in the NFL) and apparently he is in our Stake Young Men's Presidency. On our way home today the Elders asked us if we could give a family a ride home. Jeff and I and our friends the Whites gave a ride home to 7 kids from Tanzania and 1 man from Congo. The 7 kids from Tanzania woke up, got ready and walked to church for 9am sacrament meeting. They stayed for all 3 hours and come to find out they're investigators! We were very impressed by the faith of these children.

Texas

I think he really likes his crab, right when we put him in it he started to kick and his floatie kept spinning in circles. He is such a fun little boy. He is laughing all the time and always smiling. His newest tricks include: lots of drool, laughing, grabbing toys and putting them right in his mouth, pounding his chest and grabbing Daddy's bowl of raisin bran and throwing it on himself and Daddy! Yeah for Bretty.

This is the pool of our apartment complex. We are so close to downtown Austin, we live on a lake, and everything is green!!! So far I haven't seen any cockroaches, so life is good.

Road Trip

After 1350 miles, 4 days and over 25 hours in the car, we finally made it to our destination: Austin, Texas. We moved with our good friends Phil, Emily and Saira who is one year old. It was a long trip for the babies, but overall they did pretty good. We took four days to break up the time in the car and we were able to make a few fun stops.

750 feet into the Carlsbad Caverns.

Our favorite Carlsbad Cavern tour guide.

Most of New Mexico looks like this. We drove through Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and finally Texas. No offense to any New Mexico lovers, but that state is not so pretty. In fact it's very hot, dry, flat and brown from north to east to south to west. Colorado is a very colorful and beautiful state. Austin is not exactly what we expected. It is very lush and green, almost tropical.

National Geographic worthy

I know I am kind of bias, but my dad is a pretty sweet photographer. I think National Geographic should hire him. This is Dad, Jeff and Hailee's trip to Yellowstone from Dad's perspective.

I guess this bear was digging in the dirt for some grub and this crow kept bugging him. Silly crow...I wouldn't be messing with a hungry grizzly.

Yellowstone hot pots....nice and sulfery.

The water running off the log looks a lot like a teethbrush! I call it a teethbrush, because I have more than one tooth.

And finally my favorite pic. This is an amazing pic, this buffalo still has morning frost on his coat! Great shot Dad!

Sand Hollow

We met Jeff's family halfway in southern Utah for a fun quading trip to Sand Hollow. We had 2 RV's and 14 people, which made for a cozy night! It was beautiful weather and beautiful scenery. We spent a lot of time outside the RV's in camping chairs just talking. The lake was awesome and we were able to go kayaking and play in the sand. Some people even took baths in the lake. The rest of the time was spent going quading on sand trails and to the dunes, we even took a few night rides which were pretty awesome.

I am a great passenger rider. The truth is I don't really know how to ride one myself and I'm not that interested in learning how.

Jeffrey

Jeffrey cooking breakfast (french toast) for everybody!

Bretty feeling the sand beneath his toes for the first time.

Desert flower. Sand Hollow is full of these pretty little flowers, cactus, sagebrush and of course SAND. Red sand everywhere, I am still finding it everywhere. Jeff's little sister caught a lizzard, and we saw jack rabbits and bugs. It really is beautiful...a different kind of beauty, a rugged beauty.

Final Trip to Idaho

We decided to visit both families before we take off to Texas for a year. Our first weekend trip was to Idaho. It was so good (and sad) to see everybody one last time. We were able to spend a lot of time playing games (catch phrase, mindtrap, sudoku, jumprope, sockscotch). We had a birthday party for Mason who turned 9.
We managed to get family pictures taken. Picture day is always madness with everybody running around changing clothes or fixing make-up or hair. Everybody is making funny noises to try and get babies to smile, it's actually kind of miserable, but somehow you get the picture back and everybody looks so happy and perfect!
Jeff, Dad and Hails went to Yellowstone park and saw a bunch of wildlife, they also managed to get Dad's new car head butted by a buffalo. Overall it was a great weekend and we were sad to leave.

Bretty and Bruddy (two very close and confusing nicknames)

Wolf print on the side of the road.

An awesome shot by Jeff.

Brett's first quad ride...I can't believe I let Jeff take him on a quad ride.

Bretty and Uncle Dave (they share the same birthday)