Texas Vacation

Sean and I got to spend a whole week in Texas for Anna's wedding.  The first few days were spent running errands for the wedding.  Once the wedding festivities were over we did some more sight seeing and got to do some really fun stuff with my Dad, Kimberli, and brothers.  We stayed with them for a whole week.  It was great and so fun to get to hang out with them and be back in Austin.  It definitely feels like home there.  I was surprised how well I still remember how to get around.  Most of all, it was so great to have Seanie with me the whole time.  Showing him around all the places that are so familiar to me was a treat for us.

One of the things I miss the most about Texas is the food!  The first night we were in Texas we ate dinner with my Mom, Anna and Jake at Texican Cafe!  That is by far our most favorite Mexican place, of all time!  Still so yummy!

Sean had a fun request for one of the first days after the wedding.  He asked to go to the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.  It's downtown and actually right across the street from where my Dad works at UT Law School.  I had never even been!  We stopped in to check it out!

They had a lot of cool exhibits.  One of our favorites was the replica of the Oval office during LBJ's administration.  It was a 7/8th's scale.  Super awesome.  They also had preserved Lady Bird Johnson's Office where it actually was in the library.  It was really cute.

Me and the happy couple...ok not really.  They had a whole section about the clothes and dishes and different things that Lady Bird Johnson had and wore while living in the White House.  I have always learned as a Texan to love and adore Lady Bird Johnson.  

This is the presidential Limo used during LBJ's administration.  Sean asked if he could drive it, but they said no.  Also you can see in this picture Sean's little sticker.  They gave them to us when we bought our tickets.  They said "All the way with LBJ."  We got to feel as though we stepped back in time and were big time LBJ supporters.  We probably would have been!

 This is Sean and LBJ.  I don't think Sean appreciated how much he was "leaning".  We really like the museum.  They had a hall with every president and first lady with pictures.  We definitely were getting some good baby name ideas while in there.

At the exit of the Library there was a statue of LBJ's actual height.  Sean got his picture next to the life size replica.  LBJ was 6'3", pretty impressive.  Sean was very intimidated, even though it was just a statue.  Sean has been collecting little bust statues of past presidents since he was a young boy, and really gets a kick out of places like this.  He already has LBJ from when his parents visited the library.

After our little tour we headed over to the UT Law School and met up with my dad for a tour there.  It was nostalgic for me to be back there.  We would go there a lot when we were little.  It still smelled the same and lots of things were exactly the same.  Dad is in a different office, but all his stuff is still there!

He then took us over to the University Co-Op and we bought a longhorn onesie for the baby.  We have to represent.

Tuesday I really wanted to take Sean canoeing at Lady Bird Lake downtown.  I have done this a few times and always have a good time.  It's super peaceful and so beautiful out there.  We went up early to beat the heat of the day.  The pic above is Sean with downtown Austin behind him!  He became a true Austin lover after this trip.

We took my brothers with us mini golfing one afternoon.  We of course headed to Peter Pan mini golf.  They had gotten a new paint job recently and everything was really nice and newly fixed up.  It was sweltering hot but we stayed in the shade and the intense competition kept us moving and happy!

Sean and I made a wager with my brothers that if any of them could beat Sean we would buy them a large size sno cone.  They were all up for the challenge and feeling very confident in themselves.

Davis gave Sean a run for his money with some great holes and even a hole in one.  But, in the end Sean had 3 hole-in-one's and never was over par on any hole.  He beat everyone! 

Everyone still enjoyed their sno cones.  Noah got grape and sour apple.  I am pretty sure he always gets that and I remembering him ordering that from me when I worked at a shave ice stand during a summer home from BYU.  I guess some things never change!

The last night Dad and Kimberli took Sean, Davis and I to see the bats at Congress bridge.  I hadn't been in a long time and forgot how crazy it is.  There are millions of bats that come out, and they come streaming out for about an hour.  Sean tried taking a video.  You can hear the bats but with it being so dark you can't see them.  They are moving so fast and they are small.  You can see them in person, but you have to be looking out against the sky.

We also got to attend a swim meet of Noah and Logan.  Noah is a stellar swimmer.  I had never been to a swim meet, so it was a lot of fun to experience it all!

Overall it was such a great trip and so fun to spend so much time with my Dad's family.  Lot's of fun memories and a fun time.  I am glad Sean and I got to be there for so long.

*Edit* September 22, 2014:

We were looking through the blog recently and noticed we never mentioned in this post that we also went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas one of the days.  It was a blast!

Cory didn't ride any of  the big rides with us, but she kept cool and happy with free refills on the Slurpee boot.