Austin Tour Continues

Day 3 of our Austin\Kyle trip started with breakfast at the B&B. It was a nice, cool morning....perfect for eating on their beautiful porch.

The bride and groom even made a surprise appearance!

After breakfast, we packed up, helped the happy couple load a few other things in their car and were just about ready to head to our next location when Mike spotted bluebonnets! One of my favorite things about Texas in spring is the bluebonnets that grow wild and dot the landscape. It's an honored tradition to plop your kid down in them for some pics. Unfortunately, it's not the best year for bluebonnets and the ones on the property were pretty tiny. But, with no spare time, we took advantage of the opportunity anyway.

After watching Dylan stop and scratch his legs a few times, I scooped him up and ran him inside to wipe them down and check him out. He picked up a couple of bug bites but he seemed to not notice them again after that point.

We said goodbye to Amy and Brad (tear) as well as my parents. For my parents, it wasn't too sad of a departure, because they arrived in Boston on Wednesday. As you read this, Mike and I are actually in Amsterdam while Mimaw and Pipaw are (hopefully) have a happy and fun time looking after Dylan! But, back to Texas....

Next stop was at the Barnett\Malone house in Austin. I babysat Mary and Pete's kids, now grown, while I was in college. The family is very special to me so it was absolutely a must to spend some time with them while I was in town. Dylan fell asleep on the way over and, yet again, Mike stayed with him in the car (what a great guy!) while I spent some time chatting with Mary and Pete. Once Dylan was up, he joined us in the backyard for some play time.

Pete and Dylan

Me and Mary

We were only able to spend a couple of hours there before heading to our last stop of the day, my good friend Rachel's house. She was the happy hostess and had a cookout in our honor. Along with her husband, Ryan and two cute pups, Lucy and Bandit, our friend Maura joined us with her two cute kids, Jake and Katie. Of course, we didn't even think about busting out the camera until everyone was gone and we were heading to bed. So, the only shots we have of that stop are of Mike and Dylan playing with the pups the next morning.

Mike, Lucy and Dylan

Monday was our final day in Austin and it would be our least busy....a very welcome relief after the craziness of the previous days. After getting the pack 'n play back to Shaunna (that Dylan had used as a bed some throughout our trip), we decided to do something special just for Dylan and go to the Austin Children's Museum. With our Boston Children's Museum membership, we get into other venues around the country free or with a discount. Austin's museum was one of them. It just so happened that Monday mornings in the museum are reserved for tots under 3 so it worked out perfectly. We spent about an hour there playing with shaving cream, checking out all the fun tracks and spirals with golf balls and watching the choo-choo train circle around the suspended track.

At noon we left and Dylan, as expected, fell asleep in the car at his usual nap time. With some time to kill before we needed to head to the airport, we went down to the UT Co-op right by the campus. While Mike stayed with Dylan in the car (again), I did a little shopping and quickly checked out some of the changes on the street where I spent a lot of time during my college days. Man, there was a serious sense of nostalgia overtaking me while I was there. My time at UT and living in Austin were some fabulous years in my life and I miss that city a lot some times. Mostly when it's less than 90 degrees there, so about 6 months of the year. I love my home in Boston, but Austin will always hold a very special place in my heart.

Since we had some rushing around\stress getting to the airport for our trip, we thought we'd head to the airport super early so we wouldn't be rushed. Thank goodness we did! It left some time for 2 of my favorite things in Austin, one more Shiner Bock beer (for Mike and I) and a scoop of the heaven that is Amy's ice cream for Dylan and I. YUMMY!

Ice Cream Face

The trip was fast and furious and wonderful. We got home very late Monday night, unpacked and started getting ready for the next trip that we left on yesterday. And just to throw a little more excitement to the week, Mike got sick in the middle of the day on Tuesday so I had to rush home around 2 to take over with Dylan and run some of the errands that had to get done that day. Thankfully, he was feeling much better by the evening and the rest of us were spared the cooties. Whew!