Road trip to Austin

This weekend has been a great end to my "10 or so days of reminding my family I was born, AKA Tamara's extended birthday celebration." Yesterday mom took the girls for the afternoon/evening and Manuel and I went to a few gardens centers to window shop (kinda. I bought a hat, but no plants!), then a few errands, then dinner at Thai joint we used to frequent but stopped going to a couple of years ago. We *were* supposed to catch a movie, but the timing was bad so it didn't happen.

Today we loaded up the kids in the van and trekked up to Austin to check out the Wildflower Center. Mapi was under the impression we were going to the Botanical Gardens and was annoyed that it took much longer than she had anticipated. On the way there we called our friends Sarah and Mike (who live nearby and do not read by blog *cough*) to see if they wanted to meet us. We made plans to touch base as we were leaving the park.

We arrived at the Center around 1 p.m. Everyone in Austin was already there (or at least, that's where they apparently parked all their cars). We spent a while looking for parking, then finally made our way inside.

We had a nice time walking around and enjoying the few bluebonnets and wildflowers that had already come up for the season. Catherine's shoes were too slick on the bottom for the loose gravel pathways and she fell down a few times. She still had fun, though, and at every bench went over, climbed up and urged us to "sit! sit!" Mapi had a good time chasing butterflies and dreaming about what could be behind the tiny door she saw (leading to the children's little house). Both girls enjoyed the water featured as the Center, yelling "agua! agua!" when they saw a new one in the distance.

I made my family take pictures by the bluebonnets.

I also stole pictures of Manuel sitting with Catherine on the benches.

It was a beautifully warm day! Temps in the low 80s. As we left we saw some turtles hanging out in the pond, warming their backs.

(You don't get to see the picture because blogger is being uppity about me uploading more images *shakes fist*)

Mapi loves mannequins and this child-sized sculpture suited her just fine. She fed it goldfish crackers and asked me to photograph her posing with it.

(I'd show you, but see turtle picture note, above.)

Afterwards Catherine insisted on trying out some poses of her own. She is a learning machine and copies everything we say and do.

(again, see above picture note)

We got in touch with Sarah and Mike as we were leaving the Center (they were inside, looking for us!). They invited us to join them at a nearby park with a playground, where the girls happily played for about an hour.

At the end of the day, Catherine did not want to leave. She took off in another direction several times. Finally, she resigned to staying with us, but did her best to prolong the packing up experience by laying on the mat as Manuel tried to roll it up to put in the car.

With the exception of an unpleasant not-in-the-bathroom mishap on the way home (I'm not ready to talk about it just yet), we had an uneventful return trip to San Antonio. Catherine sang us a lovely rendition of "tickle, tickle, ... SAR!!!!" ("twinkle twinkle little star," to the uninitiated). We got home, gave the girls baths, and they were both asleep well before 8 p.m. Let's here it for a day's worth of fun in the sun!