Date with Owen

The girls are at Seaworld with Grandma Miller today, so Mom and the boys got to go on a date this morning (to the Thinkery and then to Nau's Enfield Drug, a retro pharmacy and diner, for lunch).

Torchy's Tacos

As we were getting ready leave Torchy's, Heidi stubbed her toe and almost ripped off her toenail. Lucky, Nurse Grandma was there to make it all better.

(Her toes are all wrinkly because the girls spent the afternoon at Hawaiian Falls with Grandma and Uncles Steven and Zach.)

Bubbles!

Walking Tour of UT

With a final stop at the turtle pond:

Falcon Pointe Splash Pad

This place is about 10 minutes from our new house. We went with Grandma Miller and Uncle Zach while Dad and Uncle Steven worked on the house:

Mills Pond and Katherine Fleisher Park

This pond is about 8 minutes west of our new house, and there's a 1-mile nature trail that connects the pond with a really cool playground:

During our hike, we came across this rabbit. The kids were excited.

In addition to a bunch of fun playscapes, there was this awesome tree house.

Look What I Found

I walked into the living room the other day, and found Owen hanging out in William's car seat. Lol.

Totally In Love!

I just can't get over how sweet and adorable this little guy is!

New House!

Woohoo!

Juneteenth at the George Washington Carver Museum

Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865. We thought today would be a good day to check out the George Washington Carver Museum. They had a fun celebration going on, and the kids were excited to get watermelon and some candy.

Texas State Cemetery

This cemetery has been around since 1851, and is the final resting place of many notable Texans. It's a very beautiful cemetery!

9/11 Monument

Downtown skyline in the background

Stephen T. Austin grave in the background (the guy Austin was named after)

Boggy Creek Farm

We checked out a nearby "urban farm" today. We bought a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers for a friend and then checked on the chickens. :)

Soco

"Soco" is short for "South Congress"--as in, South Congress Avenue. It's a really trendy part of town, just south of Downtown Austin. This morning we took a stroll along South Congress Avenue and checked out some of the street art and shops:

(I told them to frown for the picture.)

I know it doesn't look like much, but this mural is crazy famous. Everybody and their dog wants to take their picture here.

This was the highlight of our outing for the kids. I let them share a 1/4 lb bag of candy, and they chose Swedish Fish.

We also walked past the fire station and waved to the firefighters, browsed a really big costume shop, passed by a whole bunch of really popular food trucks and restaurants (Emily exercised a lot of self-control here), and saw a bunch more street murals. Soco is a happenin' place!

Cedar Park

Cedar Park is a suburb of Austin, bordering on the northwest. It's a pretty popular place; we've had several members of our ward move there in the past year.

Anyway, we headed to Cedar Park this morning for a "Touch a Truck" event at the library. They had a police truck, an ambulance, some constructions vehicles, etc. The kids were allowed to climb in, take pictures, and even honk the horn. :)

And since we were in the neighborhood, we also checked out the nearby Veteran Memorial Park:

Fun Fact: Cedar Park got its own stake yesterday. It is the sixth stake to be organized in the Austin Metro area. There was just one stake in Austin 20 years ago, so growth has been huge here over the last two decades.

UT Austin

Today we took a quick visit to UT Austin. We saw the Harry Ransom Center (a humanities museum), a famous mural of Jeremiah the bullfrog, and the turtle pond.

This is one of five copies of the Gutenberg Bible here in the U.S.!

This is a famous mural here in Austin. It's called "Jeremiah the Innocent." Honestly, I think it's ugly, but it was on my Austin Bucket List to go take a picture.

Here's the turtle pond, right by UT's biology building. There were tons of turtles.

This is the Austin Mural. It's got some crazy detail. On the opposite side of the plaza was a Texas Mural, which I didn't get a picture of. (Can you tell that Austinites are really into their street art?)

This is Bevo, the UT mascot.

Sleepy

Owen likes to empty everything out of the kids' dirty clothes basket and then climb inside. A couple of times now I've actually found him asleep in there. Crazy how kids can sleep anywhere!

Springwoods Park

We checked out a cool park in Northwest Austin yesterday...

...And just when we were leaving Lizzie fell and hurt her arm. Good news is, it's not fractured. But we're still waiting to hear back from the doctor on the official diagnosis.

At the X-ray place