Date Night: Bat Watching

Around March every year about 750,000 bats (mostly pregnant females) migrate to Austin, where they roost under the Congress Avenue Bridge downtown. By about August they double in number because all the momma bats have babies. That's 1.5 million bats! It's the biggest urban bat colony in the U.S. Around sunset every night they emerge from under the bridge to hunt for insects, and it's quite a sight. Hundreds of people line the bridge, with hundreds watching from Lady Bird Lake below (think several cruise boats and lots of kayaks), and even more people watch from the shore. There were at least several hundred people there last night. Anyway, the Congress Avenue Bridge is one of Austin's big tourist attractions.

We didn't get any pictures of the bats (we had to go take our babysitters home), but you can see the people lined up along the bridge with the Austin skyline all lit up in the background:

Zilker Park

Zilker Metropark is the "crown jewel of the Austin park system." It's a whopping 350+ acres. I've been reading a lot about Zilker over the last two  months, so today we decided to go check it out. We had a picnic lunch next to Barton Springs, checked out the Splash! aquifer exhibit, played on the playground, and rode the Zilker Zephyr:

Barton Springs is a 3-acre pool in the channel of Barton Creek that is fed water from natural springs. Apparently it's a big deal around here.

While we were eating our sandwiches, Owen left half a slice of bread sitting on the table. A rather brazen bird came up, picked it up with its beak, and flew off with it. Heidi was very concerned after that, and was very cautious about putting down her sandwich and was worried anytime Owen put his down. I've noticed lately that Heidi really watches out for Owen a lot; she's a great big sister.

This playground is supposed to be one of the more popular playgrounds in Austin. That's an old firetruck Lizzie's sitting on..

The Zilker Zephyr is a train that takes you on a 20-minute ride through the park. The weather was nice today, and it was a lot of fun to enjoy the breeze and the great view of the Colorado River and downtown Austin.

Mom's attempt at a selfie.

Yard Work

For the first six and half years of marriage we've been spoiled. We either lived in an apartment / condo, or the yard work was taken care of by the landlord (in Toledo). Now we have a yard and are responsible for taking care of it. We are the proud new owners of a lawn mower, and Emily--for the first time in her life--is experimenting with tree trimming.

Here are a couple of pictures that we took the day we moved in:

Looks crazy, right? The guy who lived here before us didn't even make an attempt to take care of the yard.

So here's Emily's tree trimming job, plus Scott's 8 giant bags of lawn trimmings and Emily's 9 big bundles of sticks:

This is the same section of fence that was pictured above. I had no idea what I was doing, so maybe the tree trimming was overkill, but at least we should have fewer bugs now.

(We're probably not scoring points with our garbage man.)

I'm sure we'll have backyard updates in the future. We went to Walmart yesterday and bought a bunch of stuff to start a flower and vegetable garden. The kids are pretty excited about it.

Our little helpers

Mueller Lake Park

This park is 3 miles from our house. Very cool.

 

5 cute kids!

 

The children's museum is next door to the park. This is their "Nessie" statue.

Fun with Cousins

The kids wouldn't leave Aunt Nori and Uncle Travis alone... They're just too cool.

Owen's new train set was a hit

Our backyard

I'm pretty sure Heidi took these two. I keep finding pictures on my camera that I didn't take:

 

New House

Dinette. This kitchen table was Scott's Craigslist find. He's pretty excited about it.



Kids' room

Big master bedroom

Master bathroom (with walk-in closet adjacent)

Kids' bathroom

Office

Toy room

Living room with fireplace

Kitchen

Nothin' fancy, but it'll do until we can hopefully buy a place of our own next spring. :)

Spring Cleaning

Wow. Our house hasn't had a good deep cleaning in a long time. Lizzie's having a little bit of an asthma flare up, so today I've been working on the ceiling fans:

Fan blades. Before and after. And it's not just dust. With the humidity, it's super greasy. Gross, right?

Future Photographers

The girls got a hold of my camera yesterday and took quite a few pictures. These are my favorites:

This one's my favorite.

Bugs and Other Fun Surprises

We have a bug problem in our backyard. The people who lived here before us did not take care of the yard, so it is a jungle back there. A landscaper came and mowed the back yard THREE TIMES (because it was so overgrown) right before we moved in. Still, the bugs have taken over, and our poor kids are covered in bug bites all over their arms and legs. It's gotten to a point where I'm embarrassed to take them in public because I'm afraid people are going to call CPS on me. (Actually it's gotten better--we bought two tubes of anti-itch cream, and the kids have to wear long pants and long-sleeve shirts whenever they go outside now--but it was pretty bad for a couple days.)


We went to Chuy's for some Mexican food a week or two ago. They put us out on the patio under a tree. A bird pooped on Lizzie's picture that she had colored, and Heidi got a surprise visit from a caterpillar. (You can only kind of see it in the picture.) Still, we'd recommend the place. Fun ambiance and good food.  

This tree is at our church building. It has been hollowed out by termites. Liz wanted me to take her picture. (Um. Okay.)

Poor little lizard somehow got inside our house and was desperate to get back outside. I think he was terrified of us giants. But no worries, we set him free.

Out with the Old, In with the New

Bye-bye, condo in Mesa. (Sniff.)

Hello, house in Austin!

Sunday Dinner

These pictures are a few weeks old, but we just got internet at our new house.

We took these on our last Sunday in Mesa. We are sure going to miss Aunt Allison, Aunt Kristi, Uncle Jason, and Ruby!

Two cute cousins

Liz lost another tooth that evening. Lost Tooth #2. (Sorry for the gore.)

This guy had recently learned to push chairs around to use as his personal stepping stools. Light switches are no longer safe!

Easter Fun

We were super lucky to get to spend Easter in Dallas with Travis and Nori's family. In between sessions of Conference we ate a delicious ham dinner, fed the ducks, and had an Easter egg hunt. :)

Since we were homeless at the time, the Easter bunny delivered our Easter baskets to Aunt Nori and Uncle Travis's place in Dallas. Thanks, Easter bunny! You're the best. ;)

The kids call these "chicken ducks."

Feeding the ducks

Owen's first Easter egg hunt was an epic fail. He didn't care about collecting eggs; he was more interested in finding sticks.

Other than a meltdown because Heidi found 12 eggs and Lizzie only found 5, the kids had a good time. :)