Austin for Easter

We had a wonderful trip last week for Easter to Austin. The flight there, (Jackson's first!) went so well and on arrival we immediately headed to Lake LBJ to Papa Ev and Mama Elaine's lake house. That day Natalie traveled, not just by car and plane, but also by train, (at D.I.A.) and boat (at the lake house!) What a day!!

We had a lot of fun at the lake house. We also had a couple chances to visit the club and swim. This is actually the hot tub. So pretty!
The hot tub was too hot and the pool too cold for Jackson, so he and I checked out the little beach.

The next day we did some strawberry pickin'. Jackson slept through it...
Natalie, (and me too) probably ate more than made it into her basket.
See how full her tummy is?

And she made a friend.
Later that night my in-laws showed up with the cousins. It was just the first of many late nights for both of my kids, (we are still recovering!) Jackson finally got to meet many of his aunts and uncles and boy did he love the extra attention!

And Natalie loved the attention of all of her cousins!
Here's a shot of all the guys together! and one of Jackson checking out Uncle Chris!

Here's Natalie hanging out with Sarah on the deck.

Here are the kids and my DH getting ready for a boat ride.

Jackson liked the boat, but wasn't into the wind.
So he rested his head and slept through most of the ride.
Natalie loved the tube ride with daddy because she "loves going fast!"

After the ride our little pre-pre teen relaxed and played a game on Sarah's iPod. When we got back to Austin that night we had a great meal at Chuy's, (of course!) Jackson was so good hanging out on Uncle Kenton's lap.
And Sarah helped feed him his dinner, (have I mentioned our little one is now enjoying semi-solid meals a few times a day!? He loves his grub.)
The next morning Jackson hung out with Mama Elaine and Papa Ev while we got ready for the Easter egg hunt at Mama Sally's.
Next year Jackson will be able to participate more. This year he enjoyed the spectacle.

Natalie was on a sugar high most of the morning.

Natalie really liked the confetti eggs... I think there's still glitter in her hair. And Peyton helped her peel an egg for lunch.


That night we waited on a bridge downtown to see the largest colony of bats in North America take flight at dusk. But unfortunately the bats didn't cooperate.
The next morning was Easter and we went to the service with Natalie's cousins.
She even got to ring the church bell.

Jackson got to hand out with Emma and show her his toes.

That night we enjoyed another Austin favorite: Amy's Ice Cream. And Natalie got to climb on some cows.


Our last morning in Austni we spent enjoying more tex-mex and the new Prehistoric garden at the Botanical Gardens in Zilker Park.
Natalie bounded through the gardens in the local dino's footprints.

So that's it for our trip. We managed to make our very crowded flight despite the thunderstorms and tornados stopping air traffic nationwide that day.

I'll try to get up another picture catch-up here soon. And tomorrow is Natalie's dance recital so if my footage of that turns out I'll post it as well! Stay tuned!!