Hunt For Swatter

Yesterday we went on search to find the missing comic book. Let me preface.

For Abby's birthday we went to Chick-Fil-A and let the kids buy kids meals, something rare in our house. Each meal came with a super hero cow comic book. We traded some to make sure we had four different ones, except there is 5 in the whole set and there is a picture of the whole set on the back of each book.

Allen has been asking to go back to Chick-Fil-A to get the last book, and luckily, I found a free kids meal coupon in my purse that I had forgotten about. I told the kids if they did great at basketball class (they both were tired and didn't do their best the last few times) we would go to Chick-Fil-A after class and pick up a meal/comic book. Well, they did awesome at class, tempting me to bribe them more often. When we got to Chick-Fil-A the power was out due the local storms. Power out?? Just our luck. I told them we'd go after school the next day. Sure enough, the first thing they say when I pick them up is about going to Chick-Fil-A.

I confused the employee for explaining in the kids meal I needed the last comic book we didn't have called "Swatter." "You would like ice water?" Again, I tried to explain... "I have all the comic books in the set but one. I need the one with the yellow cow on it called Swatter." And the woman responded, "You need another ice water." It was funny. I finally just drove around the window and asked, however, they were OUT of Swatter. OH NO! Our mission was defeated again. That was our whole purpose of going.

I called Ross to look up where the next closest Chick-Fil-A was. I picked the one in Flower Mound because after all those many, many, many doctor visits I know those roads well. We found it. Went through the drive-thru and after explaining that I had an unopened comic book I would like to trade for "swatter", I was questioned if I wanted ice water. We laughed in the van. The second time I explained the lady understood and had one ready for me at the window, and it wasn't just one in shrink wrap, there were three total in that pack. So this was a very long story and adventure to get a darn comic book, but it all worked out. I told my sister Amy on the phone about it as we were driving home and she said, "you are such a good Mom." It's amazing and sometimes silly what a person will do for our kids, huh? Needless to say, we own all five books and two extra. My kids, especially Allen (although Abby can read most of them too now), are happy.

Later I'm going to bust out the triple stroller from the van, take the three little girls on a walk to the post office. I've got three packages to mail. Won't this be fun? They will enjoy the ride. I'll enjoy when I can cross that errand off my list.

Tennis Time

Last week after work Ross played tennis with some co-workers. Amber took some pictures. This was good practice for when Ross hosts a tennis day camp with Allen and Abby sometime this summer.

Laundry, Fieldtrips, and Sleeping

On Tuesday in the morning I had two routine doctor appointments for myself. Boy, is it nice to have those out of the way. And I'm all set until we move to Sacramento and I find new doctors. I'll miss my OB, but not my endocrinologist. Jane and Emma went over to the Strongs for a few hours and had fun playing with Julia.

On Wednesday morning we worked on all the laundry and ironing, completing four loads and all the sorting that goes with it. Jane and Emma like to help and are pretty fast. Keeps me on the my toes as I help them, help me. They put the clothes in whatever pile they want and I have to quickly fix it while the next girl is pulling out the next item. It's quite a challenge. And when they aren't "helping" right by me, they were playing in the toy room. We got through all day without the TV on at all. Jill hung out on the couch and did lots of observing. That is, until I pulled out the iron and then she protested watching. She wanted to be in on the action. It wasn't until then that I realized I could iron with one hand and hold her with the other. I ironed four things until she fell asleep and hung out on the couch again. Doing tasks with two toddlers and an infant takes all morning. The time goes "fast" because I keep getting interrupted again and again. But, according to Elder Anderson's conference talk, being a mother is what God gave (me) time for. And I am savoring it moment by moment.

Jane, wearing her "pretty costume" is putting ponies in the boat.

Emma likes hanging out with Jill and giving her kisses.

Jill likes sitting up on the couch.

I have piles of laundry around them. This was after the first batch.

I checked on the girls and Jane was putting her princess Barbies in the helicopter and airplane.
Emma joined her.

Later Jane filled up the baby swing with stuffed animals and then got in the swing herself.

More clothes in piles around Jill.
This is right before I picked her up to hold her while I did more ironing.

"Laundry sure wears us out."

"Laundry makes me thirsty. Good thing I found my Princess water bottle."

Jill loves to be held this way. Upright and over my left shoulder.
I'm okay with that. It's a comfortable position for me too.

Allen went on a fieldtrip to the Dallas Arboretum on Wednesday. Yesterday when I picked him up after school he was kind of grumpy. After the second time I asked him what was wrong he said he was arboretum sick. He said when he got to arboretum that morning he was kind of homesick but now that he was going home he was arboretum sick.

Abby is going on a walking fieldtrip today to the Duck Pond Park. She made up a joke today about tar-ranch-ula (spider) and something about a farm. When Ross asks if she made that one up and she said> "I heard it in my mind." Isn't that how it goes? Our thoughts are constant in our mind and we can listen to them or ignore them. Well said, Miss Abby.

Jill has been an excellent sleeper the last two nights: sleeping about 12 hours straight, going to bed about 9pm and waking up after 9am the next morning. I think our Austin trip wore her out and now she is taking advantage of being home, the ability to nap in her quiet bed and being able to sleep in the next morning. It's tough when a family shares a room or two in a hotel. A baby just can't get the peace she needs :)

Okay, now it's time to load up to go visiting teaching...

Abby's Kindergarten Musical

On Tuesday Abby and the other Kindergarteners appeared in a musical about dinosaurs. I went over during the day, slipping out during nap time, to see it performed in an assembly. Then in the evening the whole family went. Abby had one line: "That means giant lizard," and during the day show she said it laughing. For the evening show all the kids were supposed to wear black shirts and blue jeans. All throughout both shows Abby was smiling and waving and acknowledging we were there to see her. She had a lot of fun.

For the evening show I got there with all the kids (and our triple stroller) and got a seat on the 2nd row. We got lots of comments about our stroller again. Most people have never seen a triple stroller in that kind of set-up. I fed Jill, I read books to the girls and we hung out until the show started.

Many of their songs had actions in it and I noticed that as Jane watched she copied all the gestures she saw. That girl loves movement and dancing.

She wore her BYU shirt to school that day. This is her waving during their last song, "The Goodbye Song".

This is how Jill looked when I got home. She hung out with Sister Dance while the other two slept.

There were some posters up on the curtains.

Abby really wanted to wear her hair down with her pink bow headband.

Ross met us there after work and got into his seat a few minutes before the show started.

The kids are roaring after one of the songs.

Saying her line: "That means giant lizard".

The Tucker audience.

Emma was eager to ask for snacks throughout the show.
The girls had pretzels and animal crackers. She was the most content when I gave her a Dum Dum.
And Jane is standing up on her seat watching, trying to catch what action they are going to do next.

Awesome Adventures in Austin

We had a great time in Austin and San Marcos. We drove a few hours down I-35 and I'll never forget our first stop -- the Czech Stop Bakery in West, Texas to get yummy kolaches. We found some picnic tables in the courtyard of a Catholic school and ate up before we did three diaper changes, distracted kids from the rain puddles as well as the ant hill and watched a train go by. We found the fertilizer site from the explosion last month and drove as near as we could.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Marcos for two nights and enjoyed their yummy breakfasts each morning. Ross did all the research for this trip and he printed out plenty of information on things to see and do. As he drove I read things and we planned out what to do on which day. This was a great little trip and a great way to prepare us for the next LONG roadtrip to Sacramento.

Things we saw include: Texas State Capitol, Central Market with live music and playground, food trailers of Austin, bats emerge from South Congress bridge, trendy 6th street, funky shops and food on So Co, Zilker Park, University of Texas campus, the San Marcos ward, glass blowing demonstration in Wemberly, glass bottom boat ride on the San Marcos River, Buc-ee's (biggest convenient store in the world) in New Braunfels and the outlet stores.

Some of the new food we tried: kolaches, food from Central Market, Principal sub from Short Bus Subs, corn dog from Fry Baby, Torchy's Tacos, and beaver nuggets from Buc-ee's.

Now, get ready for oodles of pictures and details...

Texas State Capitol 

This building is larger than any other state capitol and taller than the National Capitol Building by 14 feet. They have to do everything BIG in Texas. We walked around the building and throughout all the floors. Inside is very fancy and intricate, reminding us some of the inside of the Salt Lake Temple. Ross called it the "temple of the government". We saw one couple get married in the rotunda and one couple getting their wedding pictures taken on the grounds. We also saw the senate in session and sat in for a few minutes in the gallery. It was fun to point out all the stars everywhere. Texans sure love stars.

It's kind of brown / pink color. Different than other capitol buildings I have seen.

Walking to the North entrance where it's wheel chair accessible.
We used to just lift the stroller over stairs, but we can't do it with this triple one.
The looks and comments we got from people were hilarious. I wish there was some way to record them.

Star at the top in the center.

Jane really wanted to look down from the 4th level. I gripped her tight!

Star at the bottom.

They had cool benches throughout the building. I fed Jill on one of them. While I was feeding her I told Abby I fed and changed her pants in front of the Washington Memorial, the White House and the Supreme Court Building.

Abby found a little space to stand in.

Stars on the frosted glass.

House Chambers

Senate Chambers
If you notice, they are in session and most people (other senators) aren't paying attention to the man talking on the floor.

This elaborate hinge if found throughout the building.

A different angle of the House Chambers, from the front facing back.

Star-shaped lights.

Emma, the tourist, wouldn't take off her hat and glasses inside.

Smiley Jane looks down from the 2nd floor.

We got back to the ground level and the girls both jumped on the star on the floor in the rotunda.

Jill slept through half of our self-guided tour.

Jill and Jane and Emma are all Texan-borns.
We have two Utahns, one Illinoisan, and one Virginian.

Food Trailers

Permanent food trailers around the city sure "Keep Austin Weird". After viewing an episode of "The Daytripper" where unique foods were tried by the host, we were interested in trying some out ourselves. From Torchy's Tacos I tried the fried avacado taco and the green chile taco while Ross had the trailer park taco and the democrat taco. We also found another set of trailers and I had "the principal" sub from the Short Bus Subs and Ross had a corndog and sweet potato fries with maple glaze from Fry Baby. Talk about yummy food!

The kids didn't want to try the food. We brought food and juice boxes from the car.

We sat at the group of picnic tables.

Bats
One and half million bats, the largest urban bat colony in the world, live under the South Congress bridge in Austin. And every evening April to October at dusk the bats emerge like a black cloud from under the bridge. We joined the the crowd and had our cameras ready. They were hard to see at first, but we got a good view of swarms and swarms coming out. It's unreal until you see it. Too bad the camera doesn't really capture the moment. That's okay. We were "livin' in the moment" as Ross says.

While we waited for the bats to come out Allen asked if he could hold Jill. The kids love her so much!

Glass blowing demonstration in Wemberly, Texas

We sat in a 90 degree room and watched as a man made a glass vase right before our eyes. The ovens he was using were 2300 degrees. He would do a layer at a time, shape it and blow through the end of the pole. He'd do it again and again, mostly adding clear glass overtop to bring out the color more. It was amazing to watch. Never seen anything like it. I was absolutely impressed how our kids did during that demonstration. It was long (we were in that room about an hour), kind of boring until the last 10 minutes, they still acted respectful throughout our time there, and we left without breaking anything in the glass-filled gift shop. We all earned a juice box when we got back out to the van.

Glass-bottom boat tour on San Marcos River

The San Marcos River is spring-fed and because the water is so clean it's really clear. We thought the kids would like to do a boat ride having access to seeing below the water. We were right. It was cool!

You sit and in front is a railing to rest your arms on and look over to see through the glass-bottom.
Ross sat on one side with four kids.

Emma and I sat on the other side.

We walked through the museum and aquarium after. This picture was taken from the museum roof.

University of Texas campus

"Hook 'em" horns is what Texans here say, referring to the longhorn mascot. The stadium had some major nose bleed seats, seemed very high, very steep. We drove and saw different buildings as well as the tower that used to be open to public until 1966 when a sniper opened fire and killed 17 from the observation deck.

Part of the stadium.

More of the stadium.

More stadium

More stadium

Tower

So Co

We figured out that So Co is short for South Congress, which is a street with major businesses, funky stores and food trailers. As we drove back toward the city I noticed South Congress fed right to the Capitol Building, reminding me of how the streets in D.C. line up with the Capitol too.

This car at the light reminded us of the one from Napoleon Dynamite.
It had hydraulics and kept going up and down.

Swimming

On Monday morning after breakfast, Ross and the four kids hit the pool. Jill and I watched and took pictures. After swimming we checked out of our room, went to the Outlet stores and ventured inside Buc-ee's, the largest convenience store ever. We stopped for lunch at Burger King, and didn't realize there was no playland until we got inside. Then we headed home and arrived back about 7:30pm.

The kids look a little funny in the overflowing hot tub in their swim rings.

The pool was too cool so everyone went to the little hot tub.

Ross stayed with Jane and Emma, but Emma wouldn't hold on to him.
After a while she didn't want to wear the swim ring either.
Ross says she is going to be the first kid in our family to learn how to swim independently.

Buc-ee's (Buck - ee)

When I walked into this place I thought I was in the convenient store mall. It had about everything you could think of.

Check out the wall of snacks and candy.

In the other direction is a large deli, clothes, shoes, souveniors...
They advertise their bathrooms are so clean you could eat a mint off the seat.

There is Buc-ee the Beaver. We tried the beaver nuggets. They  have the consistency of cheese puffs but are caramel ones.

Burger King

I was trying to be nice so when I saw a Burger King from a distance with a playland area I requested we stop there for lunch. Ross took the kids inside and I followed in last. I noticed all the kids had crowns on their head and Abby had a head frown on her face. Why? Because there was no playland. How did we not notice that from the outside? Not only was the playland toys gone, but there was a futon, shelves and arcade games, not ones you could play, just old ones stored there. I asked Ross if she would load back up and go somewhere else. The look on his face said it all: "not with how long it took to get out and in here." He's right. We can't go anywhere fast anymore. We stayed put and gave the kids ice cream cones after they ate their lunch.

Driving Home

We passed our hotel from the Interstate.
"Bye Embassy Suites"

I put the camera up where the movie screen is and took a picture.
Abby is writing in her Hello Kitty diary.
The three in the backseat are watching the movie.
Jill is sleeping with the green blanket pulled back from her legs.

While I was unpacking on Wednesday I found a note (which was wet and crumpled) that Abby had written Allen:

It says: "for Allen"
"from Abby"
(I like her heart-shaped face with a crown on her head)
"Look on the back" with an arrow.

It says: "deer Allen
I had
a fun
time at
Astin.
did you?
Ples tel me soon.
I am
sad that
we left
Astin.
Love
Abby." 

 Going along with what Abby said, we all had a fun time!