The stars at night are big and bright...

Last week, me, Sareny, Isaac, Finley, Grammy, and Bampa made the 2,000 mile roundtrip drive to Austin, Texas to visit Holli Jo, Johnny, and Rhys who were there for the month of June. The drive stunk, but we had such a great time, it was worth it. Austin is a pretty cool city with lots of things to do.
Day 1
We slept in a little, then went to visit Holli and John in their dorm rooms. It was pretty weird to be back at the dorms, visiting my 30-something sister. :) They are staying at a place called The Castilian, and tons of stores and restraunts were right outside their doorstep, including the University Co-op, which is the campus bookstore.
While John stayed behind to work, the rest of us went to the Austin Children's Museum. This was a super fun place for the kids. My favorite was making shrinky-dink necklaces.
The kids joined a Mariachi band.

Rhys and Finley played around in a campfire.
And they played with some balls.

Sareny sat in the wishing chair and looked up at the stars and made a wish.

Isaac absolutely loved the trains, and once when he disapeared for a moment, we found him back by the trains. He also liked rolling pennies down the funnel.

Sareny practiced her homemaking skills and made some "tamales."

From there it was off to dinner at Freebird, which is similar to Chipotle but, as John put it, "cooler." We walked a block to the bridge to watch the nightly bat pilgrimage.
Waiting for the show to start.

Hundreds of thousands of bats live under this bridge right in the middle of the city. Crowds gather every night to watch them come out in swarms.
We went on a Thursday night, and there was live music and people sporting "Bat Jam" shirts. There was such a fun, festival feel to the event. And then the bats came.
They kept streaming out from under the bridge for well over a half hour. There were so many, and my pictures just didn't do them justice. Sareny took this one, which is pretty good.

She also took this one of Isaac and Bampa taking in the bats.
The look on Finney's face says it all. She just wanted me, and I made Grammy hold her so I could get some pictures.

Isaac kept screaming when the bats came out, but it wasn't a scared scream, more just he was having fun.

The whole group of us.

After the amazing show, we walked under the bridge along the river for a while. Under the bridge smelled strongly of bat guano, but the rest of the walk was quite enjoyable.

Bampa, Grammy Jo, and the grandkids.