Around Town....

This past weekend, my cousin came in to town and we had such a fun time showing her around Austin. She was here for a work conference, and stayed a few extra days so we could show her around. I absolutely love when family is able to come and visit. It's hard living away from family, so when they come and visit, it just feels like "home." 

Jan and I took Friday afternoon to explore UT and then we headed for lunch at Second before getting the girls from school and heading off for gymnastics. After dinner, we headed out for ice cream! 

These girls shared a banana split. 

Saturday afternoon, Gretchen had a birthday party and then a sleepover, so we dropped her off and went to explore town and show Jan around. 

There's a great lookout off Capital of Texas Highway, but you have to climb up big rocks. We climbed to the top and enjoyed the view. 

The girls found rocks and threw them over. 

We tend to take our guests here or to some office buildings close by so our out of town guests can get a view of the lake and downtown Austin back in the distance. 

This girl just decided to slide back down on her booty. 

After we hiked up and back down, we got in the car and drove over to County Line BBQ. The place is always crowded and we lucked out and had no wait at all because we were eating around 2. The food was delicious! 

And the girls each got ice cream with their meals. 

They each chose cookies n cream. 

After lunch, we headed down to the creek to feed the turtles. Adalyn was in heaven! She has asked for a pet turtle off and on for months, and she kept saying, "this is a dream!" 

Look at all of the turtles! 

There's a little swimming hole, that we had been to before (to hike) and I had promised the girls we'd go back and swim, but we didn't have a chance in the Summer. We decided to check it out, but because it's been so dry here, there was very little water! We let the girls wade around and walked to their favorite little spot that they call a "cave."

At one point, Megan walked across and ended up falling in! She was being so careful, and holding up her shorts so they wouldn't get wet, and then she slipped and fell in! She did a plank to hold herself up, and then slowly crawled out! 

We made it to "the cave."

Since we couldn't swim at the creek, we drove downtown to Barton Springs. I took the girls here last Summer, and again, we didn't go this summer, because it made me too nervous to take the girls again by myself, but this is the best swimming spot right in the middle of downtown. 

We got in the water, and it was cold! Friends, I can't even describe how cold it is, but it was 100 degrees outside, and felt like we were standing in ice water. 

Megan and I swam across and she jumped off the diving board several times. 

We had the best time together, and we braved the freezing water one more time for a picture. Little sister was hangry and didn't want to get back in for a picture. 

She did smile long enough for this picture though. 

We called it a day, and headed home for a cozy movie night! 

We were so excited to have family in and glad we could show her around town a little bit!