The week of swimming

So. I'm not a big swimmer. I loved it as a kid, aside from the sunburn I almost always got but as an adult, I'm just not super into it. It honestly stresses me out because I have to stay with Maggie and I can't just leave Jake & Allie. If something happened, I just don't have enough hands. But if I Loved swimming, this probably wouldn't stop me. Anyway, much to the dismay of my two older children, we don't do a ton of summer swimming. Allie actually started enjoying it this summer but Jake is still pretty scared. This week we went swimming nearly everyday and they loved it.

On Monday (Jul 16), we swam with friends at their neighborhood pool who are getting ready to move out of state and had a great time. I'm much more comfortable with other adults around. Will really gets along with their oldest, Austin, but Jake and Asa are super good buds. 

Then they begged me to go to Grandma & Paga's pool on Tuesday (Jul 17) so we did. Nothing better than ice cream after swimming.

Wednesday (Jul 18), my sister and kids came over and swam in our neighborhood pool, which we rarely use for above mentioned reasons, so it was nice to get use out of it. This was nice because not only was my sister there to help me keep an eye, but her big kids were in with my kids, keeping everyone double safe. 

Then today, Jake had an end of year swim party with his class at church. I tried, but he mostly just stayed on the stairs and did very little actual swimming. 

Pirate Day

One of the things on our summer bucket list is to have a pirate day where everyone gets a chance to hide a treasure, then make a map that leads you to the treasure. The kids really had fun with this. Will was naturally the best at hiding and finding, but everyone had a great time.

Texas Trip: Austin

We arrived at our AirBnB house rental in Austin the afternoon of the 9th and settled in. Later we went grocery shopping and grabbed dinner. The description of this place said it was rustic and it was. The A/C ended up going out and had to be fixed while we were there so that was not pleasant. However, it was a 3 bedroom place with a living room and kitchen, so we had plenty of room to spread out, which I knew was necessary while Daniel had to work. After Maggie's sessions, the kids and I would find things to do. We found an awesome library downtown and spent some time there on Tuesday the 10th.

They even had an outdoor area where you could hang out. If I lived here (esp when the kids were even younger) this would be a great place to come with lunch, where they can be loud, but so many resources just inside. So cool.

Wednesday the 11th, we went to the Thinkery which is basically a science center. We happened to go on a discount community day, so it ended up being a much less expensive visit than we expected and this place was really cool as well. 

 Above are the girls playing in the market area- they loved shopping for the food and the chicken coop! The boys were off doing something else. While the girls played, I happened to meet a mom with a special needs son and told her about the therapy we were doing. The next day when Maggie went for her sessions, the lady had already called in to inquire about the program! It was all pretty neat. After the Thinkery, we walked by an ice cream shop and decided to give it a try and we all agreed it was delicious. :)

On Thursday the 12th, the kids and I went for a walk down by the waterfront and got a really good view of the downtown Austin area. Fortunately, there was a water fountain because I did not plan well and had zero water. The walk was a little longer than I expected. .

 Later that evening, Daniel finished up a little early and wanted to explore with the family. We walked around downtown and grabbed dinner at a place that is probably not used to having children/families visit given the location. One of the paths we took, led us straight to the library and the kids were so excited to show Daniel, we had to go back in. After this, we got a small peek at the Austin bats. Every night, over a million bats emerge from under the Avenue bridge downtown just before sunset. We couldn't find a parking spot, so we didn't get the full show and no good pics, but it was really neat to see and hear. 

We had a great trip! Even though we were gone most of the week- we drove Sunday and Friday- we really only spent 3 full days in Austin. I wouldn't mind going again!