It's a long one!

You wouldn't think it was a very large task to take the pictures from the camera, put them onto the computer, and then on my blog, but every time I thought about doing it, it seemed too daunting.  Yes, I'm that lazy.  So here's a bunch of pictures and goings on of the rest of the summer. 

We are not doing well in the heat.  Leave it to us to move to Texas when the state breaks the record of the most number of days over 100 degrees.   We have not gotten used to the heat (not even the people HERE get used to it!), but sadly I have gotten used to the feeling of sweat running down my back (gross).   We spent many many days at the pool because I'm not sure what there is to do when it's 200 degrees e-v-e-r-y-s-t-i-n-k-i-n-g-d-a-y.  The kids loved it and are getting really quite skilled in their swimming abilities, I must say.  Even Lila decided she loved diving in with a life jacket (until once she forgot she didn't have the life jacket on.) Funny girl.

Kaylee went to her first girls camp!  Oh, that was hard for mom, especially since I was turning her over to ward and stake leaders I barely knew.  It was from Tuesday to Saturday, which was about 3 days too long for me. She was so excited to go, so it was hard for me to be sad that she was leaving, but, wow, did I miss that girl.  They got around the heat by sleeping in an air-conditioned cabin, having all activities (that didn't involve water )in an air-conditioned lodge, and did their required hikes at night.  I didn't feel the need to give the speech that includes ..."well, when I was at girls camp, we froze, we slept in tents, and we dug our own latrines!..."  I didn't care if they slept at the Hilton, I just wanted them to take care of my little girl! 

Even though she got a little homesick, she had a great time.

Thank you girls camp leaders who shall remain nameless because I don't know who you are!

(The kids giving some love to LBJ)
We went with Ashlee and Ben to the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.
You know, because it was free.  We're all about that.
The excessive number of security guards kept a pretty close eye on us.  I don't think they appreciated the number of kids we were dragging along behind. 
Really, what were they going to do?
Steal the moon rock?
Try to take a joy ride in the Presidential limo?
Knock over the life-sized joke-telling animatronic LBJ?
I was told Lila was not allowed to run.  Because, you know, she could run around a corner and knock someone over.  She's not even 2, but she could cause some real damage, I tell you.
I was told this by a guard on the 10th floor (remember this piece of info. 10th floor).
So, we were done, kids were done, we went outside to talk about where we were going to go (anywhere but there!)
The very same security guard tracks us down outside and tells us our kids can't run out there, either.
(Remember how I told you he was on the 10th floor?)
Particularly they couldn't run up and down the stairs.

Look! The perp was caught in the act of the alleged crime.

Wow, just loving this place more every day.

But...Texas (sort of) redeemed her big ol' lone star self when Ben and Ashlee introduced us to....

This was pretty much the most awesomest BBQ place EVER!
You order your meat in their smoking/cooking room.  There were fire pits in the floor.
They hand you your meat wrapped in butcher paper, and then asked how many are eating.
Then they give you MoRe butcher paper as plates! How cool is that?
Oh, and you get a loaf of bread with your order, they just throw it on top of the meat
Then you go and order sides and find a table in a huge room that looks like this.....

(doesn't this look like a huge ward party?)

Don't you love the roll of paper towels right on the table? 
That was the best beef brisket ever.

Now I have to tell you about the bats....

(oh, first, a picture of the cute girlies and the Austin skyline)

So there is a bridge in Austin called the "Bat Bridge".
This shows a fraction of the number of people watching from the bridge (you can't see all of the people like us watching from under the bridge) for 1.5 million bats to fly from underneath at dusk.

It was creepy, but I think that's what draws people.  It was crazy!
Has anyone out there ever heard of this odd phenomenon?

So...now onto the start of school that starts on Monday.  Kids aren't happy, mom has major anxiety, should be interesting.  Stay tuned.....