Austin, Texas

Dear Friends:

Usually, this blog is used to document places I've visited and events that I've attended - out-of-town.  This time, I wanted to save some images from a wonderful visit to Austin by my oldest son and his family.

My son had been in Austin all week, for an education technology conference.  His wife and kids arrived on a Friday (while I was still in the SF Bay Area).  They arrived early enough to surprise my youngest son at school.  They came by for lunch, and my grandchildren were quite popular in the cafeteria that day ; ).  I love the following image - it looks like a tickle fight broke out at school - you can see my grandson trying to tickle G-Man, while G-Man is trying to tickle my granddaughter.  The looks on their faces are awesome:

G-Man showed his nephew all around the cafeteria.  I found this image to be quite adorable:

That night, I had arrived back in Austin.  We wanted to take advantage of the great weather, so we decided to head out to canoe on Lady Bird Lake.  This lake sits right in front of Austin's downtown.  Everybody put on their life vests, including this little sailor:

We split up into two boats, and headed out onto the water.  I had the boys in my boat...

While my son had his wife, my youngest daughter, and my granddaughter aboard.  I still can't believe how green the water was.  It was also amazingly clear.  You could see the bottom of the tributary that we set out in.

We made our way out onto the lake.  As you can see from the images, the water was really calm that day.  There were winds, actually pushing the boats, but the glass-like water was just beautiful that day.

Back home, we played for the remainder of the afternoon.  One of the best things to watch, was how much my granddaughter loved to be around my youngest son (her uncle). While she was a little wary about others, she immediately warmed up to G-Man.  This is just one of MANY times that the two of them were hugging:

I finally managed to get pictures of me and the grandkids.  It didn't take a lot of work...but, oh is it worth it!

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend - I had managed to see all of my grandchildren within the span of about 18 hours ; )  I love it when the kids visit, and they had a great time.  Can't wait for them to return!!