Birthday #27

The events of the anniversary of the day of my birth were these:

• We went to a cave! One they found while constructing a highway. We thought it'd be fun for us all to go explore on a guided tour. Buuuttt... Liam and Dash did not want to stop moving. That doesn't work on a guided tour with lots of stops. I don't think I heard half of what the guide said, too much whining in my ear. Not to mention, we weren't allowed to touch anything. My back and arms hurt so bad by the end from all that carrying and restraining. They were finally happy when we got to walk from the back of the cave to the front without stopping. That was my favorite part too, because it was HUMID in the back and returning felt progressively cooler. Neat things:

               - We saw a couple bats.
               - I learned about helictites- sideways moving stalactites. Something I've never heard about before. Except maybe I have, since the wikipedia page says they're all over Timpanogos Caves, where I visited when I saw a youngin'. Maybe the info has been resting in my brain, waiting to be accessed again one day (this day!).
               - The boys were at least excited on the way in:

(Cave1 from Katie Bradley on Vimeo.)

• We grabbed some lunch on the way back to the hotel and relaxed while the boys napped. We made this fantastic wall out of a couch, suitcases, and blankets, so we didn't keep the boys from falling asleep. We should have been engineers.

• After the boys slept for a really long time, we headed to the University of Texas campus and on to the Lyndon B. Johnson Library. There, we got to see recreations of the oval office, Lady Bird's office, fun art and artifacts, and a little museum display of his presidency. And there was a cute girl the boys were acting shy around. And there was glass to attack:

(LBJ Library 1 from Katie Bradley on Vimeo.)

• We had a pre-dinner treat at Rita's Ice Water. Man, that's the stuff. My children very much agreed. They are pros at dipping spoons into ice cream for a little taste. Pros.

• We meandered a local toy stop. It was very, very eclectic. In both their merchandise and customers. And it was super busy, I was really surprised. Dash and Liam thought it was fun and we found a little Leemer toy for our Liam (how could we not) and a frog for Dash. Then we left because there was a dude that was hanging around us a little too much for my liking.
• I had asked my Facebookies where to eat in Austin and almost everyone said Salt Lick. Well... we didn't go there. Neither Sean nor I felt much like barbeque. Everyone's probably cursing me now. Instead, someone else mentioned the Hula Hut, so that's was my birthday dinner location and it was great. And I got free birthday dessert. And Sean discovered an allergic reaction to tuna! Whee!

• We came home and hit the hay- we were birthdayed out!

The next day, we just packed up and came home straight to church. The one bonus of having 1pm church. And the kids actually took a good nap in the car. What a fantastic weekend it was! Thank you, my dear sweet wonderful hunky husband for such a great time!