Day 4 adventures

We're having a great time in Austin, and it's hard to believe we're into our last day here. Last night as I put Julia to bed, I asked her if she was having a fun vacation. After she affirmed, I told her we still had one more day of vacation, then the next day we would be going home, which spawned the following conversation:

JULIA: And then are we going to Texas?
ME: What do you mean? We're in Texas right now. We have one more day in Texas, and then we're going back home.
JULIA: But then are we going to Texas?
ME: Tomorrow we're in Texas still. Then we're going home.
JULIA: But when are we going on a plane and going to Texas?

Um... not sure what she's been thinking we've been doing all this time. But I guess she must be confused, seeing as when we stopped at the CVS yesterday, she asked me, "Mom, is this the same CVS that's near our house in Needham?"

Aside from the confusion about where whether we are in Texas or not, she has had a great time enjoying Austin's attractions. Yesterday afternoon we went to Zilker Park, where Julia got to play on the huge play-scape (she had so much fun that she threw a fit about having to take a break to go sit down and eat the Italian Ice that Ethan had bought her as a special treat). The play area had several large xylophones that kids were making music on, and I went over to one and played "Schoolbuses." I tried to get a video of me playing and Julia singing, but she rejected me in order to go and play on this instead:



Madeleine had a fun ride in the baby swings:





and then we took a walk along the trails by Barton Creek and the Colorado River.




After Zilker Park, we went to a great Tex-Mex restaurant with Auntie Shannon and Patrick, and Julia loved the fact that we had constantly-replenished baskets of corn chips at our table. Her favorite part was probably dumping about a teaspoon worth of salt on every corn chip, and of course, lining them all up in a row before eating them. After dinner we all took a swim at the hotel pool before bed, although Julia couldn't play "hot water cold water" because there were already about 5-6 people in the hot tub. Madeleine had her very first swimming pool experience, and she was WAY into it. In fact, when I was trying to just dip her little legs in the water to get used to it, she just went right on ahead and plopped down on her bum on the step. Her favorite part of all was whacking at the water with her hands and trying to get her mouth down to it to drink it - which of course we didn't let her do. She probably could have stayed in there all night, but for the fact that her lip was quivering with cold (and of course the impending bedtime.)



And as you can see, going for a swim right before bed was a great idea for making sure the kids were wide awake and stimulated instead of going right to sleep: