Austin TX - Day 4 - Nov 14, 2022

 Remote working allowed Lola to stay a few extra days.  She originally was supposed to stay till Monday only, but things changed and she got a flight home on Wednesday instead. She already had her work stuff with her from working AZ, so it was an easy transition.

She pulled up to MBMell's Scrapbooking desk and worked away. It was still cold in Austin, with highs of 8 most days, but she was happy to not being going home to the land of snow for a few more days.

MBMell wasn't feeling great so DD and Lola had a lunch break together.

She worked until it was time to go pick up the kids up from school, when MBMell got up to do that.  It was just T getting picked up as B has UIL after school.  She waved hello to Lola as we picked up T and then we were off.  Lola worked a little while T had Speech Therapy, then it was off to pick up B and get to Ninja Gym.  

Lola was excited to see Ninja Gym.  T didn't have the best class, but it was still great to see them do different obstacles.  It was also neat to see their first swim instructor is now a coach at Ninja gym, what a small world.

After Ninja gym, we headed home to do homework, play video games and make supper. Lola and MBMell made roasted veggies, meatballs and rice.  It was really good.

After supper the kids went to bed (as they were exhausted from the busy weekend), we got them in bed at about 7:40, almost 1 hour before normal, and no one complained.

The ladies were making tea and decided it was a great time to clean out the cupboard.  They felt pretty accomplished after that. The adults discussed future travel plans and then headed to bed. 

Austin, TX - Day 3 - Nov 13, 2022

 It was a full weekend!  We got up this morning and headed to Kalahari Resort where we had tickets to the waterpark.  It was lots of fun!  The water was colder than the ladies were hoping in the lazy river, but we enjoyed hours of fun on the waterslide, lazy river, and wave pool.  It wasn't overly busy and we didn't get to try all the waterslides, but we still had a good time.  The kids didn't like going on the tub slides with MBMell and Lola, as they scream too much, but eventually had to go with Lola a few times.

We had lunch pool side and then enjoyed about another hour of the water park before showering and heading to an escape room.

MBMell was betting with AA (from afar) how much DD and Lola would butt heads, but they actually worked well together.  The escape room was space themed, but it had a lot of screens and not a lot of challengers.  But we made it out, and the "helper" told us we did a section that most people need a hint about but we figured it out. 

After the escape room, MBMell and Lola got the adults Starbucks from the hotel lobby while DD took the kids to the rope course.  B had been telling Lola how much she wanted to do it over and over again, so Lola suggested it as we had a little time before we needed to head for supper.  As we were sitting there enjoying our drinks, DD answers a phonecall.  It was the escape room "do you have the key cards" for the game... opps, luckily we weren't far away, and DD ran to return them so the next group could solve the mistery.

They had a blast, and even though T was a little nervous and cautious at the beginning, he really enjoyed the challenging parts and even the zip line.  The adults also enjoyed their teas and watching the kids go through the different challenges.  They spent well over 30 minutes in the course, and we aren't sure how they had any energy to keep going.

DD played a few arcade games with the kids and then we headed to Outback Steakhouse for supper.

The kids were exhausted, but held it together through supper except for a mishap with a hole spewing water out of a styrofoam cup, and Lolas meal coming full of butter... we made it through pretty good.  We were all pretty tired from so much time spend in the water this morning/afternoon.  MBMell and Lola had Steak and Lobster with baked potatoes, DD had Shrimp on the Barbie, B had a Cheese burger while T had chicken fingers. Everyone was pretty much done their meals by the time Lola got hers, but the food was still pretty good, and DD didn't get the Bloomin' Onion, and we are proud of him. He told us before we went in to make sure he didn't get it as it doesn't' make him feel very well.

Only photo from supper is MBMell's Pina Koala drink.

We made it home, kids went to bed and the adults got ready for a work day the next day.  Lunches were made and we went to sleep.

Austin TX - Day 2 - Nov 12, 2022

 As T said... Today felt like 2 days..... We did a lot today!

In the morning we got up and headed to the kids school for "Swap and Bop", where we laid out the clothes that we had collected the day before that were too small for these growing kids!  We had a lot, so we made DD come with us.  We got special permission to go down the hallway to see the kids art creatures, before heading to the library for the "bop" section of the morning.  There we brought a game to play.  We had some friends join us, and B was sure she had the game in the bag....but Lola pulled off the win. The kids were excited to finally play with all the cards, as they typically only have 4 players, and you need 5-6 players to play with the special donut cards.  Lola met the principal and librarian of the school.

We headed for lunch at Rudy's, Lola's' request.  It didn't disappoint, and sure was good, especially the smoked turkey and unsweet tea. We ordered a little bit too much creamed corn, but B really enjoyed it.

After lunch we headed back home. B, MBMell and Lola made Turkey Bark out of a subscription box in advance of American Thanksgiving, while T and DD played a video game. T was pretty excited to get to play this game that he has only watched DD play. 

We then collected our warm clothes, and DD drove the 4 of us downtown Austin to the University of Texas for the TSU and Longhorns College Football Game.  We met friends (S, S and P) at the first stop, Tailgate party in a parking garage.  The kids "played" corn hole while the adults chatted. 

After the tailgating, we headed down Bevo Blvd to partake in the activities there.  The kids really enjoyed the bouncy house and shooting some basketballs. T wasn't very happy about what we were doing and you can tell in some of the photos.  When we had to leave the Bouncy house he was quite upset that that would be the only fun thing all day... (little did he know).

We headed up to our seats through the sea of people, up to the 3rd level.  The site was incredible, 105,000 person stadium full of mostly orange shirts, all with their bull horns.

Highlights of the game include; parachuters with fireworks landing on the field, 300+ person marching band, Bevo XV the live bull and the fans. The game wasn't so exciting as there were only 3 points scored in the first half of the game, but we had lots of questions for T trying to understand the game.  Good thing MBMell worked many football games, and Lola knew a little about football.  The forth Down was a little confusing for her.

B loved the snacks, and Lola was very excited to find a Chicken Rice bowl that was GF.  T had so much fun, he was even knew when to use the bull horns to cheer on the team.  It got late, and we decided to leave after the 3rd quarter to try and be able to find DD who was picking us up.  

That was also an adventure as lots of roads were closed to allow for 105,000 people to get out of there, but after walking one way and then walking the other we found him.  Wasn't sure B was going to make it, but we did.  Made it home and T and B talked about how much fun they had the entire way home!  Unfortunately both teams scored a touch down in the 4th quarter and we missed the canyon being shot, as well as the use of Big Bertha II the largest drum.

Final Score was 17-10 for TSU, but it was an amazing experience that I would definitely do again!  Oh forgot to mention how cold it was... the temperature was about 8 degrees when we got there, and we are sure it cooled off as eventually we had to put our mitts on.  Luckily we know how to layer, so none of us were cold.

Once at home we got kids to bed and while the adults hung out enjoying each others company!