Austin Minus the Bats

Brandon's parents came in town for the long weekend. They helped with a few of our projects around the house (I'll take pictures soon) and then we headed to Austin Saturday morning to spend a couple days with Brandon's sister and her hubby. We had such a fun weekend, complete with tons of yummy food and lots of play time for the pups. Here are a few pictures I took in Austin...


Playing at Barton Springs


About to eat at Hula Hut- yum yummm


The girls at Bess Bistro, Sandra Bullock's restaurant downtown


The cousins


Us with our babies


Waiting for the bats


We waited almost two hours for the bats to fly only to come to the conclusion that the bats have decided to stay at home for now. How disappointing.


All of us (minus Philip) at County Line on the Lake


Me and my man

Update

Well, Brandon and I have been watching all the season finales of our favorite shows this past week. I've been pretty mad about it because apparently this was the year for every show to end with one of the characters getting killed. Brothers and Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, LOST, and 24. It's been a pretty emotional week. I'll stop there without going into so much detail that I again lose my calm. Sunday we had a LOST party with Josh and Suzie who we've been watching with all season. Bitter sweet because we were all ready for that wonderful part of our lives to end. I think my problem is that I like romantic comedies and sweet stories where the plot is wrapped up in a pretty little bow. So I don't like the cliff-hangers or even the series finales that don't end well. Here's how it should have gone- the last episode should have been the wedding of Jack Bauer and Renee Walker and then they retire to be together forever and have babies. See, so happy! And I have no IDEA how I would have had LOST end since I've been confused ever since I began watching it. The only good TV thing that happened this week was the start of The Bachelorette, which is sure to be another very dramatic season. There are lots of other things going on, but I don't have time or energy to write about them now. I'll update again soon after our weekend with Brandon's family:)

Baby Let's Cruise

So only a week later and I am FINALLY getting a chance to post pictures from our cruise. We had the best vacation and we're still friends with the two couples we went with even after a week together. We really had a great time. Here are a lot of pictures to sum up our week, so get ready...


First Night on the ship


Day 1- Bahamas


The girls


Kayak-ing


The boys


On the ferry back to the ship


Sunset up on the deck


Me and my man


Me, Lacey, and Melany


Lobster for the lobster



St. Thomas


Snorkeling- Chris hahaha, Melany, me and Brandon


We saw tons of cool fish (underwater photos courtesy of Chad)


Tryin out the hat


Say conch shell!


Puerto Rico- about to zip-line through the rainforest!


Brandon about to soar through the rainforest- so fun!!!


Cheese!


Getting all fastened in


Puerto Rico has several forts built in the 1500s to protect the city


Overlooking the port in Puerto Rico


View of the deck


Sunset on the ship


Grand Turk- look at that blue water!


Searching the beach for shells


Dinner- our favorite part of the cruise


Chocolate Bar yum yumm

Back to Reality

We got back from our cruise Saturday night, and reality hit immediately. My family informed me of the horrible flood in Nashville last week. Nashvillians are still so devastated, and it's going to take a long time for the city to recover from this disaster. My Granny's house and car were totally ruined, but luckily she wasn't hurt. It's times like this when you realize what a huge blessing it is to have faith that God will walk her through this and family there to support her along the way. But there's still so much emotional damage from losing all your things- that's what is so difficult to deal with. For now, all I know to do is pray for her and all the others in Nashville who were so greatly affected by this record-breaking flood. My heart is especially heavy for the people who don't have family there to take care of them, for people who lost someone because of this event, for those who are now homeless or who lost their life savings from this. It's times like this when it's so hard to be living in Texas where I can't do enough to help. But I'm praying daily that God provides healing. Here are some pictures I found...


Over 20 inches of rain fell on Nashville within 48 hours


The damage is estimated to be around $1-2 billion


This is inside Opryland hotel where my family loves to go and walk around every year. Crazy the amount of water. And this is only a couple miles away from my Granny's house.


Pray for Nashville and all those affected.