the big premier

Last night Taylor, her cousin Nikki and I braved watching the Eclipse midnight show on opening night.  We got to the movie theater at 10 pm and were seated right away.  We spent the two hours before the movie started playing games on our phones, talking and eating.

We really enjoyed the movie and it was worth the exhaustion I felt today!  I'm all about "Edward for the book, Jacob for the look!"

mighty fun

Since my niece Taylor is in town visiting, we decided to show her around downtown Austin today.  We drove down to South Congress to grab some lunch and check out the sites.

We grabbed lunch at The Mighty Cone and it was mighty delicious.
 

Fried avocado and chicken? Yes, please!

When I saw this cool wall, I had to take a picture of my beautiful niece.  I'm so glad she is staying with us for a couple days!

eggs, eggs and more eggs

Before we headed to the farm, I had visions of four cute duck eggs sitting in the incubator I borrowed from Erica. Her love of hatching chickens had enticed me to borrow the incubator and hatch something too. The boys really wanted to hatch some duck eggs, so off to the farm we went.

Little did I know, every egg the kids picked up would be going home with me. Not to eat, but to hatch.

They are all now safe in the incubator set at the perfect temperature and humidity. Before we crammed put the 13 eggs in the incubator, we candled them to see if any of them were destined not to hatch. Only one egg was not perfect and had to be removed. That means I have 12 potential birds going to hatch! A little overwhelming? Um, yes!

My job now is to turn the eggs from the X side to the O side three times a day for 21 to 28 days. I will probably candle them every 3 days or so to see if there are any that are not going to hatch, so we can free up some room in the incubator.

Wanna know what's in the eggs?

2 duck

3 guinea

2 chicken

5 banty eggs

The fact that the chickens and bantys will hatch a full week before the duck and guineas does stress me out a little, but at least there will be more room in the incubator when they hatch. To make it a little more interesting, a pigeon was nesting on top of one of the banty eggs, so that egg will probably hatch a week early. I guess I'll just have to be on the lookout for some pecking from a tiny little banty! Good thing I have Erica to help me through this exciting project!

e-i-e-i-o

Yesterday we headed over to a local farm to check out the animals.  My mom, Erica, Erica's mom and all our kids got an amazing tour from the farm owner Melissa and two of her adorable boys.

The farm has chickens, cows, turkeys, a horse, peacocks, guineas, bantys, ducks, geese, rabbits, pigeons, a giant pregnant pig, dogs and kittens. 

The kids loved feeding all the animals.

Ethan loved the horse the best.

Their pig has a bowling ball too!

My mom held Lauren so I could take a million pictures.  Thanks Mom!

The boys thought the worm box was pretty cool.

 

Austin was extremely excited about the blue egg he found.  In fact, he brought it home with him...

To be continued...

little artist

Our little 16 month old baby girl loves to color.  She just picked up a crayon a couple weeks ago and held it correctly all on her own.  I may just be a proud mama, but I think that's pretty special. Her favorite thing to do right now is climb on top of the dining room table and steal her brother's colored pencils.  I think we have an artist on our hands!

June 20th, the last day

Before we headed back home, we decided to hit up the beach one more time.

 

 

We had a nice vacation trip and we are very blessed to have such a wonderful family!

June 19th, the family reunion

We started out the day swimming in the pool at the condo.  This little guy is learning how to swim.  He is paddling like crazy and hopefully will be swimming by the end of the summer.

Abby, Lauren and Emmy all had matching swimsuits by chance, so I had to take a picture of the cute cousins.

After pool time, we headed over to the boat dock where Stacy and Vince keep their boat for some fishing. 

Ethan and Austin both caught fish and they were so excited!

Unfortunately a lot of our family couldn't make it to the reunion this year.  They were missed, but we had a great time catching up, eating yummy Mexican food and getting ice cream at a local shop.

 

Notice how messy Austin is eating his ice cream?  We had to hose him off before he got in the car. Crazy kid! 

June 18th, beach day

Friday we headed to the beach for all day fun in the sun!

The weather was great, and as you can see, there was some seaweed.  It was nothing compared to two years ago when we narrowly avoided hurricane Dolly. 

   

Lauren LOVED the ocean!  She would run right to it and didn't want us to hold her hand at all.  If she did fall and get a face full of salt water, it didn't bother her one bit.

Daddy, Kai and Grandaddy gave Ethan, Austin and Jake boogie board lessons.  Boogie boarding is so much fun when you catch the perfect wave!

The boys loved building sand castles.

Austin once again tired out on a beach chair like last year.

Stacy brought her pack-n-play for Lauren to sleep in and it worked out great!

We were all set up for the day with two easy ups, two beach umbrellas, ice chests full of drinks and food and beach chairs and toys.  Since it's so much work to set up, we always make a full day of it.

Love this picture of Granddaddy!

June 17th, my birthday

Thursday morning we loaded up the kids and headed to Port Aransas with Eric's parents and sister's family. 

The ferry ride is always exciting!

Since it was my birthday, I made Eric take this dorky picture with me.

 

Later we hit up the souvenir shops.  Look how much they have grown since last year!

 

Then we headed to dinner for some seafood and margaritas.  I ate fried shrimp every day from Thursday to Sunday.  I LOVE shrimp and don't think I can ever get tired of eating it.  It's a good thing, since we brought back more fresh shrimp to cook up!

 

After dinner, we headed to the beach to dip our toes in the ocean.

 

As you can see from this picture, the boys dipped more than their toes in!

 

It was nice to celebrate my 34th birthday with family at the beach!