Here we are waiting for our plane...Charlie was especially excited!!
We got off the plane and walked through the tunnel to the airport and as we emerged from the tunnel, Charlie said in a slightly disgusted and disappointed voice, "This is texas?" I said something like, well this is the airport, just wait you'll see Texas. He's been asking me everyday, multiple times a day when are we going to Texas...he couldn't wait to get here.
Here's all our luggage (and children) Dave had the cart and balancing carseat act, while I pushed and steered the stroller and pulled the two bags on the right. It was all going pretty well, until we got to our rental car and realized it wasn't all going to fit into our camry sized car. (We opted to not get a van to save some money). They luckily had a van available for us to rent so we unloaded the already loaded carseats from the camry sized car (it was a chevy something) and loaded up the chrysler van. We were all in when the lady I've been working with to get our furnished apartment called saying the gas company did not light the pilot light so we have NO hot water and NO working stove. She said we could go to a hotel until Monday and not be charged the rent in the apartment for those days. It just so happens that UT was playing some big game against Oklahoma and there were NO two room suites available in the Austin area. I called 10 places and they were all booked. So we settled on a one room suite from Embassy Suites. It worked out okay. The boys had the actual bedroom while Dave and I slept on the pull out couch. As you can see below Charlie loved having his HUGE bed all to himself and since the place was packed there were no Pack'n'Plays in the whole hotel available so we had to make our own. Mom, don't be horrified :)
How to make a Pack'N'Play in a hotel:
Step 1: remove lamp from bedside table. Step 2: turn bedside table around so mischievous kids won't play with drawers and hurt fingers.
Step 3: take cushions from couch (from front room) and lay them down on the floor.
Step 4: cover with a sheet-it is a hotel room :)
Step 5: put a suitcase in front of cushions to contain said mischievous child (see in 2nd and 3rd picture)
Step 6: Pray that it is safe :)
Saturday: Before we arrived in Austin I had looked up some fun stuff for us to do while we were here. One of those things was a cattle drive on saturday. I figured Charlie would get a kick out of it and it just seems really Texas to go to a cattle drive. :) We wrote down our directions and had our garmin with us and we could not find the park it was supposedly at, at all. We even called my mom to make sure we wrote down the right directions. It was frustrating! So instead, we went to Zilker Zephyr Park. It is a HUGE park in South Austin. There is a 25 minute kid train ride around the whole park - it must be big! We tried to get tickets for the ride but it was 97 degrees that day and I was two people off from getting on the next ride, so we skipped it. Charlie was disappointed but he played at the playground and still had a good time. He still asks when we're going to ride the train at Ziller Park :)
Charlie asked all day today when we were going to be in Texas. I finally asked him what he thought Texas was and reply was, "We need dishes, and beds and a door." Poor guy thought we were going to live in the hotel room I think. Hopefully once we get into the apartment it will be better.
Sunday: We went to services at the Cedar Park Church of Christ. They were a very welcoming group of people (much like Folsom COC) and it ends up that Dave knew one of the gals from FC Camp and he went to church with her and her husband when he lived in Arizona - small world! After services that morning he jetted back to the hotel to check out. I figured we could live with cold water for one night...we were getting tired of the hotel and the boys were really squirreley.
This is sunday afternoon. Peter Pan is on and Dave (and Charlie) are setting up the internet. :)
On Monday we had the gas turned on, our internet checked, our smoke alarm fixed (read wednesday for full detail), a door stopper installed in our bathroom that was missing and a huge flying bug killed. (luckily the maintenance guy was coming so I didn't have to take care of it myself)
That night we ate at Torchy's Tacos. It was decent. The queso sauce was good. What you see before you was $23 - not quite worth it. They are known for their sauces and their fried avocado. I tried the fried avocado and I thought it was a waste of an avocado. One thing I love about avocados is their freshness and having it fried just seemed wrong :)
Brushing Teeth
We opted not (rather we didn't have any more room) to bring his feeding seat and refused to pay $1 a day to rent one from the apartment complex. So here is our big boy sitting at the table. HE LOVES IT and thinks he is such big stuff! I made spaghetti last night and with the towel and me being super careful we managed to keep the chair clean - amazing!
Tuesday!
The boys and I walked down to see the clubhouse and where the pool was today. This is is such a nice apartment complex. The clubhouse opens at 10am and they serve fresh cookies everyday to their guests - the boys were so excited to get a cookie and Charlie can't wait to swim in the pool.
Snuggle Time!
One of the things I read in the reviews about our apartment complex is how there is so much natural vegetation so the deer come by all the time. Well, on Monday we saw two deer, on Tuesday we saw two deer and this morning (weds) we saw at least ten! Here's the picture above of 4 deer, stinkin' screen :) Charlie loves looking for them every morning out the window in the front room (same window in the picture of dave and charlie on the computers). It is really neat!!
THIS DAY - Wednesday - WARNING: this next section contains a decent amount of sleep deprivation and throw up - enjoy :)!! So, let me back up just a little bit-just to set the sleeping scene. Friday night the boys didn't go to bed until 10:30pm Austin time, 8:30 CA time. Saturday morning they slept in until 8:30ish. Saturday Ben took a 2 hour nap charlie didn't take a nap. Saturday night the boys were in bed by 9:30, asleep by 10. Sunday morning we were all up by 7:45 so we could be at church by 10:30. Ben took a short nap during church service and then neither of the boys took an afternoon nap (boo). Both the boys were in bed at the apartment by 8:30. Ben woke up Monday morning at 1:30am and did not fall back asleep until 2:30am. Then I woke up at 4:30 to a really loud beeping. I woke up Dave and told him to go check it out. It was the smoke alarm. But not any smoke alarm, it was the one that was 15-20 feet up the wall. There is NO way I could have slept through the every 15 second beeping. So we pushed the couch over to the wall, I supported Dave as he climbed (scaled) the built in book shelf, so he could stand up on an eighteen inch ledge to reach the smoke alarm. He got it down, took the batteries out and it still beeped a few times. So rather than wait to see if it would stop, he put it in a bath towel, and put it in the dryer (no he did no turn the dryer on). CRAZY NIGHT! Both the boys were up by 7:15 monday morning. Monday both the boys took an afternoon nap (YAY!) and were both in bed by 8 (double YAY!) Ben woke up at 1:30am and didn't fall back asleep until 2:30ish. Both boys up by 7. Both took a nap (yay!) Both in bed and asleep by 8:30pm. 1am Weds morning Charlie wakes up crying. I go into the room and he's saying something about being pushed into the sea (we watched Peter Pan the other day) I told him he was in his bed and that he should close his eyes, he's just fine and go to sleep, I tucked him back in. But he was scared and continued to cry thereby waking up Ben. Now I'm irritated because Ben would have probably slept through the night, but now he's awake. Ben didn't fall back asleep until 2:30 (UGH!) Both boys up at 7am because Dave accidentally kicked a toy car into the wall (double UGH!). I'm exhausted, Dave leaves for work. Not 2 minutes after he leaves Ben throws up on me (have sweet mercy). Twenty minutes later he throws up again. I emailed Dave to see if Ben had had anything to eat that morning. His reply: He drank out of a milk cup on the ground by the couch I wasn't sure how old it was. So I dumped it and put new milk in it. Well, I quickly found that milk cup dumped it and sure enough it had a ring around it. I forgot to clean it up after the boys went to sleep (UGH!) By this time I've changed my shirt twice, have a little throw up in my hair and have bathed ben twice. So I put on Ben's rubber bib and wait for the next round. the bib was amazing! It saved us both! After the third time I waited 45 minutes and then layed him down - he was tired (from not only puking but being up so much at night). I let him sleep until he couldn't any more (about an hour). When he woke up he seemed happier and a little hungry so I gave him some cheerios and some plain oatmeal. That went down well so I let him have 1/3 of a banana. Everything was going well until I was about to take him back to his room. He threw up again - 3.5 hours after the last round. It fortunately wasn't that bad, but I then had the thought of...oh no...this is a virus not old milk and now we're all probably going to get it (fortunately no signs of that). He woke up from his nap really happy and asked for crackers. I gave him some and waited a while - he seems fine now. He was in bed by 7:20. Here's to hoping both boys sleep the whole night through and none of us wake up sick tomorrow :)
Charlie and Ben (Ben is finally feeling better)
We knew this was going to be an adventure, but it really has been an adventure. We're still having a good time! Hopefully, we can get all this crummy stuff out of the way our first week, then it will be smooth sailing for the remaing 6-7 weeks :)
Texas stuff:
1. freeways are kind of funky with the frontage roads, but I can definitely see the advantage to having them.
2. Water tastes like dirt...reminds me of Florida water - bleh
3. bugs are larger here - I DON'T LIKE BUGS ( I saw one spider seriously about 2 inches long outside on our walk to the clubhouse)
4. Austin looks A LOT like Folsom. It is hilly and there are a ton of oak trees - maybe that's why Charlie keeps asking when we're going to Texas. I pictured it a little more desolate and lot more country.
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