Happy Birthday Aunt Alisha

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALISHA!
We hope you are having a great day. We are thinking of you. I can't wait to celebrate together next week.



Megan and I were kind of singing Happy Birthday together, but when I pulled out the camera she wouldn't sing any more. The video is still pretty cute.
P.S. How do you like your present? Just kidding.

Uncle Steven - The Bats!

Underneath Congress Bridge over Town Lake lives the largest urban bat colony in the United States. There are something like 3 million bats that live there throughout the summer, and they all come flying out at dusk to eat. There is a big grassy spot where you can go sit and watch them come out. We went to see them when we first moved here, and decided to take Steven back. Megan didn't care much about the bats, but she sure had fun running around and chasing other kids.


Here's a picture from a year ago at the same spot, I can't believe it's been a year!

Uncle Steven - Day at the Lake

Uncle Steven came to visit us this weekend. We told Megan about it ahead of time and she said "Steven, Steven" and went and grabbed our family picture and pointed him out. He flew in at night so she was already in bed, but when she woke up Mike got her up and told her that Steven was here in the living room. She went running down the hall to look for him saying "Steven, Steven." It was very cute. She was a little shy with him at first (as usual), but now she wants him to hold her more than she wants us!


We thought we would go swimming at Lake Travis and it was a lot of fun. The lake is really low this year, which has made some nice sandy beaches that aren't always there. Megan loved playing in the dirt (she even tried to eat it a couple times). The water was a nice 75 degrees or so.

Eating with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa's visit was so fun that it deserves two posts. Most of the trip consisted of eating, waiting to get hungry, and eating again.

First we ate at the Gristmill, a hundred year old cotton gin in Gruene that sits on a hillside over looking the Guadalupe river.

Next we got breakfast tacos at our favorite barbecue joint, Rudy's, which is just down the street from us. The chopped beef tacos were fantastic!


Then we went to Lake Austin and ate at Mike's favorite burger place, Skishores Cafe.



Finally, we finished out the trip eating at Central Market's patio cafe, listening to live Indian music.




Since my parents judge the quality of their vacation based on the food that they ate, we did our best to show them a good time.

Grandma and Grandpa McFadden Visit

Grandma and Grandpa McFadden came to visit for the weekend. It was a quick trip, but it sure was fun! We made sure to drag Grandpa all over the hot Austin outdoors (Megan did most of the dragging.)
She quickly became best friends with Grandma and clung to her the whole trip (she especially liked the new pajamas Grandma brought, and wanted to wear the top right away.)We even went to visit historic Gruene and threw rocks in the Guadalupe river. Our two days together were a lot fun, and we can't wait to see them again. 

Megan's First Year

Here is the video Mike made a few months ago, for all those that haven't seen it yet.

Megan in the rain, just Megan in the rain

We have been in a drought here in Austin, but the other day we got a great storm. After having lived so close to the Rockies our whole life it is weird to hear how loud a thunderstorm can be in the midwest (or south-mid-west, I guess). Megan loved it! We were on our porch listening and Megan went to the one part of the porch that was getting wet. We decided to take her outside and let he play around. Unfortunately the battery on our camera ran out, but not before we got a few cute pictures.

Nursery!

Today Megan hit one of the most crucial milestones of a mormon baby, the 18 month nursery mark! We were so excited to be able to start attending our classes again. Mike might have been a little disappointed to no longer have an excuse to hang out in the halls, but he'll have to deal with it. We dropped Megan off after sacrament meeting, and as soon as she saw the kids and toys she ran off without a backward glance. I don't even think she knew that we left. We were told that she played wonderfully with the other kids, and she even colored us a picture (kind of). It's going to be easy to get used to this.

Our Little Climber

Megan has just recently learned how to climb. She tries to climb on everything. The other night I was cooking dinner and Megan wanted to help me, so I put her in the high chair next to me. As I got doing things she wanted down so I got her down. The next thing I knew I turned around and she was in her high chair again. I asked her how she got up and she showed me very proudly. She is getting so big. And needless to say we keep the tray on the high chair at all times now.

Barton Creek Greenbelt

The great thing about Austin is that there are a lot of preserves, parks and trails in the middle of the city. Once you find where these little gems are they become a great treasure. Our newest Austin gem is Barton Creek Greenbelt. We wanted something fun to do on Labor Day so we opened our Austin Frommers guide book, and found Barton Creek Greenbelt. It was great. You can go hiking, biking, and rock climbing if you have the gear. Megan loved it, she loves being outside. The only problem is she thinks she needs to walk right along with us and find her own path and special rocks. She loves to explore everything. But once we got her in her pack she liked being up high as long as we picked up rocks for her along the way, and let her drink out of the camel pack.