day trippin, Ausin!

Austin, is a little over an hour drive from Fort Hood, and Brittany invited me to come with her and Dave for the day. They had originally planned on taking the kids to the dinosaur museum, and the GPS was taking us a really weird way. I felt like we went the super long way! Instead of going to the dinosoar museum, we went parked downtown and started walking. After a few minutes of indecisive talking, we were drawn to the capital building. It was interesting, but not so much for two one year olds. There was a guy sitting in the middle of the building, yelling some verses from the bible. I'm not exactly sure what he was saying though, becuase there was so many other things going on. After walking around the capital building, we went outside to brave the heat again. We walked and mingled into some interesting shops. We found the Austin visitor's center, everywhere we looked, we saw Texas Longhorns! They even had ice trays and muffin pans in the shape of Longhorns! The person at the information desk, encouraged us to go to the kids museum of Austin. We walked there, and let the kids run wild for a while! Rea was so happy to be out of her stroller and carseat. She and Mason were automatically drawn to the slide. They went a couple of times, but I took Rea to see something else, and Mason was so entertained by the slide, no matter where Brittany and Dave took him, he ran back to the slide. There were lots of interesting things for the kids to play with, including a mock train station, grocery store, and kitchen. There were lots of activities that used golf balls, and plenty of other toys for tots. After the museum, we had to eat. The guy at the information desk had reccomended going to Annie's. He said it would be good "for all of us". This place was not kid friendly, I was surprised that they had high chairs! They didn't have any kind of kid food, but I ordered Rea mashed potatos. They were amazing! It reminded me of the mashed potatos that my mom makes. I had a cesar salad with grilled salmon, and it was amazing as well. After eating, we headed back to our cars and started the drive back home. I went home, to change and now I am at Chrissy's, watching Teen Mom and relaxing. Rea is asleep. It's nice.

Dear Deployment,
I would have loved to have Zach here today. It was amazing hanging out with Brittany and her family, but it was a little sad at the same time, because Brittany had her husband, and more importantly, Mason had his daddy. Less than a week though, and my sisters will be here!! I am excited to see them and have some help with Rea. When we are through with you, Zach and I will be able to do family things again. I look forward to that, and I look forward to having my husband back. Love, Elsa...