austin nana

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Grandad's 80th!

This does not show everyone who came to Grandad's party, but I just love the way it shows us all getting ready to ask the blessing on our meal. Wow...how our family has grown in 35 years. Thanks to Pam for hosting ALL of us....We now have the 'adult table', the 'kids table' and the 'grandkids table'. Not too many times that we all get together anymore, so this was an extra special day! Click on the picture to get the whole group shown.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Buescher State Park and Smithville

Do you remember Hope Floats starring Sandra Bullock? It was set in Smithville, TX which is only about an hour from Austin. We were out camping a couple of weekends ago at Buescher State Park and drove into Smithville (next door almost) to eat dinner and then breakfast on Sunday.

We noticed Main Street was blocked off and had all these old cars and a bunch of 'models' and photographers practicing their "skill sets". It was fun to walk around and watch...plus it is just a cute little old Texas town decorated for fall.

We spent Friday and Saturday nights in the R-Pod over at the park. So far, my favorite. 5 stars for easy access from Austin, clean restrooms, miles of hiking AND paved cycling roads, NOT affected by the Bastrop Wildfires a few years ago.

We tried out hiking all day in the rain. It was...uhh...WET. And MUDDY. What can I say. We did it. We are trying to convince ourselves that we can hike part of the Colorado Trail next summer (about 100 miles out of 485?) The next big hurdle is to see if Sue can actually sleep in tent on the ground. Last time I did that was 10 years ago and I think I said very loudly, "Never again!"

William is very persuasive, though.

I keep seeing this plant all over our area this year. Have no idea what it is.

Friday, September 26, 2014

restraining myself

Have you ever noticed how happy and sad run along parallel tracks? Maybe it's to balance things out? It's been a strange few weeks since we returned from Durango, but we really are glad to be home and looking forward to this season of fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Told Wm this afternoon I was actually 'restraining' my decorating for fall...He did not exactly agree, but since I did not use thousands of fake berries and fall leaf branches and garlands and gobs of pumpkins and candles sitting in the middle of candy corn or better yet REAL corn kernals...I call this restrained. I'm not super happy with the wreath. I love my red door, but fall colors seem to really fade into it. BUT I already had the wreath, so that was a win. I really thought about it last night and realized that most of all I enjoy the scents and textures of fall, so that is the direction I headed.