Where everything is bigger and better...

(Clark's Comments in Lime Green)  Spring break and Texas were a good combination this year.  We had superb weather and thoroughly enjoyed our time visiting close friends.  

We started off in San Marcos where we spent time with Hil and C.  We enjoyed seeing the Texas State campus and the town of Lockhart and eating Texas BBQ as noted in the previous post.  Hil and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking with Cass.  Oh it was fun to pretend we are still in college and can stay up that late and still function the next day...  The next day after church we enjoyed a leisurely stroll along the San Marcos river.  It was a busy place and there were plenty of people worthy of "people watching."  

The San Marcos river

We sure love spending time with good friends. I especially love not being able to open my eyes whenever the sun is out.  I get my sensitive eyes from my mom.  thanks, Mom. 

Sunday night we met up with Dave and Jess.  It had honestly been years since the four of us got to spend quality time together.  We laughed a lot, enjoyed lots of Texas sites, watched some great youtube clips and Hulu episodes.  We even had  an entertaining time watching the subpar movie 2012 (love you jess!).  And as always, we scheduled our time in Austin around all the restaurants we needed to visit.  

We started out with these delightful treats.

There is always time for a quick song or two on Rockband while stopping in at the local Best Buy.  I think we look awesome in this photo.  This would be a perfect picture in a local newspaper.  I guess the story would be on adults doing childish things.  And it would have a really clever headline like "These Adults are Just 'Kidding' Around"  I miss high school journalism when I was allowed to come up with such clever headlines. 

Then is was off to the botanical gardens.  There was a nice view of downtown and there were plenty of plant-filled paths to enjoy.

My favorite flowers at the gardens.  I bought a packet of seeds, so we'll see if I can get some of these growing on my back patio.

It had been a couple of hours since donuts so obviously it was time to eat again.  

We spent some time relaxing and enjoying this gorgeous view in Covert Park on Mount Bonnell.  Guess who took these professional looking photos.  It is the guy not pictured.  He does strong work with the photo machine.

Next we headed to downtown Austin and spent some time at the state capitol building.

We got a kick of how "texas" everything was, from the door hinges to the lights that spelled out texas with the bulbs.  There is no end to Texas pride!

After, we enjoyed a relaxing hour on the capitol grounds.  We played the game Malarky which we'd picked up at the discount bookstore we'd visited earlier.  It's a game where you have to convincingly lie and it turns out that I am pretty bad at it.  I usually started laughing before I could get my full sentence out.  I think it's sweet that Amy can't keep a straight face when she is making up a lie.  She's so innocent.  Now I know how to get the truth out of her whenever I need it.  Just make eye contact.  She won't be able to keep a straight face when she says, "Clark, I only spent $200 at the Banana Republic Outlet."  This lie will make more sense later.

This picture cracks me up because it looks like Clark has no body.  He'll probably be mad at me for posting it, but we all deserve a little chuckle now and then.  I'm not mad.  It doesn't look like I am missing my body.  It looks like Amy has an unnatural growth on her arm that looks like my head.  The joke's on you Amy.  You look like you have a big growth on your arm.

Jess is a talented up-and-coming photographer and snapped these fun shots.

Another photo that cracks me up and will probably make my husband mad.  I get to see these faces almost every day!  To my credit, I don't remember pulling this face ever.  i don't know if I did.  Jess is also a talented photoshopper, so this may all be a late April fools day joke.  Why would I pull that face?

Ahh, there is my sweet, handsome husband.  It was really nice of Jess to take this photo of me.  It was not that nice when she asked, "Do you want me to photoshop some hair on there for you?" 

The bats weren't in full force yet, but it was still fun and Clark got a little taste of what the real bat experience is like.

We ate dinner at the Clay Pit, a delicious indian restaurant.  Mmmmm.  It really was delicious.

The next morning Clark and Dave did a little recording at the studio where Dave works.  Then we were off to Waco, Texas where we ate tasty Tex-Mex and visited in the Dr. Pepper Museum.

Can you tell that Clark was excited to be at the Dr. Pepper Museum?  He was really excited.  Whoa, whoa, whoa.  Amy said, "Clark, go in front of the museum and jump in the air."  I didn't realize she would use this against me to show people how much I love carbonated beverages.  This is definitely a conspiracy.  I was excited, but in a totally normal way. (Not pictured above).

One of Dr. Pepper's old campaigns was based on the fact that blood sugars of human beings drop at 10:30, 2:30 and 4:30 and that it would be healthy to drink 3 Dr Peppers at 10, 2, and 4 o clock.  "Drink a bite to eat at 10,2, and 4"was their motto.  I wonder what falacies about food and drinks exist today that we will all laugh about one day?

Fountain-made Dr. Pepper and Dr. Pepper floats.  Delicious.

That evening we all drove back to San Marcos where we shopped a little at the outlets and then all went to dinner at a fun restaurante in the little town of Gruene (pronounced 'green'--Texans have a few pronunciation issues).

You can't tell from this picture but the restaurant is right along the river.  Very fun and tasty.

We stayed the night with Hil and C again and the next morning went back to the outlets.  These outlets are AMAZING and HUGE.  I only went to maybe 10 of the 250 stores and even then I'm probably going to have to sell my first born child as payment for my shopping. I guess that Amy forgot I have a job and that promising your first born child is only appropriate when a little man saves your life by turning straw into gold.  And even then, it's probably not a good idea.  Let's just say I hit a new record for spending done in a single shopping trip.  The old record was about $400.  Amy spent more than that at Banana Republic alone.  I bought 5 items for about $70.  Amy purchased, wait for it...25 ITEMS at BR!  Her shopping endurance is olympic sized.  The girl can try on clothes with the best of them. 

This map is only HALF of the stores.  Did I mention there are TWO Banana Republics?

I have to admit it was fun. 

We spent our last night in San Antonio with Linds and Kevin.  It was fun to see her little sister Kate who was in town and we were especially excited to meet baby Cooper.  It was so neat to see Lind's house and all the remodeling they've done.  She was so sweet to entertain us despite not feeling well.  And thanks to Kevin for waking up early to give us a ride to the airport.

 

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends.  It was such a fun trip.

It's also been nice to have a few days of spring break at home.  My house needed a good cleaning and apparently it was time to clean out my closet to make space for new stuff.  :)  I also got to engross myself in these intense and addicting books, which I thoroughly enjoyed:  They are good. I also highly recommend them.  Especially if you are into violent teenage books. 

Conference and Easter have been wonderful and relaxing.  I'm so not looking forward to going back to school tomorrow.  Sniff, sniff.  I'm guessing the sniff, sniff is because she is crying. Not because she is sick or playing with scratch and sniff stickers.