Birthday Gifts!

Here are the gifts I received from my wonderful family!  Planters, hanging baskets of plants, Toms, and a peacock for the yard.

My sister sent me a book on Norway.  That is where we will go to celebrate my 50th birthday next year...sisters trip #2.

I also received many other gifts, cards and birthday wishes from friends.  It was a great day!

It's My Birthday!

Today is my birthday!  Yes I know...I am not 7 and so I should not be so excited but I love birthdays, mine and other peoples.  I am 49 today...can you believe it?  I can't!  The first part of my birthday celebration was spent in Port Aransas at the beach and enjoying Sandfest  this past weekend.  I LOVE the beach!  Today I slept in a bit and went in to work for a half day.  Those are my kinda work hours.  Nothing much on my to-do list today...good thing since I spent a lot of time receiving "happy birthday" wishes from my colleagues.  Lauren brought lunch and ate with me.  Now I'm home alone in a quiet house with the animals.  I've watered all the plants and had a snack as I wait for the family to get home from work.  Then we'll go to dinner (Baker Street Pub), have dessert and open gifts.  This year I was told not to create a birthday wish list so we'll see what they decide to get for me.  I am sure it will be exactly what I want.  I'll post pictures later.

Sandfest 2012

This past weekend Lester, Lauren and I went to Port Aransas for their annual Sandfest.  We stayed in the yellow house a block from the beach...same place we stayed at spring break. This is the third year we have come to Sandfest....we missed last year because of my broken leg so I was really excited to be going again. It was windy and warm on Saturday and beautiful on Sunday.  After checking out the vendors and eating lunch on Saturday, we decided to enjoy the sun and relaxed out on the beach for several hours.  The master sculptors worked on their creations from 9-5 on Friday.  Although I heard they had quite a bit of rain Friday and had to stop for awhile.   They continued their work on Saturday from 9-5 and on Sunday from 7-1.  After 1:00, the judging began.  We left about 1 and headed for home so don't know the winners yet.  But as I show you the pictures, I'll point out my favorites in the single and the duo competition.  There is also an amateur competition and some of those people are really good. Of course Saturday, we did a little shopping both with the vendors on the beach and a few places in town.  I was looking for a beach themed clock for outside by the pool but couldn't find one.  Although I did find a few other things. Saturday night we ate at my favorite place in Port A...Moby Dicks and of course I had my favorite thing there....peel and eat shrimp.  YUM!  Here are pictures of the creations....some are not finished because they still had about 2 hours to go.  Enjoy!  We had a great time!  I love Sandfest!

All the master sculptors worked together Monday-Thursday to create this entrance piece.  All the other sides have names of sponsors.

Here are pictures of the master sculptor creations:

This one was called Buffalo Soldier.  Look at the detail.

 This was like a pinball chute...you can kinda see the ball there in the middle.

 This was called creatures of the sea.

 This was so cute.  There is a cowboy in front of the horse.  The horse is looking over the cowboy's shoulder at the tv that is playing "Mr. Ed."

This is my favorite single master...this cowgirl was huge and very detailed.

 This was titled "Kindle Fire" but all he had done was the fire part at this point.

 This is the first of the duo competition.

 This was a mechanical dragon.

 This man towered above everything around it.  It was higher than the vendor tents.  It was called "The Fifth Element."

Look at the teeth on this t-rex.

This is my favorite of the duo competition and maybe overall.  This couple was from the Netherlands.  This was called "Where Mermaids Come From."

 Look at the elephant's trunk carefully...see the bodies inside?

 See the bodies? See the feet just hanging out of the trunk?

 Out comes a mermaid....

It was amazing!

We took Luna with us again and there we tons of people for her to see and lots of other dogs around.  Between all the excitement of the people, dogs, food, heat, etc....she was exhausted and when Lauren picked her up to carry her for a while, she basically just collapsed in Lauren's arms.

Is there such a thing as sensory overload for a puppy?  :)
I love Sandfest and was so glad it fell on the weekend near my birthday. I think everyone needs to see it at least once.  Next year it is scheduled for the weekend of April 26-28.  Book a place to stay early though.

Green Thumbs

Well Lauren and I have decided to try growing a few things around here.  I guess we'll see if either of us has a green thumb.  We planted some bushes and flowers several weeks ago and all are still alive.

We also decided to try the Topsy Turvy tomato grower. Look at it! There are blossoms on it!

And we are trying the strawberry grower.  There is one strawberry already growing!

After visiting the Botanical Gardens, we planted some wildflower seeds.  Some of them are sprouting!

I'll keep you updated on their growth and whether or not we get some fresh tomatoes and strawberries.  Yum!

Austin Adventures Day 2

This weekend we decided to try out the trails near the house.  We began with the trail that went around Dick Nichols Park.  Then we went across the street to try the Western Oaks Hike and Bike Trail.

It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to walk both trails by the time we got back to our car.  We had a lot of fun along the way.  Luna made us laugh several times.  When we arrived back at the car, the temperature had cooled, the wind had picked up and it looked as if it might start raining at any moment.  I think we wore the poor little puppy out.  She slept on the couch with Lauren most of the rest of the afternoon.

Later that evening Lauren and I were headed to Bass Hall to see Mary Poppins the Musical.  But first Lester was taking his 2 girls to dinner.  We decided to try a new restaurant, Cannoli Joe's.  It is set up as a little Italian village and is buffet style.  My favorite was the bruschetta and the apple crisp. 

Lester dropped us off at Bass hall.  The show was amazing!  I had seen it in NYC and was glad to see it again.  I think Lauren loved it.  It is one of our favorite musicals.  Afterward we had to get souveniers.  Lauren got a magnet and a bag.   I got an umbrella.  Then we had our picture taken with Bert and Mary.

Austin Adventures Day 1

Monday, April 9, was our first day of our Austin Adventures.  We began the day with a walk (well, run for Lester) around Town Lake.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful view.  Along the way we saw a mother duck and her babies swimming, the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue and a giant shovel reminding people to scoop their poop in the off leash area.  After lunch we went to the Austin Zoo and Sanctuary.  Honestly I wasn't expecting much.  For those of you who don't know, it is not your typical zoo.  It is a rescue zoo.  I wasn't expecting to see many people but there were actually quite a few families out for the day.  I also was not expecting to see many interesting animals.  I guess I hadn't set my sights very high.  :(  However, I was very surprised!  We saw lots and lots of unique and "zoo-type" animals.  I've included many pictures here for your pleasure.  Almost all the animals had sad stories about how the had been rescued from extreme conditions or from owners who had tired of them.  It was actually a little sad to think that people could treat animals so poorly.  My favorite thing was the peacock who was showing his feathers and was "posing" for pictures.  Of course Lauren and Lester had to make jokes the he was "peacocking"...a throwback to the movie "17 Again."  We had a great visit to the Austin Zoo and Sanctuary.  After dropping Lester off at home, Lauren and I went to visit the Botanical Gardens.  Lester refused to go, saying there was probably nothing he could think of that would be worse than going to the Botanical Gardens.  I think there are probably a lot of things worse but that's ok...we went anyway. There were many beautiful plants and flowers but there were also a lot of areas in need of some care.  Look at the amazing butterfly pictures I got.  A great first day of our Austin Adventures!

Here are pictures from the Botanical Garden.