our vacay // the last day.

they say all good things must come to an end... and so it has.  today was our last full day of our texas vacay & despite a kiddo who still isn't feeling 100%, we had a blast.  we spent most our day walking up & down south congress & stuffing our faces with good eats.  pizza, cupcakes, tacos & ice cream to be exact.  we spent the afternoon playing in pease park, checked out the night life on 6th avenue {and by "checked out" i mean we drove past it} & ended our day watching the bats come out from under the congress avenue bridge.  

i have to say, seeing a million+ bats fly out all together at dusk was a highlight of this trip for me.  and for all y'all {btw i can say y'all now, i've been to texas} who don't know what i'm talking about {i didn't a few days ago} here's a little background:  austin is home to the biggest bat colony in north america.  every night around dusk they all fly out from their home under this big bridge over the colorado river to go eat thousands of pounds of bugs & a huge crowd gathers nighty to see this.  and when i say huge crowd, i mean enough people to warrant vendors selling souvenirs like bat-hats & t-shirts & dudes out playing drums with 5 gallon buckets for tips.  it was an event.  and something i walked away from feeling like i had totally experienced something uniquely-austin. 

the last picture kinda shows the crowd & just a handful of the bats.  but for a better feel of the experience, watch the video.  {update: the video is having technical difficulties... will hopefully get it fixed & back up soon.}

so this trip has been a little different than i think sam & i had pictured in our heads.  the weather wasn't quite as hot as we had expected when we envisioned lots of time at splash pads & pools & we definitely didn't anticipate parker being sick for three of the days, knocking him almost completely out of commission.  but it has still been one of my favorite trips.  i just love our little family & getting to experience new places, new foods & new adventures with them.  the boys traveled like pros & adjusted to new beds & a weird routine like no big deal & i got to spend a week with my best friend exploring & being a team.  we kinda live to travel.  

so what's next for me in the coming weeks?  trying to make up for a complete lack of running for almost two weeks & a renewed commitment to clean eating.  because whoa.  and a crazy spring/summer work schedule which means posts may be few & far in between or just quick photo dumps.  but hopefully not disappearing completely.

and now it's one more day of plane hopping & then it's back to real life!  see y'all back in washington state!