A Blessed Life

So, I don’t particularly like camping. Why go sleep on the ground when you can sleep in a bed? Bryan has never been camping and he has no desire to EVER go camping. So, Tawni made it her mission to make sure my children get at least 1 camping experience  in their lifetime!

Our first day was mostly a travel day. We packed up the car then had lunch with Bryan before we drove over to Garner State Park. Once we got there we all pitched in (some more than others) and set up camp! I felt like I was in an alternate universe when Tawni made dinner! No one ever cooks for me so it was a real treat!!!  We were there as her guests and she treated us like royalty!

The next day we charted out our hiking course and chose a “moderate” hike. I decided to wear my weight vest even thought Tawni thought it looked like a bomb vest! Turns out we started on a moderate hike and ended up on a “hard” hike on our way down.

We found a few caves along the way but Tawni and the kids didn’t venture too far into the caves since most of them were inhabited by spiders!

After our hike we had lunch and cooled down in the Rio Frio! For it being over 90 the water was VERY Frio!

Tawni came to take the kids and I camping and low and behold both kids got an ear infection days before we were supposed to leave. So, we hung low for a few days and and took a 1 day excursion to Pedernales State Park before our big camping adventure.
*All children had recovered when we took this day trip!

We had so much fun exploring, climbing and throwing rocks into the water!

It’s hard to sum up Eden in just a few words. She is kind, caring, loving, sassy, compassionate, silly, courageous, funky, talkative, crazy, honest, spunky, full of energy and just an all around great kid! She hates sleeping and always wants to be with her family! She is a kind and loyal friend and is usually willing to help out.

Eden requests sushi every year for her birthday dinner! I love that she will try anything once even if it scares her. Having a unicorn party for her this year was a no brainer because she is colorful and magical just like unicorns! She’s definitely rare!

I feel honored and blessed that God choose me to raise this amazing young girl!

Dance Machine

Fearless Eden

Bryan has been very blessed with his work perks! They have a cafeteria for employees and their guests. It’s not a  typical cafeteria; it’s a filet mignon and chilean sea bass type of cafeteria. They have a different theme every day for the regular cafeteria food; plus a salad bar with composed salads plus a section where you can make your own salad. They also have what they call “small plates” where they make one fish, one meat and one vegetarian option. These plates aren’t mass produced but made in small quantities similar to how a restaurant would make them. I cannot deny that I’m jealous when Bryan comes home and says he had fillet mignon with creamy mashed potatoes and asparagus for lunch or Mahi Mahi with mango salsa.

Anyways, every now and then (read once a week during the summer) we go and have lunch with him. After we eat the kids visit the gelato stand and Bryan and I get coffee from the cafe or whatever kombucha they have on tap for the day. Then the kids play video games while we talk about Bryan’s day or  our plans for the rest of the week. I think he has a pretty good gig! Then again, so do I since I can nap whenever I want. 😉

Through someone at Bryan’s work we received 4 free tickets to the basketball game at the HEB center. Honestly, I have no idea who was playing or how points were obtained but we still had fun!

Goodbyes are always SO hard! They are even harder when you’re saying goodbye and have no idea when you will be visiting again! Bryan said we will try and come to Australia every 2 years. So far, our track record is every 4 years.

I’m laughing because as I was finishing up the last of our Australia posts I received an email advertising flights from Texas to Australia for $700+! This is the lowest I’ve EVER seen! Maybe it will be in the cards for us to go sooner than 12 months. Only time will tell. The tickets haven’t been booked but I’m pretty determined!

Saturday was my birthday so of course we started the morning off at the beach!

Then we had a fantastic lunch with some friends and finished off the day with with pavlova and sparklers! The only thing that would have made the day bettie was if all my family and friends were there to enjoy the day with me! But . . . I have to admit that the days was as near perfect and I could expect!

Our last Friday in Australia we decided to take a ferry to the CBD (downtown). NO mater how many times I’ve been to Sydney and been on the waterfront it NEVER gets old! It’s definitely in the top 3 of my most favorite cities in the world!

While we were waiting for the ferry to arrive we played at the park. Unfortunately, the ticket machine at the dock wasn’t working and the fines are STEEP for riding without a ticket. Fortunately, one of the boat captains let us ride for free!

Once we got to the CBD we had coffee and a little snack with a view. I could have sat there forever watched the boats go in and out. Of course we took some photos with the beautiful Sydney harbor bridge in the background!

We tried to go swimming or snorkeling every day we were in Sydney. Some days the weather wasn’t cooperating. Zeph and I went out to check the conditions at all our favorite spots. We decided to send videos back to everyone at the house with the conditions from all the beaches.

 
Bondi Beach

Clovelly

Wherever we are, as long as were together, we’re having fun!
I still haven’t decided who Eden takes after. 😉
    

What is it about Yum Cha that makes you want to eat SO much while you’re there? Is it the small little dumplings that deceive you??? I’m not sure but we ate at the best yum cha place in Sydney and it was SO yummy and SO filling! Ezekiel isn’t about the yum cha life so he was perfectly happy grubbing on his plate of noodles!

After lunch we roamed the powerhouse museum. There were several floors filled with awesome exhibits! I was excited to see the information about the periodic table since we just finished studying elements before we left for Australia. They also had a huge space exhibit that was pretty neat. None of us enjoyed the zero gravity exhibit; it’s making me sick just thinking about it. However, we learned a tone of other cool information aside form the vomit inducing zero gravity exhibit. Did you know that astronauts have to workout at least 2 hours a day just to maintain the muscles in their body while they are in space? That’s wild!