Our little Bookworm

This is a picture that we have become accustomed to at our place. Claire is always handing us books to read. It's great. She actually listens and doesn't take the book away to put in her mouth anymore. She has finally learned that books are not for eating. But after the fourth or fifth time of reading the same book it gets old. I think it is time to hit the library for some new material.
EZ Brown was visiting and Daddy takes a turn reading them a story.

Aren't they cute together? They did pretty well together this day. Usually they are trying to compete for toys and beating each other up. Ah, young love...

"swimming swimming"

Claire went swimming with Grandma and Grandpa the other day. She loves the water and her grandparents, so of course she was having a blast.
with grandma...

She had fun being passed back and forth in the water. It was almost like swimming.

Last night we went to downtown Austin to try to watch the bats take flight at Congress Ave Bridge. It was getting too late so we had to leave. We saw about 20 or so bats, but apparently there are 3/4 million bats that live in this bridge to help control the city's pest population. There were people lined all up and down the bridge at dusk to watch. We'll have to go back in the fall when the sunsets earlier and get some pictures.

We took Grandma and Grandpa to the airport today. It was sad, but we hope they will be back to visit soon. We really enjoyed their visit. It makes us appreciate what he had back in Michigan.

Children's Day

Wednesday was Children's Day in Downtown Austin. The Austin Symphony hosts a concert, storytelling, and other activites for kids. Grandma and Grandpa Adams and I really enjoyed ourselves, but Claire was a bit straightfaced the whole time. A clown playing with some children scared her a bit and I don't think she recovered until after we left the scene. She wa happy when later she got a balloon and some bites of free ice cream. Great fun for only fifty cents. We saw a guy named Jon Emery. He played some pretty cool songs. One was about a hill-Billy-goat who ate his guitar. Another one about brushing your teeth. They were funny. Check out his website: jonemery.com

Wildflowers

Tuesday was Aaron's day off and we visited the Lady Bird Wildflower center. Austin is very green due to all the rain. Lady Bird Johnson pasted away a day later. She really loved wildflowers and founded this place to preserve an area for them. There are a lot of trails and gardens featuring cacti and a variety of wildflowers. Here we are on the overlook tower.

Here we are before our hike.

Aaron demonstrates his muscular physique by pushing Claire up some arduous terrain on our hike.

Claire with Grandpa after her nice nap (during our hike).

Here we are posed with some butterflies. You can see them on the flowers if you look closely.

After a long morning it's time to veg in front of some Baby Einstein.

Sunday Stroll

Grandma and Grandpa Adams are visiting from Michigan. Claire has been enjoying their visit. She loves the extra attention. Sunday night we decided to take everyone for a walk in North Austin. There are a lot of walking/running trails nearby so we decided to go exploring. I am so glad that we have had below average temperatures for the past two weeks. It is hot enough as it is! Grandma Adams has to hold her hair off of her neck to keep it from sticking.

Rainy days and pig tails

Staying at home with Claire has been such a treat. I am so glad that Aaron was able to find work that would allow me to be able to stay home to care for our daughter. She is so fun and is learning so much.
It's been raining a lot here. Everyday we seem to have a storm. We live on a big hill so fortunately the floods haven't affected us, except our fourth of July was a little boring. We had planned to go to a parade, but it was rained out, fireworks too (the park was flooded). We enjoyed staying in and spending some time as a family. Aaron has been working nights and Sundays for the past two weeks. But that will be over tomorrow. I must admit that I have been feeling somewhat like a single parent. We will be glad to have him back on a regular schedule soon.