Back to our Austin Trip-Day One

As we planned we had a slow morning with a late breakfast:

Have you ever seen a Utah waffle or Washington or
Oregon or any other state!
 

Only in Texas!

 

We went swimming where my dad and Karla met up with us.  They were staying at a nearby hotel.  Karla headed back to their hotel for a nap and we headed off to meet some of our family at the newly opened "Thinkery", a children's museum with lots of fun things to do.

 

 

The Thinkery

The walkway from the parking lot
Look at those puffy clouds

Look what was waiting out front-
pigs!  It was a sweet reminder of my mom
who loved pigs. She would have loved
to be with us during a weekend of Gibersons.

 The first activity after you pass the museum store was a photo corner.  You have your picture taken and then it is put up on the photo wall where everyone could see it.

 There is Jena's cute face.

 Look what else was on the photo wall---some BYU fans must be in the building somewhere.  It wasn't us who did this in Longhorn country.

 But it gave us the idea so we started making "Y" wherever we could:

With Yarn on the steel wall



 With paint on the glass painting wall:

No white or blue paint was left so we had to use yellow.

 Jena built a little airplane and is getting ready to shoot it into the targets.

Airplane area

 When we entered the Light area, we found another "Y" in the extra large lite bright area.

Even Lance (shown) and Gary (not shown) got into playing with the exhibits.  Here they are making a trail for balls to roll down.

We had to go get Lance and Gary to see all of the fun things in the Light area.  Here is Jena hula hooping in front of lots of different colors of lights which glowed behind her.

 Lance felt bad that all of the Longhorn fans must have been at work and couldn't defend themselves against the onslaught of BYU fans.  He added a little Longhorn underneath the Y in the Lite Bright area.

 The water room---YOU WILL GET WET and we did!

Valerie at the water pipe organ

Scott with his daughter, Ashley and her daughter, Ari

Gweniever , my niece Sierra's daughter

 Fun story about Sierra, Gary hasn't seen her since 2006 when we had a reunion in Washington, DC. He wasn't with us when she joined us with her daughter at the museum so didn't realize she was connected with us.  He just thought she was there at the museum.  Until she sat down right in between my dad and Gary on a bench.  He felt a bit awkward but he could tell she felt totally comfortable.  He figured it out when she told her daughter that they were waiting for Aunt Judy.

Ari

 It was in the water room that we caught up with the other BYU fans.

Valerie and Jena

Ashley and Ari

Best smiles of the day as she peeked out from the top.

Funny bathroom door
The women's door had lips.

As we were leaving I saw this flying pig--
another sweet reminder of my mom.

 I had told my brother that I wanted some true Texas BBQ with coleslaw and this is where we went.  Perfect---the food was finger licking great and you felt like you were really in Texas.  I would highly recommend it if you are ever in Austin.

 

Now for the first BIG football game!