Deep in the Heart of Texas!

Since nothing exciting, unusual, or particularly interesting happened around here today, I decided this would be as good a time as any to post some of the pictures from our trip to Texas last month. After all, you all know I can't spend 3 weeks on the road without taking about a million pictures, and you know that I know you're just dying to see them! These are from the first full day we were in Austin. Jeremy had meetings at his offices next to the University of Texas all day, so the boys and I killed time by exploring the campus. It was a blast seeing the campus through the eyes of my children...after all, I did spend, ahem, a long period of my early adult life here!

The boys posing in front of the UT tower. I had my camera settings all wonky (accidentally, of course!) so some of these photos are really bright...


Sliding down the dividers between the granite stairs in front of the tower...you know, in all my years here, it NEVER occurred to me to try that. It looks like tons of fun, doesn't it?





In front of Littlefield Fountain...Jordan, of course, is giving us his best goofy smile for the camera!


This wasn't here when I was a student...and it's amazingly cool! It is some kind of art sculpture that you're supposed to walk through, feel, and "experience." It is made of long yellow rubber ropes hanging from a metal structure...4 poles inside the noodley things and a square frame above. My boys thought it was great for playing "George of the Jungle," and no, they didn't do a very good job watching out for the "trees." Two of them crashed into the metal support poles inside. OUCH!!











Josiah bundled up in the stroller...











When the boys had had enough of swinging through the rubber spaghetti, we headed over to see the dinosaur tracks next to the Texas Memorial Museum. In all my years at UT, I had never made it into this museum, although I walked by it almost daily when I was an art student...it's next to the Fine Arts building. Sadly, we wouldn't go in this time, either...it was 10 minutes to closing time when we got there. The boys enjoyed looking at the dinosaur tracks, though, and playing on these things:


The best I can figure is that they're replicas of dinosaur vertebrae, but even then they look way to big to me, even for a very large dinosaur. Anybody have any other ideas as to what these may be?


Here is a statue of a saber-toothed cat outside the entrance to the museum. The boys enjoyed "playing" with this guy...


Joey stuck his fingers in the cat's nose, and I joked with him "Ewww, you're going to get prehistoric boogers on your fingers!"


At which point he pulled out his fingers, showed them to me and replied, "No, Mommy, no boogers...see?"


Jonathan grabbing the cat's teeth...


I talked the boys into posing for me in a massive oak tree around the corner...





Then, of course, all who were able had to climb in it!


I think Jonathan must be part monkey!


I really enjoyed taking the boys all around my old stomping grounds. We've taken them to the campus before, for different events or just to wander around, but for some reason it seemed much more special now that we're so far removed from it in New York City!