Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

You know we've been busy when we skip a week writing. Last week we went to Austin to celebrate my grandpa's birthday and to go to his baptism. It was a good visit and we're glad we were able to be there. We decided to make it a decent length trip, too, since we aren't expecting to want to travel this year for Christmas.

But before that, we spent time preparing for the trip. Prep time didn't take as much effort as we normally need for a Christmas visit. Packing was faster and more condensed. Plus, we had a direct flight this time (yay!) so we didn't need as many things for Paela to survive the traveling, either. There were a couple of complications to spice things up before the trip though. 

Wayne got sick the Wednesday before we left. So very sick. We're pretty sure it was something he ate. Which none of the rest of us ate, thankfully. I took the day off to take care of Paela (and Wayne). This meant I got to take Paela to story time at the library, which was fun! Luckily, Wayne felt pretty much normal by the end of the day, so he was able to make it to a job interview the next day, which went well. It looks like Wayne will be teaching a digital media course for a community college about 40 minutes from us this fall. And I had a check-up at the doctor's office Friday before we left.

We left on a Saturday, waking Paela up only an hour shy of her normal wake-up time. She was rendered speechless by the cab ride to the airport. And watching the planes and carts and things out the window at the airport was about the most exciting thing she could think of. And then we actually got on the plane, and that was the most exciting thing ever. (Paela's so eh-cited! Fly high! Aiwpwane goes fast! Going to gwa-ma's house!) The excitement waned by the third hour of the flight, but then we marched up and down the aisles several times and all was good.

We met up with family and headed to the restaurant to surprise my Grandpa for lunch. And he was surprised. We had a good time, though Paela ate only beans and ice. Little did we know that the beans was more than she would eat any other time we took her to a restaurant all week. We need to start asking for water with no ice at restaurants so she might eat something else once in a while!

The next day was Grandpa's baptism. What a turn-out there was! And Grandma made sure to include as many of the family on the program as she could. Paela watched carefully while her Opa went "swimming". 

Monday we all headed to my sister Amy's apartment to go swimming in the coolest apartment swimming pool ever. Complete with little waterfall down the steps from the wading pool to the big pool. Paela was in heaven. So was Wayne. I decided I should have invested in sunglasses because my eyes were watering too much to stay in the pool. (did we mention Austin had highs in the 105 range all week?) There was also a little party for our nephew Thomas's second birthday. Paela was quite excited to see Thomas again! She loved playing with all her cousins, though Rowan was sometimes called Davin and Davin was sometimes called Tanner (after her cousin on the Madsen side). Of course, sometimes she mixes up her own parents...so no harm done.

I don't remember Tuesday that well. I know we did Zilker park, but other than being really hot I'm not sure what else. Wednesday was Schlitterbahn! Yay! Paela loved all the water and "swimming". She and I went on a few smaller slides (which she wanted to ride again and again), while Wayne hit some of the bigger slides with my brother Chris and my dad and mom. We loved the lazy river and the wave pool. It was a fun day. Exhausting, but fun. 

Thursday we hit a few local art museums. Paela opted to stay at home with her grandparents and just play. But we were able to see a surprisingly nice museum on UT campus. 

Friday we found a local pool since Paela was sad to say good-bye to her cousins (free! even better!). Too bad we didn't think to try that earlier in the week! The kiddie pool was nice and big, with long steps to play on. Some local Austinites let Paela share toys. Later that day we visited with my friends from growing up -- Tamara and America -- and later still we visited Paela's Oma and Opa (my grandparents). Much later we visited with my college buddy Elizabeth. So many people to fit in before we had to go!

And yesterday we came home again. Paela was kind of confused why we made a big deal about saying good-bye to her grandparents and a bit sad to say good-bye to the wagon we discovered that morning, but she was excited at the prospect of riding the airplane again. Naps on the airplane are hard, for sure, but eventually she managed. Which we were both glad of. And we were all happy to see Star Cat again! Star, of course, was happy to see us. No snubbing from the Star Cat, that's for sure. And lucky for Star, this means she'll have us all of December, too.