I Fly, You Fly, We All Fly at iFly!

A couple of weeks ago, Linda called and told me to keep a Thursday afternoon open because she wanted to take all the kids to do something special. So we met up at iFly, the new indoor skydiving place! It turns out she ordered the family pack which was good for 5 people, so we had one spot open. Linda wasn't that interested and Rachel decided to hold off and wait for Mia or Riley's birthday. By default, I got to go with the kids! Yay! We went in for our briefing, suited up in our flight suits and went in to get our FLY on!

 Boy were we a goofy lookin' crew! ;)

Here we are eagerly anticipating our flight!

Riley went first, followed by Mr. Ian. Sadly, I have no pics of Mia or Riley flying, those are on Rachel's camera! I think Ian and Riley discovered that it wasn't as easy as it looked!

What do you know? Piglets really DO fly!

I didn't do too bad. It was definitely hard to keep form and that is some SERIOUS air in that tube!

On our second flight, our instructor, Aaron, took us way up high to really get the freefall feeling. It was definitely a rush!

Ainsley was a little scared, but Aaron promised to go slow. He kept his promise and she did great!

I tell ya, it was not at all a bad way to spend a hot, Texas afternoon! Thanks Nana for letting me and the kids do something wild and crazy! It was a blast! Unfortunately, they are now hooked and beg for it every time we drive by!

And so we sell a house and begin an adventure!

So obviously, we sold our house. The not so perfect part of our move was the fact that there was going to be a month in between signing over the first house and signing for our new one. Brady still had to work and there was no way Linda and Woody would have been able to put up with all 4 of us and 2 dogs for 4-6 weeks. And because we homeschool, I was able to put all of our stuff into storage, then I pack up my kids and my dogs and hit the road for a month-long adventure in New Mexico while Brady stayed with his folks and maintained gainful employment and signed for our new home! Brilliant!

The day we signed was a fiasco! I spent the morning packing up last minute things like a mad-woman, trying to make sure Brady had everything he needed for his extended stay with the folks and the kids and the dogs and I had everything we needed to survive a month in New Mexico. We had pain-in-the-ass buyers throwing a fit about a hole in the pressboard under the sink and threatening not to sign and my whole world was falling apart. Finally, with a little firmness, our agent was finally able to get them to understand that fixing the pressboard was a cheap, cosmetic fix and if they had a beef about it, they should have brought it up in the negotiations. So they finally decided they would sign. AND my life was back on track as planned!

As soon as I signed the papers, Brady drove me back to the folk's house and we said our good-bye's and I piled kids and pipsqueak dogs into the Hyundai and down the road we went! I'm kind of bummed, because I swear I had a picture of my little SUV with the cargo bag on top! Oh well. Anyway, we hopped on the highway and headed out of town bound for Sonora, TX, trying like the devil to beat rush hour traffic. Now why, you ask, would anyone ever feel the need to go to Sonora, TX? Well for the most part, you really shouldn't, there just isn't much there. However, the Caverns of Sonora are there and for the last 10 years, every time I have driven down I-10 on my way to NM, I have seen the signs and always swore I would stop, but we never go through at a time that would work. So this time, I made it work. I booked us a room at the Best Western for the night and we got up bright and early and headed to the caverns the next morning and boy was it ever worth the visit!

This cave is known for its abundance of helictites, which are formations that grow in many directions, not just up or down. It is also known for being covered in "cave popcorn" which is usually formed by dripping or splashing water. You will get to see some of the samples in the photos that follow! And by all means, if you'd like a closer look, CLICK on those photos!

Example of cave popcorn

A little underground pond

This one made me think of melted candle wax!

Example of helictites, notice how they grow in every direction?

The most famous of these formations was the butterfly. You will have to google an image of the Sonora Cavern Butterfly if you want to see it in tact. In 2006, someone vandalized the formation and cracked one of the wings off doing irreparable damage. This is what is looks like now, still beautiful, but nothing compared to how amazing it was when it was intact.

I think this one was called the Bottle Brush, but it looked kind of like a toilet scrubber to me!

This is the first time I saw "soda straws" that were over 3 ft. long! SO COOL!

And last but not least, this pic just made me think of the deepest, darkest depths of the world. It's almost a little scary!

So although I could live the rest of my life without ever going to Sonora, TX again, the caverns were truly tremendous and well-worth the effort! Not too bad for the first day of our Big Ol' Adventure!

Gardens and Geisel

A couple of months ago I took the kids down to the Zilker Botanical Garden to enjoy all of the blooming flowers and the gorgeous weather.  The roses were in full bloom and just stunning!

Needless to say, I took full advantage of the photo opportunities!  I didn't get many pics of the kids because they were running around, smelling the flowers and playing hide-n-seek throughout the gardens.  I did manage to catch a quick shot of the little girl while she was perched on one of her favorite spots.

I couldn't resist a couple of shots of the gazebo.

Once we had our fill of roses, we headed over to the Japanese portion of the gardens.  All was going SO well.  One minute we had this going on...

The next minute I had a boy up to his neck in the pond!  He has traversed these stones about 100 times, but this was not his lucky day!  He slipped and ended up taking a swim with the koi!  In brand new sneakers, might I add!  I'm sorry that there are no photos, but the fact is, I had NO idea how deep that pond was and although he could stand up, he was freaking out, Ainsley was freaking out and it just wasn't the most opportune time to take photos!!!  Although, in hindsight, it sure would have been a funny pic to add to this post!!!

I fished him out, half amused and half annoyed since we were supposed to be visiting a local art gallery after we visited the gardens.  I was pretty sure the "Soggy Bottom Boy" wouldn't be a welcome addition.  Because I am always somewhat prepared, I had a blanket in the car.  I wrapped him up, took his soaking, BRAND NEW sneakers off, and fed him a picnic lunch, hoping he might dry out a bit.  He was so cold and miserable and so upset that he was going to miss out on the Dr. Seuss exhibit.  I told him he was likely going to have to sit in the car and play his DS so Ainsley could still get to see the exhibit.  But as it turns out, the people at the gallery were really cool and allowed a damp, bare-footed boy to walk through the gallery.

The exhibit was really cute.  Dr. Seuss was incredibly creative and possibly on acid!  ;)  Here are a few of our faves.

Joseph Katz and His Coat of Many Colors (LOVE this one!)

Not sure what this one was called, but it's so cool!

And how in the world can you see a Dr. Seuss exhibit and not get a pic of the kids with the Cat in the Hat?!?!

AND the Lorax?!?!

I would love to have a fountain in my backyard with the Lorax as the centerpiece!  So awesome!!!  It ended up be a lovely day!  We could have lived without the impromptu dip in the pond, but hey, it worked out in the end and everyone was happy!

Spring is a "buggy" time of year!

Every year I order moth cocoons and butterfly chrysalids from Canada.  They spend the winter in our refrigerator crisper and in the spring I bring them out and they do their thing.  This year was no different, except for the fact that we got a new butterfly habitat and were able to send off for live caterpillars as well!  The painted lady caterpillars ate and ate and ate for about 10 days then they all started heading for the top of the container and began to hang upside down.

Terrible pic, I know, but bear with me.  It was freaky because within 30 minutes they went from above to this...

Our minds were blown!  Such a transformation and SO fast!  Once they all pupated, we removed them from the little food jar and transferred them into the butterfly enclosure with the rest of the moth cocoons.  Within about 10 days, we had our first painted lady butterfly!

Isn't she sweet?  The kids, of course, LOVE them!

I managed to get a pretty striking picture before she flew off for good.

Just wonderful!  Over the last few weeks, we have had many creatures make their transitions in our enclosure.  First the spicebush swallowtail...

Then came our lovely polyphemus!  Such a handsome chap!  He was mellow enough for the kids to handle him.

 

Ainsley wasn't scared of their little prickly feet this year!!!

He was quite the specimen with HUGE antennae!  I was lucky enough to get a most amazing shot before he flew away to find a girlie!

Next was our cecropia.  This one was HUGE with a wingspan of at least 6" if not more!

He wasn't that into being man-handled, so I took a pic or two and we let him fly off into the night.

Then came little io moth.  He was much smaller, but SO unbelievably pretty!

Wait for it.... POW!

I'm telling you folks, science at its finest!  We always enjoy the spring and the wonderful critters we get to experience!

Mr. Ian turns the BIG 1-0!

It's official.  My baby boy turned 10!  How is that even possible?!?  I mean really.  How did we get from here...

to here...

so damn fast?!?!  I know it's cliche, but it really did happen in the blink of an eye.  He is such an amazing kid and I'm amazed on a daily basis that he's mine!

Since it was the BIG 10, he wanted something special for his party this year.  Unfortunately all of the cool outdoorsy stuff is out of the question in late January.  The weather is just too iffy at that time, so he settled on a safari party.  We hired the nice people at Wild Things Zoofari, out of Taylor, TX, to bring out some furry friends to help him celebrate his big day.  It was quite an adventure!

I made sure he had festive cupcakes!  Brady is the King of Tiger and Zebra Striping!

His first guest was a Brazilian short-tailed opossum.

Next was an African Pygmy Hedgehog.  Cute!

Next was Meiko the Mountain Coatimundi!

Then there was Lucy the Cotton-Topped Tamarin.  She was feisty!

And last but not least, Oliver, the Ring-Tailed Lemur!  He was, without a doubt, the star of the show!

We had so much fun visiting with these critters, eating cupcakes and spending a fantastic afternoon with our family and friends!  I don't think he could have asked for a better 10th birthday!!!