Austin

Mike had a trade show to attend for work in Austin this last weekend and I thought I'd tag along. The kids were staying with their Nana so I guess we can consider that our almost-3rd year-anniversary vacation. We headed out very early (too early) Friday morning and arrived at the convention center around 9a. Setting up the booth took us a little longer than I'd expected and then the people started to pour in. We were there until 7:10p, grabbed a pizza slice from a little restaurant off 6th Street, then checked in to our hotel. That night we stood over the Town Lake bridge to watch for the famous show of millions of bats out looking for dinner. We saw a few but it was not what we expected. We learned that the bats come out when the weather is warm and dry and it had been raining all day. Maybe next time! We enjoyed our pampered stay at the Raddison and especially got a kick out of the sleep number beds. I've decided my comfortable number is 40! The next day was another long day, but we did get to slip in a visit to our State Capital and stuffed ourselves silly at Hut's Hamburgers. At the Capital's gate we were handed pamphlets supporting presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. They were pretty impressed when I told them I was one of the 4000 babies he's delivered. Mike says we ought to start a webpage in search for the other 3999. 3998 actually as I just found out last night that my little brother, Aaron, was also delivered by Dr. Paul! We were too dog tired that night and were not up for much site seeing. We did however manage our way into the hotel's TGF for a late night appetizer and dessert. Food never slows us down much! The next day was half a day at the trade show. Right at 1pm we took the booth down and headed out of Austin.

The trip home was uneventful with the usual stops for potty break and food until we got into Katy. One of the worst things imaginable happened! Mike and I witnessed a young man getting hit by a car. He was on the side of the freeway changing a tire when it happened. It was all such a blur, but it has haunted me since it happened. It was a hit and run, only they weren't running so we did manage to get a picture of the vehicle that we believe did it. We are going to have to make a statement of course. We watched the news last night and learned the young man was 26 and died at the scene with his parents there to witness the whole thing. Needless to say, this incident has opened my eyes. Anything can happen at anytime to any of us! I'm telling everyone I know to stay off the freeways unless you are driving and always tell your loved ones how much you love them!!

To end on a good note, we finally made it home safely, got the kids home safe, had family prayer and went to bed. What a weekend!