Christmas Season Family Fun

Last week we passed our 7 year anniversary of living in Austin. Through the years of living here I have made a pretty good dent on my list of  100 Things to do in Austin list that came with the packet our  Realtor gave us when we first moved here. The Austin Trail of Lights was one of the few left on my list.

Each holiday season that passed by someone was either sick, the weather was too cold or wet, or some other lame excuse.

As Skye creeps on up age, I made the decision that it was this year or never.

We made a whole day ordeal out of it by first having a late lunch at Uncle Julio's, shopping at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar than on to the Festival of Lights.

Parking is a nightmare in downtown Austin so we opted to stay parked at the bazaar and walk the mile to our destination.

The Trail was impressive but I think it would have been more impressive to Skye if she had been a bit younger. I sometimes forget that she's not my "little girl" anymore and is growing quickly into a young woman.

Sights from our day....

It was a fun day but after almost 5 miles of walking we were all ready to get home and chilax.

Time Out With Toby

The longer Toby and I are married and the stresses of having a small child are a distant memory the more I crave time alone with him. Lucky for us, we enjoy doing a lot of the same things so there is never any argument about what to do when we sneak off.

Yesterday we headed downtown so I could pick up a Christmas gift for my soon to be daughter-in-law.

I never bore of walking downtown. I love city scape's and all the interesting things to see that downtown has to offer. I love the excitement and vibrancy it exudes.

We got hungry for a little lunch and headed down the block to a Mexican cuisine favorite we had eaten a couple of times in the past.

Unfortunately, when we got there they had moved to another location, but we had passed another interesting looking restaurant along the way and decided to give Uncle Julio's Fine Mexican Food a try.

I'm glad we did, because we had some of the best fish tacos we had ever eaten. The atmosphere was great and the menu prices not bad. We sat near this little fire. It was a little romantic. ♥

The next day we had just a couple of small errands to run, so we decided to take Bo with us on a walk along the Walnut Creek trails nearby.  It's been awhile since we had been on the trails so I was looking forward to the hike.

We noticed the cliff side boulders were blocking most of the creek trail. I'm not sure if they fell on their own or if the city had decided to push them on down for safety reasons....

I love the contrasting colors of the evergreens against the dormant grasses....

We came upon another part of the creek and Bo took a break hunting fish.....

We crossed the park entrance to another short path, then headed home....

Boardwalk Trail

Today Toby and I took some time out for ourselves and hit the The Boardwalk Trail at Lady Bird Lake. 

The boardwalk just opened back in June and I've been itching to take a walk on it.

We parked at the Austin American Statesman entrance at the Congress Avenue Bridge......

We walked a short distance from the bridge until we came to the boardwalk....

The views were nice along the boardwalk and we enjoyed watching the boaters, the ducks dive for fish, the turtles lounge in the sun, and the birds frolic on the shores.....

It was nice to enjoy the beautiful day alone with my love. ♥

Zilker Nature Preserve

One of the things I love most about Austin is its thin line between nature and concrete.

Today we hiked the Zilker Nature Trail inside the Science and Nature Center downtown Austin.

It was a short, but enjoyable hike with plenty of stops along the way.

We climbed the steep hill to the top of a lookout into downtown Austin...

I'm not sure what the old structure is that sits at the top of the hill. An old homestead maybe? It's one of those things I wanted to research but haven't gotten around to yet....

The kids found a geocache also....

They all signed the geocache log

Back down the trail onto another splinter trail....

Into Dry Creek. All of the kids...even the older ones....spent awhile playing in the "creek". ...

I absolutely LOVE this picture of the teens. In order to give them some posing inspiration I directed them to give me their model pose....

At the trail entrance/exit is the animal sanctuary....

We ate a quick lunch at the Nature Center and headed home.