bff's

One of my dear friends, Susan, flew in from Texas today.  She stopped by for a few hours (much too short of a visit)  It was so fun to get together and laugh.

  

Susan is someone that my kids are all familiar with by name because they faithfully pray for her every day in our family prayers.  Susan has been battling cancer for many years (hence the cut military cut :)) and because of Susan's fight my kids always remember to ask Heavenly Father to bless her and her family.  I was thrilled that Megan and Emily hung out with us while Susan was here so that they could get to know her better and get a feel for what a wonderful person she is.

Susan truly is one of my best friends and has been since my junior year of high school.  She and Lisa befriended me when I moved to a new area and had no friends.  They welcomed me into their friendship and the three of us became inseparable.  How grateful I am for friendships that stand the test of time.  20+ years and I still feel as close to Susan as I did in high school.

thinking of susan

I never finished posting pictures of Austin.

While Derek was there on business I was visiting with my friend Susan. Susan and I met my junior year of High School. She and Lisa quickly become my dearest friends - we spent the last few years of high school together and roomed together at college.

Susan is an amazing person and it was so fun to be able to spend time with her and her family. She took us to some great Austin locations but what meant more then visiting some cool places was being with her. Thanks Susan for the great few days we spent together!So one of the cool places we went to was the world's largest urban bat colony. Every night people hang out to watch the bats fly out from under the Congress Bridge. We didn't have a great vantage point and the night was overcast but we were still able to see some of the bats.
Susan's family also treated us to the Salt Lick. Talk about some good barbecue - it was delicious! If you ever plan a trip to Austin, I would recommend going here. Derek was in beef brisket heaven.
Derek at the Salt Lick

We also went to dinner with Susan and her girls at a place called the Hula Hut. It was on Lake Austin and had a fun atmosphere and good food.

It really was a fun trip. It could have only been better had we been able to stay longer. I would have loved more time with Susan and more time to see Austin.

don't mess with texas

Ok, Texas is serious about their state. I don't think their is a place with more state pride. we have never seen another state that has their own state store. At the mall and in downtown Austin there was the "Texas Store". That was the name...Texas Store. I wonder how a California Store would do or how many people would visit Utah Store.

Everywhere we went the Texas star (or some form of it) was displayed proudly. I saw it on fronts of houses, on backyard fences, on buildings, store fronts, cars, etc. I am not kidding when I say it was everywhere.

Here is a Texas rangers star in our hotel bathroom. There were also stars on our room walls. On a side note the hotel we stayed in (The Driskill) was pretty amazing. It was built forever ago by an ol' cattle baron. It had some cool history and was beautiful. Of course the star was present in force at the capitol building. One morning I took a walk through Austin by myself while Derek was in meetings and I ended up at the capitol. What a beautiful building with so much history.

The walk was miserable because of the heat - how does anyone live there? I can't believe I served a mission in the south and tracted and rode bikes in the heat and humidity. Gotta love California!

Door into the capitol

Looking up at the ceiling in the capitol

the front gate

a room in the capitol building - the lighting fixture is the star

I could have taken hundreds of star pictures - I probably should have it would have been a cool gallery but oh well, the stars will just have to live on in my heart.