Family Vacation ~ Day 2

Friday, March 13th, We arrived in Austin, Texas to a chilly 40 degrees and RAIN! I was like this is not the Texas weather I was hoping for. But we didn't complain as Texas has been suffering from a drought. Someone actually told us it was the first rain they had, had in 9 months!! So decided to Thank God for their weather...even though it felt like we brought Indiana weather to Texas with us! hee hee. These are pictures of the kids looking for our airplane from the Indy airport terminal. Also a picture of them huddled together in the rain waiting for Les to drive up in our rental vehicle....Toyota 4-runner....we got to experience driving a foreign vehicle...I wasn't too impressed...but it got us where we needed to go along with the help of "Tina the Tom-Tom". We borrowed Les' parent's GPS and the kids named the voice "Tina". She definitely spoiled us getting around the "big" cities. The funny thing was Les got annoyed at her a little just the same as he does me when we were driving. She would say "Stay left, merge left, stay left ahead". Les would say "I'm staying left Tina!" I'm sure it is one of those times you just had to be there to find it funny. But we had a good time laughing along with the GPS lady "Tina". And we were more than thrilled to hear "You've reached your destination!" Our first destination landed us in the home of Les' Cousin's home, The Jay Gusler Family. Our kids are all just stair-stepped in ages and boy did they ever have a GREAT TIME with their TEXAS COUSINS! Lots of playing and checking out their neighborhood. My kids thought it was great that they got to play in the street and ride bikes and scooters around the block by themselves. Griffin was super excited they had a little park to play at just down the block that he got to go to with the big girls...he rode the scooter all the way there..he was so proud of himself and really thought he was BIG STUFF. The Gusler's really spoiled us with their hospitality. Cyndy gave me some lessons on what REAL Tex-Mex cooking is all about and sent her recipes home with me! Can you see me smiling I was soooo excited about that! One thing Natalie had asked her daddy to do on vacation was to get to eat steak! That is now her favorite food. Well wouldn't you know the Gusler's grilled steaks for our supper! And they were scrumptious! Natalie happened to be in the kitchen when Cyndy was getting things together for supper so she let Natalie choose what to go with the steaks and everything she offered was Natalie's favorites...corn and mac & cheese. Cyndy knew how to get big smiles out of Natalie!

The kids and us for that matter also got to enjoy seeing Jay's mounts of all his wild animals he has shot on his hunting trips. Here are a couple pics of some of his animal heads. They were so pretty and I think adding the chaos of the Graber children it was almost like being at an indoor zoo! (just kidding). We truly enjoyed our visit with the Gusler's and time always goes by way too fast. Our kids were fast asleep in the vehicle not 10 minutes after we left their home for our 3 hour drive over towards San Antonio.....and that brings us to day 3....stay tuned...

(The Gusler home was one of the best things about our vacation!)