Family Vacation ~ Day 7

Thursday, March 19, 2009 was our last official day of vacation. It was a nice 85 degrees so we just hung out at the summit. It is amazing in 2 days of 80 degree weather how much the pool actually warmed up...it was still pretty cool but I could tolerate sticking my feet in which meant that the kids had no problem plunging in and swimming like fish! I sat along the big pool and The girls would jump in the deep in and swim the entire length of the pool (racing of course) and Griffin thought he was big stuff that he got to jump in the water from the side of the pool between the 3ft mark and the 4ft mark...He didn't realize it's because he is about 3 1/2 ft tall himself and he could touch but I hadn't allowed him to go in that pool the day before so he thought he had accomplished a great triumph! We also took the cards pool side and played cards as warm up breaks. Les & I were playing cards until the wind decided to pick up and squelch our card game. It was still a beautiful day to enjoy the sunshine. After swimming I had fixed all our food that we had left so we decided to visit the Canyon Lake Dam and then go find somewhere to eat for supper. The Canyon Lake is a man-made Lake that is absolutely beautiful. It was way low of course because of the drought but it was still very pretty. We decided to walk across the top of the dam, which was 1 1/2 miles across, but definitely gave awesome views of the hills in the area.

This is Les & the kids sitting on a bench at an area that was designated as Canyon Lake overlook. The cowboy hats are souveinors from Sea World. We couldn't come home from Texas without cowboy hats!

Me and my girls at the Lake.

I had to get a picture of my girls with their blonde hair blowing in the wind with their cowboy hats on. Are they just beautiful? I know I'm a little biased, but I love their blonde hair!

And I wanted to get a side profile of Griffin to go along with the girls picture...I could barely get him to sit still for the picture. I finally said just sit here and talk to your daddy while I take the picture. So he sat down there and said to Les...."So what's your name?" We all broke out laughing so that's how I caught his giggly face. He is so silly you never know what he is going to say.

We stayed watched partial sunset, which was amazing seeing the reflection on the lake. Then after we left there we stumbled upon a little Italian place right there in Canyon Lake that was the REAL DEAL...I'm sure the owners were speaking English as a second language and came directly from Italy. It was Yummy in our tummies! The sauces were definitely not out of a jar but freshly made! That was a nice surprise for our last night there.

Then the next morning we left at 5:00 a.m. to head to the Austin Airport to catch our flight home. This is the kids watching our plane and our luggage being loaded onto the plane. The girls have a pink plaid luggage set so it was easy to spot going into the plane. We had to change plans in Houston....so our first flight was like only 30 minutes which consists of more time on the runway than in the air. George Bush International Airport in Houston is HUGE!! When I saw we came in at gate B44 and had to go to gate C79 I was thinking that doesn't sound very close together....we ended up having to take a tram about 1-2 miles away and then search for our gate. Everything fell into place perfectly but that would be an easy airport to get lost in...there were terminals shooting off in every direction. But the Five of us Grabers work well together and the kids listened superbly and we got right to where we needed to be and even had time to grab some McD's for the kids before our flight to Indy took off.....which was an express jet...which only holds about 50 passengers....one seat on one side of the aisle and two on the other side....so the kids all set in one row and Les & I actually sat together on our trip home. We actually spotted the Ohio River, Rockport, and the Petersburg Power Plant & CRANE out the window...funny to think we were flying right over our home! We had a wonderful trip and would HIGHLY Recommend TEXAS as a family fun place to visit! We'd definitely put it on a list to do again!