We were flying out on New Year’s day, so this was our last day in Austin. Sonja was up late the night before dealing with a blog crisis for her customers, so we slept in more than usual. We didn’t plan any activities so we went for a nice walk at the Walnut Creek park just down the street. It’s a beautiful forest area with lots of trails and creeks.
Leilani and I (Andy) wanted to show Sonja this waterfall we saw 2 days before. Then there was a ribbon of water flowing over the large flat rock and into the pool below. Now it was dry. But Leilani could still throw rocks into the pool:
She carried bigger and bigger rocks and threw dozens of them–sometimes I feel bad because she’s contributing to erosion and filling the pool with rocks. And it was a pretty pool that reflected the forest:
We hiked for a while on the maze of paths, trying to find the river crossing. At one point, an off-leash pit-bull prompted Sonja to pick up Leilani. So this was a rare (and short) ride on Mommy’s shoulders:
For some reason, this picture reminds me of one 4 years earlier in the same area. Maybe it’s the tights:
A pretty dry creek-bed:
The point of the hike was a big playground for Leilani. But she got upset over the wrong kind of monkey bars and didn’t have that much fun. She did play a little before it started getting cold and late.
On the way home, we took a different path. The stream was difficult to cross here, Andy carried Leilani, David got a foot wet, and Sonja went barefoot. Later, Leilani wanted to play on the crossing stones, but broke her stick and had a melt-down.
More of Andy’s art:
Back at the house, Grandma’s Christmas decorations:
After making the Princess bags with Grandma and decorating them, Leilani insisted on filling them with goodies (chocolates) and giving them to people.
While Mommy and Daddy packed the suitcases, Leilani worked on her biggest puzzle yet. Actually, it’s not her puzzle, and she did have some help, but they finished it that night. Like I wrote earlier, Leilani is patient and matches colors and shapes very well to pick out the right pieces to put in:
Sunrise 1/1/11 (from the airport for our 8am flight home–tickets are cheaper on this flight):
