We have awesome friends!!!

I have been wanting to update the blog for a while now, but our computer freaked out! I googled blog backgrounds and clicked on some link that gave our computer a virus. I thought my world was going to end because I had just uploaded all of our vacation pictures and deleted them off my camera (which I never do, by the way). Luckily, we have some awesome friends! There is a family in our ward that live right behind us (yes, this is awesome). They have been so great for us, they fed us the weekend we moved in, they let us use their lawn mower for the first couple months in our house, and he fixed our computer!!!! We thought nothing could be done, but Emily told me her hubby, Chris, would take a look it. It took days and he had to upload a bunch of software to fix it, but now it is all better! Thanks so much, you guys!!!

So Peter has been working long hours all summer and I have been in school. Luckily, our schedules overlapped for a week where neither of us had anything to do! One of the great things about being us is that we can take off whenever we want. We decided to take a little last minute vacation to Austin/San Antonio. Luckily, we have some really AWESOME friends in Austin who let us stay at their house!
On our way!


We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and Peter and Russ went golfing. It was SO HOT (I think it got up to 104 that day), but nothing was going to keep Peter from golfing. Meanwhile, Megan and I hung out, went shopping, ate frozen yogurt, and played with their cute girls. That night, we met up with the boys and ate some delicious BBQ right on the river! In fact, we went out back and fed the turtles while we waited on the boys.
Here we are at dinner with the Jepsons:


The next morning, Peter and I headed out to Hamilton Pool. We took a little hike down to the pool:

Saw an important bird area (no, there were no birds):
and finally made it to the pool. It was great because that was the week school started, so we were the only people there! After a while, two other families showed up, but it was so fun. It was actually an old grotto that collapsed so it is a natural pool/lake thing that is half covered. It was dry when we went, so the "waterfall" was more of a trickle, but it was fun to swim around. There is also a rocky beach, so we hung out there for a while too.


After we left, we went to some "Texas" fast food place (I'm really bad with names). It was pretty ok, but kind of expensive. My burger was so yum-o :)

Then, we decided to go see downtown Austin. It was really clean, but not too exciting. We walked around Capitol building and ran around downtown while sweating our ears off.
Did you know the TX Capitol building is an exact replica of the national Capitol, but a few inches taller, making it the tallest Capitol building in the country!? Luckily, there was a Jamba Juice (I had a gift card from my best friend's wedding) and when we bought our smoothies, they gave us a BOGO coupon for next time! Thanks, Jamba!
Then, we met up with the Jepsons for some amazing enchiladas (Megan is a great cook) and they told us about the The Congress Avenue Bridge Bats which is the largest urban bat colony in the country. Every night when the sun goes down, 1.5 million bats fly out of the bridge and eat 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of bugs NIGHTLY!!! It is crazy, random, and so cool. I couldn't get any pictures of the bats, but if you ever visit Austin, you have to see this (there are some great videos online). Here are some pics of us by the bridge where they live:

On our way back, we saw this:
In case you didn't know, Elizabeth is my real name, not Eli:) We were going to go see The Spazmatics-an amazing 80's cover band- that night, but we were too tired and decided to settle on ice cream and games with Russ and Megan.
Since San Antonio is one of our favorite places and only an hour and a half from Austin, we decided to spend the next day and a half there. Here are a couple pics on the way. My double chin:
Peter's double chin:
We even stopped at the San Marcos Outlets on the way. We each got a couple of shirts and had fun looking around.
I was really craving Schlotzsky's (does anybody even know how to spell that?), and thanks to Tom Tom, we found one nearby.
There, I had my first taste of salt and vinegar chips. They are really weird, but you can't stop eating them once you start. They remind me of dill pickle chips.
Peter had never been to The Alamo and I hadn't been since I was a kid, so that was obviously our first stop. It was actually really cool and we had fun hanging out.
Peter has a cousin who lives in San Antonio so we were able to stay with them. We met up at their house for dinner. They had plans that night at their kids' school, so we walked the Riverwalk. I love that place, there is always something to do. We got some ice cream and listened to some live music. Some guys were playing some flute things and had a very diverse selection of music. They played "Imagine" by John Lennon, "Chiquitita" from Mama Mia, and some spanish song that I forget. Here are some pics of us on the Riverwalk.




I totally forgot to get a picture with the Updikes, but it was so fun to see them. We don't get to see too much of Peter's family, so that was really fun. We had to head back the next morning so we could make it to the Elder's Quorum party! Overall, it was a really fun-filled week. We wouldn't have been able to take this vacation without the help of the Jepsons and Updikes, so THANK YOU. Peter and I don't get to take too many vacations with just the two of us, so it was a nice way to end the summer!