Six years ago, we drove a moving van into Austin, the start of our Texas experience. We were (and are) so thankful to be here that we designated June 3rd as the family holiday of Austin Day. Traditionally, we try to do something Austin-y on that day and also eat at Whataburger, where we ate our first night as Austin residents.
We had planned a surprise excursion with some friends for today, but it fell through. Brett had taken a half-day off work, so we needed to come up with something fun. It was supposed to get up to 100 degrees, so we decided something with water would be good. A famous Austin place is Barton Springs Pool, and we have never been, so we loaded up and headed that way. Nearing the entrance, we could see a line of about 40 standing outside. We could only imagine how many people were already inside if they were making people wait like that. Not a good option with a 1-year-old who is already begging “water! water!”. So we drove back down to the public pool near our house, not very exciting but no lines expected. Well, there were no lines because it was closed!
By this time, Hannah was in meltdown mode. She was ready for water and was now chanting “sad, sad, sad” from the back seat. We hurried home to make our own water fun. I recently got a “water table” which we pulled out along with the kiddie pool.
The water was cold, but this kept her happy for almost an hour (an eternity given the toddler attention span). After getting dried off and cleaned up, we headed to Whataburger. Hannah recently learned how to dip, and tonight she discovered the two-handed dip.
Usually, during our Austin Day dinners, we recall our first night here and talk about all the Austin things that we love. It seems like much less talking happens when you have a toddler at the table, so we didn’t have a very deep discussion this year.
For another summer treat, we tried out a snow cone place near our house for dessert. I got raspberry lemonade, and Brett tried cafe latte. Hannah got some of mine; maybe I shouldn’t have picked something red.
We should have taken an “after” picture; let’s just say it required a bath and some serious scrubbing to get off all the sticky red coverage.
So Austin Day 2011 was a success and we look forward to many more!
grit & grace 
Yay! I can’t believe she actually chants “Sad sad sad”. All we ever get is whining or screaming when Finn’s upset. Austin Day sounds awesome :) Now, does Hannah actually eat the fries when she dips them? Finn just sees fries as a means to getting the ketchup into his mouth. :)
if you look at the hannah snowcone picture real quick, it looks like the words in the background say “hanna eeze.” thought i’d point that out. :o)