The World's Largest Urban Bat Colony has some competition

Most of our out-of-town visitors who have stayed with us have had the opportunity to see the largest urban bat colony in the world.  Just google "Largest urban bat colony" and you will many links to pages about our Austin bats.  Huge crowds gather nightly around the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue bridge in Austin to watch the 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats shoot out from under the bridge.    Every evening around sunset, the bats emerge like a black cloud from the crevices of the bridge.  They search the countryside in search of food--it is estimated they consume from 10,000-30,000 pounds of insects.   So, of course, we welcome them here.   These bats are so cool!

photo credit:  Pamela Phillips  This was taken under the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin.  Cool photo!

The bats give birth in June or July and hang out until around October/November, when they head back South to Mexico.  The number of bats that emerge increase later in the summer, as the pups begin leaving the bridge also to hunt for insects.   The bats are a pretty big deal around here.  In fact, Austin even holds a "bat festival" annually in August (at the peak of the season).

Before we had kids, Drew and I enjoyed trekking to downtown Austin to see them.  But, now that we have young kiddos, visiting downtown Austin at sunset with our young ones is not so convenient (or fun!)  :-)

But, luckily, we don't have to travel far from our home at all to see bats.  You see, we have a pretty awesome, huge bat colony that is competing in size with the one in downtown Austin very close to our home.  Actually, I mapped the distance from our house to our suburban bat colony and it is less than 5 miles away.   Apparently, our nearby bat colony includes a little over half a million bats--so it is not the 1.5 million bats that emerge from the bridge in downtown Austin, but it is still neat to experience.  We have been visiting this bat colony for the past few years and it seems to be growing in size.

Since it is nearby and we thought Luke would think they were pretty cool also, we recently decided to visit the bridge to watch the bats emerge.  We arrived late, when they were already departing the bridge, but we were still able to watch a ton of them.

You can see bats flying around under the bridge, getting ready to exit.

I captured a video, so you too can experience the sights and sounds (and not the smell of the bat pee that we experienced).  But, please forgive the poor quality of the video.  It was dark and so I struggled with seeing the screen.  Therefore,  I have some trouble with the manual focus.  But, you still can get a little bit of the experience with the video. If you want the true experience, you have to visit yourself!

Time to head home!

Saturday Morning Family Adventures: Blue Hole along the San Gabriel River

I LOVE an adventure!  I try to have a mini-adventure with the kids every day.   But, the weekends are times for bigger adventures as a family with daddy!

This morning we kept it simple and headed up the road a few miles to Georgetown.  Near one of our favorite restaurants, El Monumento, is a fun little hiking trail near Blue Hole.  Blue hole is a scenic lagoon, bordered by tall limestone rock formations.

So pretty!

Luke loved climbing on the big rock formations along the trail.

Abbey enjoyed climbing atop the rock formations too, but she took the careful route--the man-made stairs.

checking out how far she had come.

Next, we had to check out the water.

Daddy was showing the kids how to select good "skipping stones."   Drew is a skipping stone expert.  I am....well...not so much. 

finding the perfect stone.

trying to select a proper skipping stone.

Abbey very carefully selected stones.

And she enjoyed tossing them into the water just as much (or maybe even more) than Luke did.

If you look closely, you can see fish in the clear water.

...like these guys.  There were several groups of people (and one crane) fishing while we were there.   We even saw them catch some fish while we hiked.

Abbey and Daddy looking for fish.

Abbey found some pretty little purple flowers.

Luke eventually gave up searching for the ideal skipping stone and just began throwing lots of stones in.  Surely, one of them will skip, right?

We saw all sorts of fun things we don't normally see at home: interesting bugs, fish, pretty little flowers, fun river stones....and......crab legs?

We worked up an appetite and were very conveniently located next to one of our favorite restaurants.  El Monumento is awesome.  Like one of our other favorites by the same owner, Monument Cafe, this restaurant sources its food locally and everything is natural and/or organic.  They serve home-style, made from scratch Interior Mexican fare.  The restaurant is surrounded by beauty as it sits above the San Gabriel River.  They also (just like Monument Cafe) even have their own gardens where they source a lot of their food.  There truly is nothing like eating really fresh, local food.  After eating, we always like exploring the grounds of the restaurant.  What a treat!

"Last week was vacation, Luke. This week is 'real life'!"

I think we spoiled the kids a bit by planning so many fun things for an entire week while we were visiting my family in Oklahoma.   The next morning after we got back to our home from our week away, Luke asked, "What are we going to do today, mommy?    Are we going to ride some rides, or go down the tape slide?"  The week was pretty Luke-focused.  We did all of his favorite things.   Here are some pictures that tell the story.

Of course, one of his favorite things to do was play at Grandma and Grandpa's house with his cousins:

Luke and Lilly before walking to the pond.

Kaylee in the swing.

Luke loved soaking his cousins in the pool.

Traber got soaked...but not from Luke...his dad surprised him with a cup full of water.

Kaylee's hair is so pretty!

Abbey wasn't as happy to be in the pool as the others were.

Drama, drama! pouty face.

Not happy about being put into the pool.  

We also visited a fun children's museum with tunnels constructed from clear packing tape. Luke stayed on this thing almost the entire time we were at the museum.

Drew and Abbey walking through the tape tunnel system.

There go Traber and Luke through another section of the tunnel.

and through the tunnel slide.  This was their favorite part!

There were other things to do at the museum also though:

Making music.

Abbey found some balls.  She was very happy about that!

playing with their shadows and cool lights.

But, the fun didn't stop there.  We also visited the "Kiddie Park" in Bartlesville, OK.  This place is awesome and has become an annual family tradition.  It is awesome because all of the rides are geared towards the age of our children.  Also, they are super-cheap.   They actually increased their prices to $.50 per ride this year.  We spent $8 and Abbey and Luke got to ride plenty of rides.

Luke was still scared of this roller coaster.  He was afraid last year also (click here for the post from last year with video from inside the roller coaster car).

My sister, Holly, braved it up and rode this ride with several of the kids.   

Brody and Traber on the airplanes.

Luke and Linnea

And, the week wouldn't feel complete without a trip to the zoo!

Checking out some bears.

The monkeys are funny!

So much fun!

Linnea likes the sea lions.

So now, after reading this and the previous two posts, you probably understand why Luke asked what the "plan" was for the day after we returned from our trip.  We had so many fun activities planned that week.   You want to know what my response to Luke was?   I replied to him, "You see, Luke, last week was vacation.  This week is real life."   Ha!   We actually do try to plan a mini-adventure almost daily.  But, they are not nearly as extravagant as our daily adventures that week.  I was concerned we had spoiled the kids, but after my response, Luke was very content.  He is such an awesome kid.  He is content with pretty much anything.  He doesn't need a lot of "stuff" like toys.   He doesn't expect us to buy him "things" or to take him to special places all of the time.  All he really wants is to spend special time with us.  He doesn't really care what it is we are doing.   Therefore, that is what spoiled him the most.   We had a full week of non-stop family time.   Daddy didn't work and we just played....played.....played.....together as a family.  I am so thankful for the many wonderful memories God is allowing me to experience. Each day He gives me (and all of us, really) is a gift.   Now that we are back from vacation, I am excited to experience this next chapter in my life.  I have been praying to God, telling Him that I am ready to give everything up for Him.  I want Him to use me however He desires.  I am excited to see what that will be.  But......that is for another post.   Goodnight for now!