New Year's Eve

Jeff and I decided to go to Austin's First Night Celebration. We thought about 6th Street, or just having a few friends over to our house. We were also invited to Cassie's party in Houston (which I heard was really awesome) but we didn't want to drive to Houston. We heard First Night was going to have a bike parade and fireworks. I love parades and fireworks, so we decided on First Night. The festival had an art and environmental theme and it was a lot of fun.

The parade was big and had tons of butterflies.
and lots of people on stilts

these guys from Nicaragua dressed like cows

There were tons of bike floats and many of them had been made into butterflies

This was a super long caterpillar, there were 8 or 10 people riding bikes inside it.Of course there was a bat float

There was also a huge praying mantis bike float that played music, he was really cool, but I never got a good picture. There were also lots of kids in the parade with art projects they had made in school.

At 8pm they had the kid's finale, there was a big wooden clock tower built for First Night and people pinned papers with their resolutions or memories to the tower then at 8pm they set it on fire and had a few fireworks too.

There were tons of projects, shows, bands, and activities. This was called "Regenerate: Butterfly Resolutions" it was made of twigs and cornhusks. They had cornhusk butterflies and you could write your "resolutions and wishes for our planet" on them then hang them on the twig hangers. there were thousands of cornhusk butterflies, Jeff is next to ours, it says sustainable energy.

me at Auditorium Shores with the Austin skyline in the background

We also got to see Arc Attack. We had heard of them, but hadn't seen them yet. These guys built Tesla Coils in their garage and now they have a music show using them. Their website, videos, and pictures don't do it justice at all. They had florescent light bulbs stuck in the ground around the coils and they kept lighting up all the time just from the energy from the coils. It looked like lightening coming out of the coils and they made noise that went along with the music. It was really cool.

The midnight fireworks were awesome! I love fireworks and these were way better than I expected.

They lasted over 20 minutes

At least 3 times I thought I had just seen the finale and they were finished, but they just kept going.

The reflections on the water were beautiful too

What an awesome way to celebrate the New Year!

What Would You Do?

So Jeff and I don't know our next door neighbors, we've said hi going to our separate cars, but that's about it. They have an adorable golden retriever, she looks about 2 or 3 years old. She is constantly jumping her fence and when she does, she just sits in her driveway, waiting for her owners to come home.

The neighbors have been gone since at least Sunday. She jumped the fence and sat in her driveway barking all night, we barely got any sleep at all. We got home Monday night and saw she was still sitting in the driveway, the neighbors were obviously still gone, so we decided to put her back in her yard. She was super sweet and obviously loved the attention from us. She looks really well groomed, she has long golden retriever hair. She has a dog house in her yard and the owners left lots of food and water for her, so we didn't feel bad putting her back in her yard.

She stayed in her yard all day yesterday, but when we came home last night at about 1am she was in her driveway. As soon as we got out of the truck she came running over and was super excited to see us. I thought maybe she just wanted a little attention so I hung out and petted her and talked to her for a minute. Then she tried to come in the house with me, and instead of sleeping in her driveway she slept on my front porch. We were too tired to put her back in her yard (it's kind of an ordeal). I put her back in her yard this morning, we'll see what happens.

What would you do? Leave me a comment and let me know. Obviously I'll have to talk with the neighbors when they come home. Jeff says call the pound, but I hate to do that, I'd have to tell the neighbors I did it and I'm afraid she'd end up on doggie death row (although she probably wouldn't, she's beautiful and super sweet). So in our situation, what would you do?

Christmas Lights

I know it's a little late for Christmas lights, but on David's recommendation, Jeff and I went to see the lights at Guadalupe and 37th Street, they did not disappoint. Very weird Austin, funky and fun.these lights were strung across the street

This praying mantis was HUGE!

There was a sign and story in front of this house telling that this was the "spaghetti monster" or something.

A representation of the Austin skyline
With the Pennybacker bridge and a trash bag Colorado River

Christmas scene inside an old stove

the Peace Angel

I loved this cool dragonfly

One of my favorite displays was an economic scene

there were parachutes with lights naming CEOs of companies in trouble this one says "Rick Wagoner, Chief Beggar"

Obama pulling up the stock market line

this truck had a reindeer driver and a penguin passenger

milk jug lights
"Bevo's Whiskey River" was another really fun display

Those are all whiskey bottles hanging from the lights

Trail of Lights

Trail of Lights with the Austin skyline in the background (thanks Coach Tracy!)

The city of Austin puts on the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park (Barton Springs) every year. You get to walk through the park covered in tons of Christmas lights and scenes.the entrance

Lights swagged around one of the big trees near the entrance. Many businesses in Austin did displays.

The Austin Fire Department wrapped a tree in red and orange lights so it looked like it was on fire, my picture really doesn't do it justice. They also had Santa's fire sleigh.

Austin Water had a display with clouds and lightening, then a rainbow, then clouds with the sun coming up behind them. A river of lights ran around the entire display.

We liked this tree covered in blue lights

I liked the dancing cupcakes

and "dilloville" with armadillos and cacti

The BIG tree of lights is really cool, you can see it from miles away. It looks even cooler when you go directly underneath it. But the camera battery died before we could get a picture underneath the tree. Update: Coach Tracy sent me these pictures of the big tree of lights. Thanks! and Great Job!

This is what it looks like under the tree, then you spin around and it looks like the picture below. Everyone was spinning, adults, kids, everyone. Of course it made me dizzy really fast.

Geocaching at St. Edward's Park

Saturday was beautiful in Austin. We decided to take a picnic lunch to St. Edward's Park and do some geocaching there. We got sandwiches from the Grapevine Market and ate them at one of my favorite spots in the park.
This is a small stone dam across Bull Creek. I think it's one of the prettiest places in the park.
After lunch we quickly found our first geocache off the trail, behind a tree, near the creek.
Jeff recording information about the cache.

Then we hiked up to the cliffs above the creek. The views are beautiful from the cliffs.

Here is the stone dam where we ate lunch. At this point, we were about 100 feet above the dam on the cliffs.

We hiked back down this area. Almost looks like stairs, but it's all natural rock.