Cara ride a long

This is them pulling away, to start the shift, it is a twelve hour shift, so Cara has some red bull to keep her awake, in case the action tonight does not. i must say she is more enthusiastic than me for some sort of trouble to come their way on the shift- it must be a youth thing!
Cara is all excited about this car, as it is brand new, and has special lights, and a machine gun!!!

They use rope to lasso the criminals in Texas. Mark what do you use on the Thames? Richard what do you use in Hong Kong?
The hat is Alfreds, not Cara's. standard issue. just in case you were wondering

I am interrupting updating mums visit, with the photo's of Cara and Alfred heading out this afternoon for her second ride a long.

more photos from the leaving party

The outside playscape was used earlier in the afternoon, not all children need technology to be happy.

Victoria , in the white coat, was 21 again, so we sang to her. the Lush ladies of Austins children choir led the way.
Texas size kebab's-called kabobs here
braving our cold front, Andrew( who Cara babysits for twice a week-well his two girls actually) Christie and Thomas.
Alfred- who wear's a uniform!!

can you see I like labeling photo's

My new computer skills

Have you all noticed that I am managing to label the photo's, Jo has shown me how to do this, so slowly but surely I am getting better at the blog.

Mum's good bye party

Me conducting a happy Birthday for Victoria, who's birthday was the following day, Sunday

Alan Hunter enjoying, just enjoying. He does it so quietly compared to my noisy

Mum, Sandi and I. Emily was trying to take photo's of me and mum, and found that I do not stand still for long- so I posed for this!! a rare occurrence when sober
Diana's husband John chatting to mum- please note all the food- it was Texas Awesome, all dips kindly provided by friends, and the cookies and muffins as well.
Charlotte and mum. Mum and I had been to coffee with Emily( Charlotte's daughter), the day before at 9am, remember we start our school days earlier, so mum and Charlotte had already met and were happy to keep chatting.

Well the aprty was set for 4pm, started well, got better and over 40 people came. we had children running around, the Wii going in the family room, Rockband in the drawing room, Allan outside cooking on the grill( getting quiet cold as a cold front came in on the saturday) the men seemed to collect out there, and us ladies stayed near the wine and food. It shows a lot of common sense. We let the upstairs play area open up as well, as the temperatures outside did drop down into the low 60's and high 50's by the time we had finished, with the wind as well, we needed to allow inside play!! I am getting soft.

A real American Hamburger

Mum was fascinated with this buffalo, so I thought I would include a picture, we were sititng facing it during the meal!!

Our side of half and half( fries and onion rings), we only needed one portion between the three of us

To help you gauge the size of the rings, mum is holding one for you!!

And then there is the drinks!! Everything is bigger in Texas

Mum had asked to try and American hamburger, so Jo and Alan recommended 'Huts', a very popular spot for hamburgers, great memorabilia on the walls, and freshly cooked food. It was great. Huts is downtown, so off we went one lunchtime( after mum had bought me herbs for my birthday present, to replace all the ones I had to leave behind) so we were ready for some food. The icing on the cake was Cara paid for lunch as well- Go Cara!!

The Capital building, Downtown Austin

Mum and I went down to see the Capitol building on Wednesday 25th February, and had a delightful time. They were actually in session so we were not able to see in the House of the Senate , but we went in to the house of representatives, it was beautiful inside and we went on a tour so we saw a variety of areas and got alot of the history as well. The picture above is from the extension, they needed more space so built an underground office block, with sky lights and this open area, so it does not feel like you are underground at all. very well constructed. we then went to the Visitors centre, which is one of the oldest buildings in Austin, but by then we needed to head home for the children coming out of school, so we will be going back again when mum next visits.

We got sunburnt

Today, Tuesday 24th February 2009, the new JD Robb came out, 'Promises in death' and mum and I sat in the garden and read our books until we had finished. Cara kindly did all the running around, so we could. Another great book in the series, roll on November when the next one comes out.
That evening we realised we had actually managed to get quiet sunburnt, the light breeze meant we had not realised how hot it was.