Barbara and Scotts house was great. It is right in the downtown core of Austin so it's central to everything. It is a 2 bedroom apartment on the 7th floor. The building they live in is great because it's built up around a courtyard, in the middle is this great swimming pool. Their is also bbq's set up around the courtyard, so it's a great place to meet people. We had a great time with them. We parked the rv in a parking lot across the street and took full advantage of the space in the apartment, which to us, felt like a mansion. Im not sure Barbara and Scott thought that we would actually stay in their home with them the whole time, but we proved them wrong.!!! I mean, they had laundry and a bedroom with a very comfortable bed, even if we had to share it with the two youngest kids. They had internet and cable, water that you could drink right out of the tap, a bathtub/shower with hot water and great pressure, we felt like we had won the lottery. Barbara proved to be a fabulous cook, im sure we all gained 2lbs in just one week. They were both such wonderful hosts we didn't want to leave. We saw many sights while we were there. We checked out the parliament buildings, Barton Springs, and this great river that was teared like Aqua Azul. We did some shopping for Vegas, and had a couple nights out on the town where we were lucky enough to catch some of Austins local talent. .We also tried to get Teaghens nose peirced. (an early birthday present) but that voyage was unsuccessful because you cannot pierce a child under the age of 16.( I cannot say i was that disapointed about it) The city itself was beautiful. We are so greatful for Barbara's and Scott's gracious hopitality and their patience. It was a great thing that both of them are so wonderful with kids!! Thanks again you guys.
After Austin we headed to Carlsbad New Mexico. We drove straight through and stayed the night at a Walmart. The next day we checked out Carlsbad Caverns. WOW, this place is crazy. You need to google it because i just can't do it justice. The decent into the caverns is 750 feet. There are 2 ways of getting in, you can walk down a switchback paved path all the way down, or you can take an elevator. We decided to split up, Mark and the older girls went down the switchback path and than came up the elevator, me and the little ones and we headed back down the elevator. Now, those of you who know me are probably wondering if i freaked right out, well let me tell you, i was freaking out inside, especially when that elevator door opened. I had to take a moment and decide whether i could really do it.....but i did. It was unbelievable down in the caves, there were stalagtites, and stalagmites everywhere. It was all limestone and it was awe inspiring. I had to part ways with everyone when we came to the shortcut back though, i mean i couldn't escape that voice in my head that kept telling me we were 750ft below the earths surface.!! After the caverns we went to the living forest. This is like a zoo, but all the animals are outside in a natural environment. We headed out on a mile loop to look at all the animals. We saw cougars, elk, prairie dogs and snakes. We saw links and porccupines, badgers and hawks. Lots of different animals, it was great. The day was a hot one so we headed to Bentley Lake(?). It was a state park just back from a lake, we took a swim and had a bite to eat. There were rabbits everywhere, it was pretty cool. In the morning Mark and i went for a 6km run in the desert while Rryla and Teaghen put together a great breakfast of scrambled eggs, beans and toast, thanks girls!! We then took a high summit road that reached heights of 9000ft, on our way to White Sands. What a spectacular sight this was. It was white sand dunes. Amazing, we hiked around abit and took some fabulous pictures. From there we went to camp at Three Rivers, we wanted to investigate the petroglyphs. They were very interesting, unfortunately we lost our pictures from this site. After camping in Three Rivers and listening to the coyotes howl as we fell asleep under a sliver of a moon, we drove to Santa Fe. What a beautiful artsy city it is. Everywhere you look you see art, from the downtown architecture to the many shops we browsed through. We also had a great dinner out at this rooftop pizza place, so nice to not have to cook! Tomorrow we head to Sedona AZ and than onto the Grand Canyon. I am personally counting down the days until i see my girlfriends in Vegas on the 28th, the only one i'll be missing is shortcake.!
This trip has been full of good times, it has been full of adversary too. We have learned alot from the places and the people we have met as well as each other. We have discovered that life has some unforseen things that happen, that you cannot control or predict. In saying that i would like to share with you that our beloved dog K'yoosh died recently. He suddenly got sick and after taking him to a vet he was unable to recover. We have had him cremated and Barbara will bring him home to us in July. We were heartbroken and shocked. We all look at things alittle differently now. It's funny how a situation like that changes you inside forever. Its like the lenses that you've stared at the world through have been tinted ever so slightly. Time will heal us all i know, but i miss that dog, we all do.
I am sending you all K'yoosh kisses on the wind tonight. He loved to give kisses. May you sleep soundly under the clear sky, may the moon shine brightly apon you all.
With love always.
US

Hi everyone, lets play catchup shall we......ok,so after we left Pilanque we headed for the Emerald Coast where the beaches have black sand. We picked an rv site from our book and hooked up. It had a pool and water slides for the kids. It was right on the beach, a great location. It was not near as nice as the yucatan though, and we were once again wishing we would of stayed longer in Paa muul. It being what it was though we enjoyed ourselves. Unfortuntately we didnt have internet service there. The weather was hot, and the pool was warm and it was very buisy because it was cinco demaio (sp) (the fifth of may). We had several young boys lingering around our rv lurking after our older girls, it was a little concerning.!! They kept asking to borrow our soccer ball and showing off for our girls. Mark and i rode our bikes into town a few times to grab a coffee and check things out but for the most part the little town we were staying 4 miles out of was very small and quite uneventful. We stayed here for 3 days and carried onto Cuidad Victoria. This was a bussling city, just about 3 hours from the border. We stayed 2 nights here and did some shopping and a shit load of walking, holly cow. Again walking anywhere with our older girls was a challenge. Mexican boys and men, don't have any dignity, they just stare and gauk and shout, its disturbing and crazy all at the same time~!~ Mark enjoyed half a day shopping out with us than he graciously took the little ones off my hands so the older girls and i could finish the day off. While we were gone he McGivored up a sprinkler for the little ones out of a two ltr pop bottle. It was ingenious!! We all had a little run through it when we got home. We left bright and early the next day, at around 6am and headed for the border. We crossed at Pharr on the US side. It was a breeze coming through the border actually which was a relief, we had to get out of the motorhome while it got searched but it was only for about 10 minutes. (We could of smuggled that little kitten in after all!!) The first thing we noticed after crossing was a sting operation going down at a motel, after that we saw another one going down at a gas station. WOW, scary!! The next thing we noticed as we stopped for "Peter Piper Pizza" was how heavy people were, which made me feel a whole lot better because when you are sitting in an rv travelling around from place to place like we are you don't get a whole lot of exercise and i am sure that if i havn't gained weight, my mussels have disapeared at the very least. Anyways we got our pizza and headed towards Austin, to where we could hang out and relax with our good friends I think a little out of place is an understatement, but oh well. There was a grad photo session going on while we were soaking in the hot tub. We took turns picking our favorite gowns, it was great, it was like we had front row seats at a fashion show.
After we rehydrated in the pool and hot tub we went back to the rv and fed our kids. We than had them hang out in the hotel, which they were so happy to do. To have the space to lounge and have a shower and watch tv. Us adults went out for dinner to the restaurant, which was Scotts treat. It was great. Not only to visit and get some adult time in, but to eat a meal that was cooked by someone else! Thank you so much Scott, it was so greatly appreciated. We slept in the parking lot that night and than hooked up the next morning with Scott and Barbara to go out onto a Pontoon boat which they had rented. It was so cool. We had a blast, even the dogs enjoyed it.! Scott brought out the fishing rods and had the little ones fishing with him. They caught so many fish which they released, even the big girls caught some. We saw pretty much the whole lake, it was beautiful.....again thank you so much Barbara and Scott, it was a mothers day that will stay with me, thanks. After parking the boat we headed up towards the motorhome. i was carrying Aidan and he pointed out this huge creepy crawly, it turned out to be a giant centipede! It was about 7 inches long and it was black, yellow and red. We discovered that it was a giant desert centipede. It has sharp, poisonous claws and venomous fangs, it is scary fast too. It can reach speeds up to two feet per seconds!! Yikes! Im so glad that when it hid in the rocks it didn't come back out when we tried to poke it with a stick!
We were now on our way to Barbara and Scotts.