Seeking Entertaining Ideas

We're in the countdown now! Only nine more nights in this hotel. After a month and a half, we're all anxious to get into a real house.

We're soliciting help for our last nights here, though. Seems like we ought to take advantage of being in a hotel nine more nights.

What would you do for entertainment? How would you keep the kids entertained? What would you do at night after the kids are asleep in a hotel?

Leave your ideas in the comments, and we'll post pictures if we try your suggestions. If we had branded T-shirts we'd also award one to the person with the best idea. But, we don't. You'll have to be content with our momentary gratitude.

Family Hiking

Yesterday we went out on a little hike at a local wildlife preserve.  It was about 3/5 of a mile each way to a little waterfall.  Unfortunately, there wasn't enough water for a waterfall once we got to the end (we actually continued walking for probably another quarter mile or so just to make sure we weren't missing anything).  It ended up being a good time, even if we were extremely hot (got off to a late start), and hungry (should have eaten lunch BEFORE the hike), and thirsty (we need to bring more water next time!).  All in all, a really fun time just being together on our Saturday.

We were all very excited as we started out on our trek.

River was my buddy as we hiked along the relatively easy trail.

Maddy and River often ran ahead (with me close behind) and ended up waiting for Dad and Britta to catch up with us.

Strangely enough, Maddy thought the view of the road was, "So Beautiful!"

Britta has short legs and was luck enough to be carried a good portion of the return trip.

All that was left after a famished family of 5 gobbles up sandwiches at Quizno's for a late lunch.  LOVE their raspberry lemonade!

Swarms of Bats!

At one point, when I thought of bats, I thought a giant black scary shrieking creatures.  I pictured them swooping down from the sky to swarm around and flap in my hair.   

 I am so glad to report that my assumptions were totally off.  Included in our many other educational experiences here in Austin, is a number of bridges that house large colonies of bats.  One of these colonies is literally next door to our hotel. During this time of year the bats fly out from beneath a highway bridge right around sunset.  It is a sight to see!  

At first glance they look like bunches of flocks of birds.  They are NOT birds; they are bats.  And they are awesome!

I did my best to capture the moment, but cell phone pictures only go so far.

Boom Chicka Boom

When we went camping this past Memorial Day with family, my sister Jenny sat all the kids down and taught them a new song.  Boom-Chicka-Boom!  They love it.  Lately I've heard all three of my kids parading around the hotel room singing this song at various times and at various volumes.  I've even had baby Britta inform me that "Jenny sang that song."  I figured she should know that her nieces and nephew miss her, so I made a brief recording to capture the sentiment.  The giggles at the end are certainly the best part.

We Live in a Hotel

Some of you have heard that we're closing on a house. In case you haven't heard, I'll just tell you: we're closing on a house.

And we're pretty excited about it, but this post is not about that house. (Please note that if you ask questions about the house in the comments, they will be ignored or ridiculed — but probably not both.)

The focus of this post is our living arrangements in the meantime. Because we're supposed to close so soon, we couldn't exactly sign a lease somewhere, so our only options were:

• an extended stay hotel
• a 35' trailer
• a vacation house on the lake

Naturally, we chose the hotel. Yes, our lives are a bit like Monopoly.

The Low Down

The hotel room is actually a two-bedroom suite. It's located right near work and, coincidentally, also really close to the home we're buying. It's a relatively small hotel, with maybe 120 or so units.

Most people only stay here a few days. We've met some people who are here for a couple weeks, but that's the exception. In other words, while we've been settling in, we've been watching everybody else come and go — families on vacation, softball teams, young families like us just in between things. We've been surprised at how many families with kids stay here.

What's So Great About a Hotel?

Despite how weird it feels to live in a hotel, there have been some distinct advantages. Let me count the ways:

1. Breakfast buffets every morning. Not continental breakfast, but a pretty complete buffet. Cereal, oatmeal, eggs, sausage, yogurt, juices, Texas-shaped waffles, muffins, fruit, bagels, etc.
2. Daily room cleaning. As long as we leave the room for a couple hours, a maid will clean our room, make our bed, do our dishes. It's awesome! Why didn't we have this at home?
3. Little shampoo bottles. New ones everyday.
4. Light dinners. Tuesday through Thursday they serve a light dinner and call it a reception. It's not usually enough for a full meal, but it comes close a lot of times. Along with the daily breakfasts, it has the effect of bringing everybody out of their rooms. You can tell who's Texan, because they'll strike up a conversation with you like they've known you your whole life. If we don't mingle, we at least see who else is staying here.
5. Swimming pool. It wouldn't be a hotel without a pool, and the kids love having it so accessible.

I have a new perspective on what it's like to be a thimble in Monopoly. Maybe next time I won't complain when I pay the expensive fees to stay at the Boardwalk.

Hooping it

Yesterday afternoon we decided to go to the Ice Cream Festival in downtown Austin.  Sounds great doesn't it?  It wasn't.  Hot and humid, crowded and pricey, definitely a disappointment.  Having said that, there was a booth there selling (and allowing trials of) hula hoops!  We spent a good 15 minutes playing.  All of us.  Good times for sure.

There were all different sizes.  River liked the smaller hoop.  Britta and Cameron loved the giant hoop.

River spent most of his time rolling the hoop around.  This usually ended in the hoop smacking into someone -- or something.

I was a hula pro in my day.

Maddy was really actually pretty good.

I was a bit surprised at how much Cameron ROCKED this giant hoop.

What It's Like Working at Dell

In this post, I'm going to answer the question on everybody's mind. No, not "Who shot JR".

I'm going to tell you whether I can get you discounts on Dell products.
I can — for a small fee.

No, wait. The real question everybody has been asking is, "How is your new job? What's it like working at Dell?" (I know that's two questions, but if there were a semicolon, they would still technically be two questions.)

Well, okay, so nobody's asked me that personally, but I'm sure everybody's been dying to know. What could be more important than how I'm doing?

I've now been officially employed at Dell for two weeks. It'll probably be another two months before I can fully measure how the job will be. But, I'll say this, I'm having a great time so far!

Dell has multiple campuses. It has two in Round Rock, TX alone. I think there are eight buildings on the main campus, and I've only been through a few of them. Building 1 is where Michael Dell's office is. Unsurprisingly, it's also where most of the executives are. The analytics team has pretty high visibility, so we're all there, too.

My cube is on the first floor right near the main entrance. I don't know whether that's good or bad, but it sure makes it easy to find.

I can't speak for all of the buildings, but the few I've been in have been filled wall-to-wall with cubicles. That makes it hard to find your way around, so they paint walls different colors, depending on where in the building they are. There's also a grid system with numbers and letters painted on pillars to help you stay oriented. It's clearly not the most natural environment, but I'm fine with it.

The workflow with my team is really nice. This may be a larger Dell trend, but there is a push to make everything easier to do remotely. There is an emphasis on getting the work done rather than being at your desk for so many hours. In fact, nobody seems to pay any attention or care whether you're in the office or working from home as long as you're reachable. It's something that makes me feel both trusted and valued. It's also been essential as we've tried to find a home.

My role is kind of unusual. Not as unusual as the Texas-shaped waffles in our hotel, but still unusual. I belong to an analytics team, but all of my time is spent supporting a team responsible for pushing new initiatives on the website. So I kind of have several people to report to. So far, I'm enjoying it because it places me in the familiar position of a consultant. It allows me to approach the work in an unbiased way and measure things without regard to whether the team will like or dislike what I've found.

In summary: JR's mistress shot him; I have some limited ability to share Dell discounts; and my job at Dell is awesome.

GREAT outdoors

I took the kids to a park here in Texas the other day.  There's a place with a splash pad (I wore my swimming suit and ran around with the kids -- good thing I wasn't able to photograph that!  haha!).  There was a small creek that ran through the park.  There was also a giant sandbox area covered with a tarp.  There were sand toys provided.  We stayed for hours.  I was glad the kids had swimming shirts and shorts -- they escaped sunburn free, but I wasn't so lucky.

Maddy and Britta enjoying the water.

Twirly spraying coils were great to run through.

Maddy got a kick out of sitting atop the water as it sprayed.

quaint little creek to play in with crystal clear water.

Maddy tried unsuccessfully to create a dam.

River helped as best he could.

We found a giant snake skin behind a rock!  Made me nervous, but the kids were delighted!

Britta enjoyed the sand.

Madalyn and River brought buckets of water from the creek to make pools in the sand.

Overall, such a fun time!  Nature at its best!  I hope there are many more park days in our future!

Texas eats well!

So far, I am extremely impressed with all the options there are here in Texas when it comes to eating!  We've had to do more eating out than we'd really like to admit, but at least it's tasty!  Besides Rudy's BBQ, we've found another place to fill the craving for ribs and pull pork: Johnny T's BBQ.  YUM.  We went there as a family Friday and it was amazing!  With the great prices, and delicious taste, I'm sure we'll be frequenting this place!

The kids LOVE the ribs.

Britta was picky about what she'd eat, but she loved the ribs, too.

Delicious satisfaction.

Direct quote, "I want to stay in Texas forever and EAT RIBS!"

River ate more fries than the rest of us combined.

I love the sweet potato fries!

Yesterday we headed south (though it was only about a 30 minute drive!) to visit the Texas Pie Company.  What a fun place that is!  We had some of their homestyle sandwiches before buying 3 mini pies to go.

Hilarious 3-D pie to serve as the landmark.

Cam and the kids anticipate a fun meal.

I got a new hat to show my Texas spirit!

It was quite a small place, which added to the quaint feel.

I loved the chicken salad sandwich especially!

We got a Strawberry Rhubarb, a chocolate fudge, and a Pecan pie.  We took them back towards home and stopped at a fun park to eat.  DELISH!