A happy 24 hours ...

We've taken it easy the last 24 hours or so and have just enjoyed playing with the little kids. Late yesterday afternoon, after visiting the exotic zoo and the little farm, we were just too tired to do anything else!
I brought a bunch of playdough and toys with me that I'm taking from city to city to play with all of the grandchildren, so we got some of it out and had a bunch of fun with it ...

Everyone joined in. We made cookies for each other, as well as pets to play with and Mr. Potato Heads too!
Sabrina created this little blue cutie ... everyone especially liked her francy braided hair!
Karis just wanted to make big gobs to sink her hands into ... she did enjoy rolling out some dough and cutting cookies out of it ... very yummy!
And our Olivia finished up her homework in time to play too ... a very rare and precious photo opportunity!
Karis has gotten quite attached to Grandpa Jones and even requested, in a rather demanding sort of way, that HE tuck her in bed last night! So he enjoyed doing that very much ...

Everyone slept quite well last night, except for this young fellow who is an extremely early riser ... 5:00 a.m. was his wake-up call this morning! Perhaps he was anticipating a good time at school today. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Jackson and Karis go to preschool from about 9:00 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon.
Andrew and Sabrina, and Grandpa and I decided to enjoy some adult time today while the kids were happily at school. It's a very nice little school. We met their teachers and saw their classrooms, met their friends, and heard about the plans for their day; and then we drove to ...
... a lovely little place called Gruene (pronounced "Green"). We've been there before, but not since Jackson was a newborn. It's a nice touristy little town with tons of cool shops and beautiful flowers ...
The weather was perfect, again ... no wonder folk like Texas. I love the heat, personally ... but today, it was just sunny, windy and amazingly beautiful with a high of about 87 degrees ... definitely my kind of climate.

We went in a ton of cool little stores and touched every little thing! In the General Store, I purchased some really delicious cinnamon/honey butter, as well as peach pecan cinnamon preserves ... doesn't that sound yummy?
The thing I remember best about this little town was the absolutely amazing lunch we enjoyed all those years ago. It was the very first time I had ever even heard of chicken fried steak. I remember thinking that it was such a weird name ... Andrew strongly recommended it, but I told him I didn't think it sounded very good. He talked me into it, and I have craved it ever since! Up north, we have a similar dish they call "country fried" steak, but it just isn't quite the same as it is here in Gruene. It's kind of like having sweet tea at McDonald's and then coming south and having REAL sweet tea ... huge difference! Sabrina and I split an order of chicken fried steak and enjoyed every little bite.
And this was the completely decadent dessert that we shared ... see? There are four spoons in it! We each had our four bites and were completely happy! It tasted every single bit as good as it looks ... and more!
I took a bunch more flower pictures. There were so many butterflies today, but the most beautiful one flew away and I missed it ... I think perhaps Sabrina had better success.

"There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God ..." Psalm 46:4 NASV

We took a nice stroll after lunch down to the Guadalupe River to try to see the rapids. I took a lot of pictures here because it was just perfectly beautiful. We've had a great time so far. Tomorrow, we're going to go down to Zilker Park, ride the kiddy train ... and who knows what else will come our way? It's very nice to be here in Austin. More later ...