Lizzie and Chad come to Austin!!

Guess who came to visit. LIZZIE AND CHAD!! For years she has been calling to tell me she wants to come visit and then breaks my heart every time she says it’s too expensive. Literally, she’s been pulling at my heartstrings for 4 years now. When she told me she was coming in April I didn’t believe her because she’s "cried wolf" too many times. It wasn’t until she sent me a pic of her itinerary that I finally believed her. 
Thankfully these are the only family members on the Etherington side NOT eating vegan only food these days. We can thank Dalton fetus number 3 for that.  Lizzie was craving the meat and Austin delivered.  Chad kept saying after Salt Lick, Torchy's and Chuy's "this is the best _______ I have ever had."  I never have to worry about impressing guests with the delicious bites of Austin.  

 

We had so much fun with these guys. We literally ate yummy food all day and

laughed until midnight every night. I took them canoeing on probably the hottest day ever, and they still had fun. Lizzie loved all the turtles, just like her sister Jane!! Jack wanted to ride with them and didn't fall asleep this time. 

 

George loved canoeing so much he decided to jump in head first while letting his hand glide in the water.  He didn't seem to mind one bit. 

 

 

 One day I took Lizzie to my favorite climbing tree knowing that because she was pregnant, she would only be able to look at it. Well, I was wrong. She climbed it anyway!   She's such a tree hugger.  While in the tree she admitted that she was having a "spiritual moment" while all I could think of was how ridiculous she looked sitting in that tree as pregnant as she was. 

 The tree is downtown and there’s a turtle pond too.  As we were crossing the bridge and looking down into the water at the turtles,  Lizzie was in hog heaven!  She was so overcome with the number of turtles swimming about below her that she accidentally dropped my car keys off the bridge and into the muddy, murky, turtle feces infested water. She was literally counting all the turtles and then just started saying “oh my goodness….oh my goodness….OH MY GOODNESS!!!” I was so entertained by her dramatics that it didn’t even dawn on me that we would be at that turtle pond all day long because we didn’t have car keys to drive the car home.

I thought it would be a good idea for her to carry the keys because she had a purse and I didn’t. Instead of putting them in her purse, she was just carrying them around. I have since learned, don’t trust a pregnant woman with your valuables. Emily locked her keys in the car multiple times when she was pregnant. Us women just don’t do very well sharing our brain power with a fetus.

 

After taking one look at that muddy water, I knew we would never see the keys again. We thought we’d try though. We found a guy with a pool net and he tried to help us tow them out of there. After several failed attempts of bringing the net up empty, I decided to just walk in there and get them myself. The net had proven to us that although it seemed like deep water, it really wasn’t. So I walked in there after hiking up my skirt and garments. Lizzie was on the other side taking pictures of her pathetic sister and praying like she’d never prayed before. It didn’t take long before I noticed something hard under my foot. This felt different from the normal, squishy, e-coli infested mud I was squishing between my toes. And because I have amazing toe power; I wrapped my toes around the object and pulled it out of the water. The keys!! My amazing toes found the keys. It was a triumphant moment indeed!! It was hilarious!! The most amazing part of the day was finding the keyless entry battery still worked! Way to go Volvo for making turtle poop, e-coli resistant keyless entry devices. 

 

 

 

And if that wasn't enough excitement for her, Lizzie defied all of Chad's hopeless attempts to keep her safe, and raced off on the scooter.  We couldn't help but laugh at her pregnant tent of a shirt flapping in the wind behind her like a cape. 

Our last day we went downtown for some south congress shopping and found the famous "I love you" wall next to Joe's coffee.  I can't believe I've lived here 4 years and have never taken a picture here before. 

Such an effortless foot pop has never before been seen!

There's NO ONE in the entire world (maybe Jess...close second) who makes me laugh harder than this lady right here.  I thank the heavens for sending me such a wonderful sister and for making her my very best friend.  I love her to absolute pieces (even if she beats me at pounce and makes fun of me for being a sore loser).  That's what sisters are for.