a story of Jackson

Jackson's birthday is coming up this weekend. I have a tradition of sharing stories or pictures about him in honor of this event. This year will be:

Jackson- A story of survival

This story requires some visual aids. This is where we are currently living. We are the door to the left.

We came home the other night, Jackson went first to unlock the door.

He looked down to our well loved Utah mat and saw a bug. Now, bugs in Texas are not like bugs that you get in climates that have winters to kill them off. They are massive down here. Massive.

I believe the bug hanging out on our mat was a cicada. According to wikipedia they are usually 2 inches long and about 1 inch wide, almost the size of a hummingbird. They also fly and make loud noises that I can only compare to a rattle snakes rattler. Jackson tried to displace the cicada by shifting the mat, in response the cicada made it's loud rattling noise and started flying up.

Jackson's reaction to this attack was to turn and sprint straight at me yelling 'get out of the way' whilst pushing me into the nasty wreath/bird's nest.

In any case we have learned one very important lesson. Jackson's natural inclinations lean more towards flight than fight.

Happy birthday week Jacks!

more pictures

The Davis Cup came to Austin so we ventured downtown to watch one day of the singles and the doubles play. It was awesome, a similar atmosphere to the Olympics. Go Team America! Although unfortunately Team America lost to Spain.

The matches were held in a basketball stadium. We sat in the upper bowl and were surprised to find we still had a pretty good view.

Did you know America has a mascot?

The Davis Cup is probably the only tennis tournament that hands out noise makers. The chair judge was so annoyed. We got to see the Bryan brothers. I love them.

Illustrating how to use a 'Go USA' fan.

Team USA and Team Spain

My aunt and uncle finished up their mission in Houston last week so Jackson and I met up with them and their two grandchildren in San Antonio. It has been several years since I have seen them, it was so fun to spend the day with them.

Brennan and Kiley were vigilant in documenting their trip.

We took a river tour.

Saw the Alamo

Ate some amazing Mexican food and enjoyed the mariachi music.

We also tried to convince Uncle Dan that the BYU hat had to go. I wasn't sucessful... this time.

Bats

During our first week in Austin, as we were driving on a busy freeway just before dusk, we noticed thousands and thousands of birds flying out from underneath an underpass. As we got closer, we quickly realized that these were not birds, they were bats, a lot of bats.

We later learned that Austin has the largest urban bat colony with an estimated 1.5 million bats. Most of them live underneath a bridge downtown. They all come out together each night at dusk. Last night, we decided to join the crowds and witness if for ourselves.

While waiting for the bats to emerge, a nice deaf man approached us to give what I thought were free samples of something. After I read the card, I realized why Cara was hesitant to accept them. In the end, he came out a little richer, and we had 2 bat buttons.

The crowd waiting

Cara waiting . . . in style

After waiting about 20 minutes, the show began.

They came out in a steady stream for about 15 minutes.

The bats go out on the town to feast at night, just like Cara is feasting on this delicious "Italian Pucchi"

Thanks to Yelp, we found this great sandwich place downtown. One of the best sandwiches I have ever had.

On a completely unrelated note, we always see this family of deer by our place.

This one is watching you.

And so is Hobbes