Austin Aztex Game

Saturday night was a blast! We went to the season home opener of the Austin Aztex soccer team at House Park. The Aztex won 6-1 in an exciting game with 2 red cards, aggressive players, and a bunch of fun fans in the stands. Brad's strength and conditioning coach - Coach Tim - also helps train the Austin Aztecs. Brad had so much fun - as did we. Here are a few photos from the evening...

Country Liviing Fair - Austin 2012

You may remember a little trip I took last October with my mom to the Country Living Fair in Atlanta, GA. It was so fun. While we were there we saw that they were planning a Country Living Fair in Austin Spring of 2012. I was so excited! As soon as the tickets went on sale, I bought a pair of 3 day passes with early bird access.

My friend Jaymie came all the way from California to visit so we could go to the fair.

I'm not sure if there were less vendors at this fair compared to the ATL fair - or maybe it was just how they were all set up. Never-the-less, they had some great vendors/shops!

I think one of my favorite shops was the Scarlett Scales Antiques. It was this cute little booth in the corner. Quite honestly, it was easy to miss if you didn't know exactly where it was. But it had absolutely adorable items! I got some of my favorite things there!

My Be True Banner over my fire place.

#3 Bucket

Driftwood Star

We also saw Olive Grace Studios. She was at the ATL fair. I was so happy to see her. I got lots of cute fabric!

They had a huge area for their Antique booths. Lots of cute items! I found another one of my favorite pieces in the antique area:

On Day 2 Jaymie entered the Country Living Twitter contest and won $100 fair bucks! She bought me these beautiful measuring cups with half the money:

Kitchen Bling

Here are some other photos of lovely items and booths we encountered...as well as some longhorns that made their fair debut....

Creative and beautiful chandeliers

Antique Barn

I'm already looking forward to next year!

Rain & Tornados

Central TX got some much needed rain over the last several days. Forcasters were saying we'd get upwards of 2 inches of rain between yesterday and today. Apparently this morning's measurements were over 4 inches of rain!

Last night was quite exciting. I started getting text messages with "Tornado Warning" and could not sleep. I ended up in my son's room most of the night. Apparently a tornado warning just warns you that the conditions are good for a tornado to form. A Tornado Watch is when a tornado has been spotted on the ground. Well at night....in the middle of the night....who is really up, sitting on their roof...looking for tornados?? So I sat up most of the night, like an over protective mommy (no shame!) and made sure there wasn't one.

Well it turns out a tornado touched down in NE Austin.

They are calling it a "small" tornado. Ummm. yeah. It's still a tornado. Do you see the sharp beam sticking OUT of the side of the building in the middle photo above? Thank goodness that storm is over.

My new obsession...emergency preparedness. More on this later. Stay safe (and dry) peeps.

(Photo Credits: YNN News)

Muddy Outlaw

Rob raced in not only his first 5K but also his first mud run yesterday with some friends from work. It was called The Muddy Outlaw Dash. He had been training for it the last month as part of his whole work out plan he's been so great about lately. I had been SOOO looking forward to this (maybe more than him).

The race course

The Starting Line!

Rob's biggest fan...Cowboy Brad

The folks on Rob's team- The before Shot!

Look at Mr. Smilie - he doesn't know what's ahead

Here comes Rob & Brian...

...and in to the mud they go (check out the girl to the left's face!! LOL)

There they go...off to the finish line!

One last obstical

Rob crosses the finish line!

The after shot....

Great job Rob! We're so proud of you!

Schlitterbahn

At the beginning of summer Rob, Brad and I went to New Braunfels, TX to a place from my childhood called Schlitterbahn. It's a German themed water park thats been in business for what seems like FOREVER. It's family owned and in a really cute little town.

I will say it's changed so much since I was a kid. But it's still super fun. I was excited to share this place with my husband and son who had never been there.

Bradley getting ready to go down the slide

Rob wasn't too much of a fan of the tube rides. Those are my favorite though...I will say that we had a little scare on our 2nd tube ride. Brad and I got seperated. He went down a little fall, then this kid shot past me and ran in to Brad and flipped him over in the middle of a rapid. His tube went flying down the ride without B...and B was stuck underneath this big kid. We had to get out of the ride mid-way through. Needless to say, we didn't get on another tube ride. But we did have fun with many others!

My two boys

Brad going down his 1st tube ride

Brad...and my toes

Brad and I going down a ride backwards!

Rob and Brad

We're definitely going back next year!!

Let it Rain

There was this wet liquid falling from the sky today. Some people call this "rain." Us Texans thought this was just a myth....but I caught this mysterious liquid on film!

Texas is Burning

As someone who has lived in both CA and TX, it's amazing to me the kind of press a wildfire in CA will get compared to the press 300 days straight of TX wildfires has gotten. TX is in a world of hurt with the drought combined with these horrible wildfires...that & the fires in Central TX alone has consumed over 700 homes.

You go on CNN.com or any other "news" website and the ireports are posting amazingly devastating photos. And all people can put is how TX deserves this since they brought 8 years of Bush to the White House and now Perry to the Presidential race. (Side note...for a different blog post...I'm SO tired of politics, both sides of the aisle) It is sad...not only for the folks being hit hard by these fires, the firefighters risking their lives, but also how cold and unapologetically non-empathetic people can be.

For more information on how you can help, check out the Central Texas Red Cross website.

Wadas Boys

Grandpa John (Rob's dad) came to the Lone Star State to visit his boys. John's other son, Rob's older brother, JJ lives & is stationed in a town several hours West of us and will be deploying soon. John visited with JJ and his family for the first half of the week...then Brad and Rob drove out to spend the night and bring him to Austin mid-week. It was the first time all the Wadas Boys (Grandpa John, JJ, Rob, Aden, Skyler and Brad) had been together in many years. Lots of competing & trash talking happen with all the boys are together.

We kept John busy during his visit to the ATX. Rob & Brad took him up to the soccer park to work on Brad's goal keeping and soccer skills. Then the boys headed over to the tennis courts for a little competitive match. After lunch they came home and rested while watching the basketball games. After I got off work we all headed over to Inner Space Cavern for a little adventure.

John, Rob & Brad before we headed down.

In the tram down to the mouth of the cave

John & Brad in the cave

Touching the only formation they're allowed to touch in the cave

John's flight left on late Saturday afternoon. Before he headed out, my aunt Meri and uncle Steve were gracious enough to take John for a sail on Lake Travis. So we headed out to the AYC to meet up with them ...

Brad and Grandpa John reading up on boat safety

Rob & I on the boat

Brad and Grandpa John on Lake Travis

The Wadas Boys on the dock

After a yummy lunch at the Oasis, we headed back to get John packed up and headed over to the airport to say our good-byes. It was great seeing him and we had a great time during his visit!

More Photos of John's Visit can be found here.