Odd, Wacky, Ridiculous, Awesomeness

Wrapping up our trip to Austin...

Austin is known for its weirdness.  

It puts all its odd, wacky, ridiculous, awesomeness out for everybody to see.

And we saw all of it.

Odd

Who puts a turtle pond on a college campus?  UT does.  I even call it "Ms. Shelley's turtle pond" because Shelley has always loved it...so did Kyle.

Wacky 

Which was the inspiration for the Thai and sushi restaurant down the street "Thai, How are you?" 

Ridiculous

I'm not sure if a blowup snowman in a van is ridiculous because they have to leave the van door open for it fit, or if it's totally "Austin normal" to a have a blowup in a van and it's only ridiculous because it's a snowman in 85 degree weather. 

Awesomeness

Where all the girls he'll want to date will live. 

And for odd, wacky, ridiculous, awesomeness rolled in to one I present the Matthew McConaughey Christmas tree at the University CoOp

The tree topper is a Lincoln car hood ornament, those are movie quotes, and oh by the way, do you see the bongos?! 

When I tell you McConaughey is a Texas treasure, I'm not exaggerating. 

Capitol

So back to when Kyle and I were in Austin...

We somehow wound up with all kinds of pictures of him with the Capitol.

And since we were so close, we went inside and found the important stuff.

The House of Representatives

And where Governor Greg Abbott gives his press conferences. 

On Time!

This thing showed back up on December 1st.

But there was really no way he could have forgotten to come on time (this year).

Kyle and Reed talked about him nonstop for a week leading up to December 1st...and begged for him to come early.

Sam the Elf has quite the attitude this year.

He's already left Chloe a note that she's getting coal and that he'd rather be Jose Altuve's elf.

I guess holiday stress is already getting to him. 

Tricks in Pics

Kyle was obsessed with having handstand pictures made while we were on the boat.

He had me take multiple "sunset handstands".

And he went and had one of the ship's photographers take one too. (Oh yes, people were lined up for family portraits while this action was going on.)

Reed was more worried about having Flow Rider pictures made.

And yes, he had "professional" portraits made too.

And JR was too cool hanging with his teen crew to have any pictures made at all. 

Jason Day

Jason's birthday was Saturday and since we were at sea that day, we had a full day on the boat where all we could do was celebrate him. 

The room was supposed to be decorated to surprise him the night before, but instead we were greeted by this towel animal awesomeness. (Just what he's always wanted.)

One of the birthday highlights was our 2nd annual Ingersoll shuffleboard tournament.
Unfortunately for Reed and me, Jason and Little Jason are still the champions.

They were happy to repeat their victory from 2 years ago. 

We ended the day by singing happy birthday at dinner.

The boys all think there isn't anything Jason can't do (which is pretty much true).

And I think he's pretty great too.

Roatan and Cozumel

As I've said before, we don't really care where a cruise is going...we just like to be on the boat.  And since we don't pick a cruise based on its ports, this was my 3rd time to Roatan and my 5th time to Cozumel.

It was a bit rainy in Roatan, but the boys and Granny were still able to zipline.

Kyle and Reed (and the guide because they don't weigh enough)

Granny Sherry and JR

And I was able to find a Christmas tree.

I believe there were 6 cruise ships in port in Cozumel.  Crazy!

The Fish are Back

JR wasn't dancing with street performers in Costa Maya since he was busy at the Fish Spa.

He even used his Spanish to get himself all set up.

What I can't believe is how much JR has grown since the last time he did a Fish Spa 2 years ago.

Paw-Paw decided he wanted to do the Fish Spa too, but he did his in Honduras.