Where did September go?

September passed by in a flash. This is the first year our local pool offered diving board classes after summer ended. Boogs signed up for September and October classes. He looked forward to spending two hours every Wednesday on the diving board. They even had classes in the pouring rain (no thunder or lightning). Unfortunately, the instructor had to move to Arkansas the first week of October so the October classes were cancelled.

The back dive off the high dive is something I would never attempt but Boogs was ready to tackle it.

 He especially enjoyed the last ten minutes of the class because that was free jump time.

 Boogs has really improved his form.

Boogs started working on learning an inverted dive. I was nervous that he would hit his head on the diving board.

September 23rd was Austin Museum Day. All of the local museums were open free of charge. Many of them had special exhibits or activities geared towards families. Boog and I went to the LBJ Library and Museum.

There was a special area set up in the parking lot about space. We got to stand in a partial spacesuit.

Boogs touched the small piece of moon rock on display. There was a video history presentation about space travel.

 Then we went inside the museum.

These phone booths are downstairs near the restrooms. I remember when they used to work. Now they are just for show.

Boogs liked the interactive display about the decisions and information LBJ had available to him during the Vietnam War. The touch screen allowed you to access and read the various reports on LBJ's desk. It asked you to decide what you would do then it told you what decisions LBJ actually made.

 We explored the library for quite a while. Boogs has outgrown the kids crafts and special activities.

I remember going to the LBJ Library with my family when I was a kid. We used to roll down the big hill to the fountain. Boogs did not want to get grass stains on his shirt, so he just ran down them a few times.

 He is pretty fast. I thought about running down the hill with him. But I didn't.

My brother, sister, and I used to dare each other to jump in the fountain. We never did it, but we liked to dare each other to try it. If you stand anywhere close to the fountain you will get misted with water.

 The pathways and trees near the library offer plenty of shady rest spots.

 Boogs took this picture of me before he climbed that tree.

We had so much rain in September that we did not spend a lot of time outside.  Boogs did go deer hunting with his dad the last weekend of September. He shot his first deer on the first shot he took. My husband is looking forward to eating some venison chili.

Fortlandia

I took Boogs and a friend, W, to Fortlandia at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center yesterday. The Wildflower Center is about 30 minutes from our house. The forecast said there was a 40% chance of rain, but we took our chances and went. Halfway there it started pouring rain with lightning and thunder. Luckily, the rain and lightning stopped by the time we reached the parking lot. We still heard a lot of thunder when we started our Fortlandia adventure. Because of the predicted weather forecast, the Wildflower Center was pretty empty. We were at the Wildflower Center for almost four hours and only saw about 20 people.

We made sure we took care to follow the warning on this sign.

"share space with rattlesnakes"

The boys were super excited to hit the mile long loop trail to discover the fort areas of Fortlandia. According to the brochure Fortlandia has "10 unique forts designed and built by local architects, designers, students, and artists. These creative spaces will transport you to imaginary worlds and spark an appreciation for art and nature - and the curious, wonderful ways in which they intersect."

The Keep was the first fort we came across. It was made with baling wire and juniper sticks. The boys felt like they could make something like this by themselves.

The Grand Oak Mission was a small fort made out of oak planks and circular log cuts. The boys spent more time looking at the beetles on the ground than they did interacting with this fort. The boys could not understand how the Listening Fort could be considered a fort. It was a space under some trees with a couple of brass horns and picnic tables. They thought Fort Playwire was interesting. You could walk inside the neon circles of wire but a sign stated "No Climbing". They were ready to move on to the next area.

Blanket Fort was in their Top 3 list. It had three tarps stretched over a metal frame with wooden floors. It looked really neat. There was also a great climbing tree surrounding the fort that the boys had fun playing on.

Foam Follies Fort was the first space we came to where you could build your own fort. I love the first pic in this collage where they are both scratching their heads trying to figure out what they want to build. They started with a circular fort that they could walk inside. Then they decided to use every single foam piece in their structure. It was quite a balancing act. The foam pieces felt like they were made of memory foam. They were very squishy and wobbly.  I think the boys had as much fun destroying their structure as they did building it. We probably spent 30 minutes at the Foam Follies Fort.

By the time we arrived at the Seedling Pods fort, the sun was shining brightly. The pods did not offer much shade so we looked at them and quickly moved on. There was a toy building set inside one of them and a game of rug checkers in another one. The boys thought Fort Playhive looked like it was made with giant Jenga blocks. It was in a nice shady spot. We stopped for a bit and had a snack before moving on. The Rainbow room had an upright piano in it.

Along the trail were a couple of spots with different types of swings. It was nice to play in the shade.

My absolute favorite spot was Fort Build. This was amazing! It was the 11th fort area. The other 10 areas were created by designers, this was a build your own thing area. It had bamboo poles, tree stumps, tree disks, cut railroad ties, hay bales, sticks, tarps, movable benches, ropes, and logs to be used to build whatever you wanted to build. I would seriously love to have this in my backyard. We stayed in this area for about an hour. I think three other families stopped by during that time. I was surprised this area only held their kid's interest for about five minutes before they went on to the next fort area.

Boogs decided to use bamboo, tree logs, and a small tarp for his fort.

W made a tall circular fort with railroad ties then added a bamboo roof. Later he put a tarp over the entire structure. Boogs split a piece of bamboo to make a sword and poked at W through the open spaces in W's fort.

Boogs put a gate across the entrance of his fort and made a fire pit adjacent to the main structure.

The Nomadic Forts were the last forts we saw. They were built in the middle of a beautiful meadow. The boys climbed in all of them, even in the teeny tiny one.

I was looking out through the window opening in the largest structure when Boogs decided to perch on my window like a bird. These structures were made with rebar and tree boughs.

Here are the descriptions for each fort. Click each group to enlarge.

 

We had a wonderful time exploring Fortlandia. It opened on September 29th and will be available to tour until February 24, 2019.  I'm glad we went this weekend, so close to when it first opened. I'm sure some of the forts will look a bit worse with wear and tear and weathering by the time Fortlandia ends in February.

We had a late lunch at the Center's cafe. This was a spectacular way to spend a Saturday. The boys were hot and ready to leave after lunch, so we did not get a chance to explore the rest of the Wildflower Center. It started raining as we were walking to our car in the parking lot. Perfect timing.

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Return of the Dirt Bikes

It has been several years since we took the dirt bikes out of the garage. We did not really have a place to drive them. We used to drive them on a friend's property but the mesquite tree thorns would puncture the tires within 5 minutes of riding them. It became very frustrating. Now, we can ride them on the deer lease ranch.

Boogs was so little when he first got his bike.

Now Boogs towers over his bike.

The roads on the ranch are mostly dirt roads with some super sandy areas.

The sand is much harder to drive on without slipping around.

Daddy had Boogs run through several refresher drills - 1st gear, 2nd gear, 1st gear, brake, repeat.

Boogs had no trouble at all getting on the bike and riding like he has never taken a break.

My husband really enjoyed all the space to play. He spent more time on his bike than Boogs and I combined.

I finally rode one of the bikes. I signed up for a lesson several years ago, but my bike had carburetor trouble and I did not get to take the lesson. So, this past weekend was the first time I have used the bikes. Daddy and Boogs used to go by themselves. I hit a sandy turn and flipped my bike on top of me. I've got a few bruises from riding this past weekend. I wiped out three times. After each wipeout, I drove slower and slower because I was worried about falling again.The sand is really tough to drive through.

I picked a spot for reading and watching Boogs drive around. This part of the covered porch is perfect for lazing in the shade with your feet propped up and a good book in your hand.

After Boogs went to bed, Daddy and I played a few games of pool. The pool table is outside of the cabins under a covered porch. Daddy beat me at every game.

While the guys were out riding on our second day, I spent some time wandering around looking at the small creatures on the property. It took almost 10 minutes to get this shot of a bee in the center of a flower. There were about ten bees buzzing around this group of flowers. I was a bit scared of getting stung.

I followed a long trail of ants to their home.

This spider has built a huge web in the outside shower area. It was in almost the exact same location the last time we came.

The three of us had a shooting competition with .22 rifles. Our target was a 4 inch steel target located  100 yards down the range.

We decided the competition would be most hits out of ten shots. Daddy went first and scored 2 out of 10.

Boogs went next and scored 3 out of 10.

I took a turn last. I really did not expect to hear the target steel ping even once. But I won!!! I scored 7 out of 10. Victory! (or pure luck)

We packed up all our stuff and loaded the truck just as it was beginning to sprinkle. On the way home we were followed by these clouds. We hit some heavy rain with thunder and lightning. I'm so glad we had our stuff in a waterproof cargo carrier.

Boogs is so busy with school (way too much homework) that we really don't have time to do much of anything during the week. Hopefully, he will get into a good routine and have a bit more free time during the week.

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