moments captured

We had a great time in Texas...we got back a week ago, but it's almost taken me this much time to get back into the routine. Actually, I'm not sure I'm back into it yet.

I guess an interesting thing about the trip is that we didn't take many pictures. You'd think I would have thought to pull out the camera when we were visiting with our old friends in Tyler, but I didn't.

Actually, I think sometimes we focus so much on trying to capture every moment on film and maybe not enough on simply enjoying the moment. I remember one trip we took as a family...we spent Thanksgiving up in Dallas with our friends, the Wyatts, and then drove from there down to Sea World in San Antonio. It was back when it was just RVC and TLC. We somehow left our diaper bag in Dallas, and with it our camera. I was pretty bummed about it initially, but it ended up being somewhat liberating. While I don't have very many specific memories of this trip (alas, no pictures to document it all!), I remember really enjoying the trip generally--just having fun together as a family and not feeling the need to get behind the camera every few minutes.

At any rate, we did take pictures our first evening in Tyler, at the Judge's dinner.




And here are a couple of CAC on her first plane ride.




And the Texas state capitol in Austin (at the conclusion of our tour).


We also did a few other touristy things in Austin, namely touring the LBJ presidential library, walking around parts of the University of Texas campus, exploring the State History museum, bat-watching one evening, and walking through the botanical gardens (some of the things I did with CAC while TEC was attending CLE conferences).

What I really wish I had captured on our trip are the countless smiles from strangers I witnessed as I walked through the streets and public places in Austin. That is one memory book I would treasure. These smiles weren't directed at me, but rather at CAC, who, for most of the trip, was strapped into the snuggli on my front, facing out at the world. There is just something about a baby that breaks down our adult walls, making it okay to reach out to that person across the aisle on the bus...to start talking to the person sitting at the table next to you at a restaurant. One man, in the airport before our flight home, came right up to me and said something I didn't understand. When I said, "Excuse me?" he replied, "Oh, I wasn't talking to you; I was talking to the baby." And that's pretty much how the trip went.