Newks

It was a long weekend in the car! We got up Saturday morning and drove to Austin. We went straight to lunch at this funky place on 6th street called Opal Devine's. The food was really good but the misters on the patio were not enough to block the 104 degree temp. We went from there to the Children's Museum and it took me 30 minutes inside the museum to stop dripping sweat. The kids loved the activities in the museum. I was a bit disappointed because my only memory of a Children's Museum is the one in Indianapolis and it totally ROCKED! This was more like an interactive play area for kids. The kids didn't know the difference though and had a great time. Then we headed over to the Capitol and went inside for some photo ops. E loved standing in the middle and looking up at the dome. It was too funny. Two weddings at the Capitol that day. I never thought about getting married there but it seems to be pretty popular.

After checking into our hotel, the kids wanted to go swim in the indoor pool so we went down for about an hour. It was so hot in that room that an hour was more than I could stand. I was actually dreaming of fresh air the last 20 minutes or so. Dinner that night at Joe's Crab Shack was awesome. They actually made me a Brandy Alexander for dessert (they even let me call my brother for the recipe since they'd never made one before). Super yum!!

Sunday, we hung out in the room until we were stir crazy and decided to go ahead and head in the direction of the tennis camp in New Braunfels. We were going to stop and shop in San Marcus but we got word from the other Mom's heading to camp that they were close so we decided to eat a quick lunch and head on to Newks. Lo' and behold, they got sidetracked on the way and we beat them by about 40 minutes. No big deal except it was super hot, they weren't given their cabin assignments til 3p and we'd arrived at 1p. Two hours of sitting around and they finally told us which cabin the girls would live in for the next 6 days. I was expecting a big room full of beds. Instead it was a small room full of bunk beds. Ash was not happy that she did not get inside in time to choose a top bunk. Her tallness is terribly afraid she'll bump her head on the bunk above during the night. 10 girls, one toilet, one shower and A/C that was running at about 85 degrees at best. Glad it is not me!!

Five hour drive home (with stops for potty and food). Ugh! Ash called at about 7p to let us know she'd made the top team when they did the skills test at 5. Her and two of the other girls from our group all made the Top Gun Seniors. Our little powerhouse 8 year old in the group made Top Gun Juniors and our other player made the regular team. She is a bit newer to the game than the others and just started getting more serious about tennis this summer. She is the one that went to camp w/ Ash at UNT a few wks ago. I hope she's not too disappointed to not be in the top groups with the other girls. She's a real sweetie and I know she was super nervous about the skills test.

I'm sure the girls will have a blast this week. The whole thing was a bit rustic for my taste but Ash seemed to love it. It reminded me of the 2nd year of CampAPhi when 6 of us were crowded into a 400 sq. ft. cabin for 3 days. Also very rustic. Now that I think of it - it was my favorite Camp ever so maybe Ash is more like me than I thought!