July is turning out to be quite an eventful month! We've been fortunate to have some family and friends join us in Austin for a couple of days here and there. My sister Clari and her family from Ft. Worth, Texas were kind enough to celebrate the Fourth of July with us! Nelson and I did our best to keep our niece (Vanessa) and nephew (Ivan) as entertained as possible. Needless to say it's still as hot as ever here, so we all thoroughly enjoyed a day at a water park less than five minutes from our house (the perks of living in a big city)! Ivan has quite the interest in cooking and was my little personal chef assistant for the weekend...I could use him around more often! He helped me prepare all our meals and bake my very first cake (from scratch). It seems like just yesterday they were both itty bitty babies and I was still in middle school/ high school...man how time fly's! We are looking forward to their return for Labor Day weekend as well! Vanessa is an amazing soccer player (one of the top in the state of Texas, no exaggeration) and her club team is playing in a tournament here that weekend! This will be Nelson's very first time seeing her play and he is eager to see what all the hype is about! We finally got to video chat with my parents over the Fourth of July weekend as well, and got to see our other nephew (Byron) and niece (Lekari)! Byron and Lekari spent the weekend with Gma and Pops in Columbia and it was soo cool getting to see them face to face....makes us feel like we're really not that far away after all :)
Nelson won four tickets on the radio to a Round Rock Express Baseball game a week ago! We had our friends Ryan and Annetta, also newlyweds join us for an evening at the ballpark. It was so convenient to watch some really good baseball since the stadium is only 10 minutes from our house! And the best part, it was free :) 
Danielle, a good friend of mine from nursing school and her husband Eric, were kind enough to stop by Austin on their way to Denver. They are relocating to Parker, Colorado (a suburb of Denver) and we couldn't be happier for them both! Their parents along with their twin boys (who are so adorable) were waiting for them in Colorado while they took a cross-country vacation to their final destination. Their next stop was Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is such a neat city with lots of Native American history and architecture and then finally to Denver! We were so grateful to have been able to spend an afternoon with them in Austin. As with anyone that comes here, you cannot leave until you have seen the infamous bats! There are two bridges that these bats reside under, one 10 minutes from our house and the other is downtown. We all ventured down to the Congress Avenue Bridge at sunset to witness them embark on their nightly journey. It is estimated that there are between 750,000-1.5 million female bats living in the bridge's crevices at any given time during the season (March-October)! And thankfully for the locals, these bats help keep our insect count rather low as they consume on average between 10,000-30,000 pounds of insects while they visit (hence, why we have little to no mosquitoes)! Now we can say we have seen both bat bridges and each is an experience in itself! We also took Danielle and Eric to a personal favorite restaurant of ours, Carmelo's for a delicious late night dinner. After a walk down 6th street and short drive home, we were all ready for a good night's rest! We cannot wait to visit them in Denver, especially since Nelson has never been to Colorado! Missing you all dearly...
Love,
The Lewis's
