Spring break!

I'm on spring break from school this week, so I've been kicking back, enjoying reading a little fiction, and, oh yeah, writing several books. I feel bad because I promised I'd post a couple of pictures of last weekend earlier in the week, and then time got away from me. It's been raining pretty much all week though (spring break! woohoo!), so it's nice to remember the weekend when it was sunny and clear. 

I wanted to do something fun Saturday during the time I'd normally be in class, so we decided to go on a hike to somewhere we hadn't been before. That took us a little north and west of town to Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. It's a 72 square mile preserve designed to protect the habitat of several endangered bird species. Part of it is open to the public for hiking though, so hike we did!

The hike we went on claimed to be a vigorous uphill hike, but elevation gains were small. 

Playing around with the selfie stick Sam got for Christmas. 

Walking through the creek. 

On Sunday, I had no class to enjoy skipping, but we still took advantage of the nice day. It was the annual kite festival in Zilker Park, which was fun to go to because last year it was too cold to really enjoy. H.E.B. was giving out free, cheap kites that were really pretty impossible to fly, but we enjoyed watching other people fly their real kites.

Sam claimed he had never flown a kite before. I think he's just forgotten his childhood. 

Kites aplenty!

After the kite festival we were volunteering at Illuminate, a walk to raise money for Safe Place, as well as awareness about domestic and sexual violence. We manned the tshirt booth, but I did get a couple of pictures of the walk.

Heading out to the hill. You can't really tell because it wasn't dark enough, but everyone was carrying lighted balloons to stake to the hill as part of the event. 

Better shot of the hill. 

Alas, this upcoming weekend is the last weekend of spring break, but I hope to enjoy this one just as thoroughly!