Return to Lost Pines

Three years ago, we stayed at the Hyatt Lost Pines resort just outside of Austin in Bastrop.  We had a lot of fun then and decided to go back for a few days this summer.  We left the morning of the 5th and returned the afternoon of the 7th.  With the kids a little older, it was even more enjoyable than our first time there.  We will definitely go again in the future!

Set in a forested landscape along the Colorado river, the resort has an elegant country feel to it.

It was hot, but the big shade trees and pool activities helped cool things down.

They have tons of planned activities for families and kids, like horse-drawn wagon rides.

There is a basketball court and a tether ball pole by the river, and we played some mean games of tether ball each evening we were there.  Let's just say that a few tears were shed based on who won and lost the games.

They have real horseback riding and river rafting along the Colorado, but the youngest ones weren't quite old enough to do those activities yet.  Maybe next time.

We had fun making colored sand art.

And making tie-dyed t-shirts.

I had never made tie-dyed shirts before.  It was fun!

The human hamster balls were a huge hit!

Though the kids were a bit dizzy by the end of their turns.

Whoooaaaa....

T-bone and Ribeye are the two resident longhorns at the resort, and they were there the last time we came.  They had grown just a tad in three years!

The kids had fun sitting on top of them and pretending they were cowhands.

Harrison really got into character.  He even pulled on the reigns, which they told us not to do (he tends to "not hear" those types of warning) and started the animal moving.  Thankfully the trainers intervened before he was thrown like a rhinestone cowboy into the adjacent tree.

Little Em jumped right up despite being half the size of one of the horns.  Bella decided just to pet the longhorns.  She did not want to get on top, especially after Harrison caused T-bone to jerk.

We also had fun playing glow-in-the-dark tennis and eating s'mores around the campfire, though we didn't get pictures of those events.