Wildfires

These are photos I took on Sept 9th and 10th while the Waller/Montgomery/Grimes counties wildfire was still blazing away. Very frightening.

Here's the column of smoke as seen from the high school, which is about 3 miles east of the road we were on in the photos above. 

And here's the annual KOHS tribute to all the people who died on Sept 11, 2001. Parker and others in ROTC helped set all this up.

Kira at the bus stop - beginning of 6th grade

Kira and neighbor Anna, waiting for the school bus on the 4th day of school. Notice the girls aren't using backpacks - book totes are better when the lockers are tiny!!

The 7th day of school - she's getting into the groove!

Cute hairstyle - but no telling if it'll last through and after PE!

(8th day of school)

The girls moved to the other corner of the intersection - avoiding ants!

Cool Austen!

Anne took this photo of Austen as we were walking back to his dorm after lunch on Saturday.

Cool guy in his shades ... and just where he wants to be ... at UT!!

And here is Austen's side of his dorm room - decorated!! We love it!

Austen's start at UT

Here are Anne, working on getting photos of her boy's dorm room, and Kira, busy playing a Wii game! Abbi, Parker, and Austen are watching Kira's game. (It blows me away that anyone can be fascinated by watching someone ELSE playing one of these games!!)

Austen's desk and other necessities!! Haha!

The food center and the hall and closet just inside the door ... and the TEXAS pennant on roommate Ian's side of the room.

Door to the hallway (left) and door to the bathroom (right). Backpacks on hooks by the door.

Our four cherubs, posing nicely!

After a "tour" of his room, Austen took us on a tour of part of the campus - a walking tour in 104-degree, sauna-like weather! The girls (below) are demonstrating how to use one of the relaxation places in the Student Activities Center. Very comfy!

Here are the girls again, lounging on a comfy sofa. Austen was showing Anne and Parker the room where the student legislature meets.

From the SAC, we walked to the campus computer store and then to the Coop, where Anne found shirts for the kids. Then we went to have lunch.

Austen is very happy and will have a variety of activities on campus before classes start on Wednesday, Aug 24th. Busy, busy!

Moving Austen in

Austen's move-in day was Friday, August 19 - at 9:15 a.m.!! We left home around 5 a.m. and got to Austin around 8:15 a.m. so he could go to the check-in place and get his room assignment: in San Jacinto dormitory. 

Another view, and there's the back of the Longhorn stadium behind the dorm.

He has a nice view of the Longhorn stadium from his window.

It took about 2 or 2.5 hours to move him in. Then the rest of us checked into our hotel, and that night we went to the Olive Garden for dinner. It was hard to get good photos of Kira - she kept moving and moving around!

Finally - a non-fuzzy photo of Kira!

Brothers!

Austen was opening gifts from Anne, and Kira is still in motion!

Next morning, we picked up Austen and went to IHOP for breakfast.

Kira and Abbi were very busy making designs with their DSi's!

Our TGIF on a Thursday night!

Fun times at Chili's!

Lt. Linehan, Flight Commander

Entering his sophomore year, Parker was chosen to be a flight commander in his ROTC unit. This past week, the ROTC unit at his school held their own freshman orientation, and he had charge of one of the units of new freshmen!

Views from my arch window

I love the views out this window - at all times of day and night, as well as times of year!

Kira at 11

Here's my favorite photo of Kira, taken last week ~ her birthday week!

An afternoon at the park!

This afternoon, family and friends went to Minute Maid Park to celebrate Kira's upcoming birthday ~ to have lunch, birthday cake and ice cream, and watch the Astros game.

This is the area outside the Center Field Entrance to the ballpark.

Walking into the FiveSeven Grille ~ we went on upstairs!

The inside of the FiveSeven Grille, and the loft upstairs ~ a game room with lots of space for eating, etc.

A view of the baseball field from the loft.

Boys playing Pacman!

Boys watching TV and eating!

Girls eating their lunch ~ Abbi, Isabella, Kira, Morgan ~ cuties!

Austen putting the candles on Kira's birthday cake.

Singing "Happy Birthday" before Kira blew out the candles. Six candles because she's going into 6th grade ~ Austen's logic!

Girls watching the ball game after lunch and party!

Boys, walking back to the car after leaving the ballpark ~ notice the colors of the party-favors bags!

Another shot of the boys and party-favors bags ~ emphasis on the colors!

Trees in trouble

That there's a drought all across the southern tier of the US (<~~click here to see the current map) from Arizona to Florida is not a big secret. This part of Texas has received about 23" less in rainfall than normal in this "water year" (October, 2010, to now). And it's showing in the numbers of dead -- not just dying, but dead -- trees all over the area.

It's all very heart-breaking.