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.

Baby oak trees in my back yard!

In the first two photos, there are two baby oak trees. I've known they were there for a couple of years, but I have been wondering if they'd make it through this drought, even though I run sprinklers often. The brown edges on the lower leaves are the result of running sprinklers - water with chlorine in it - that's my conclusion anyway! Rain water doesn't have this effect. But the little trees look healthy, and that's a joy to me.

And in the next two photos are four more baby oaks! REAL babies - they just started growing this spring!

What amazes me most is that these are oaks growing at the bases of elm trees - and they are different from any other oak trees in either my front or back yard! The work of birds?

Kira's summer haircut!

Today, Kira got a MAJOR haircut for the summer ... and to get used to so she's more stylish in intermediate school in the fall.  We love how it looks on her!!

Summer camp!

Simone has been at summer camp in Massachusetts for almost 2 weeks. Learning to water-ski and to be the Ring Mistress for Circus of the Kids have been her main emphases! She's clearly been having a terrific time!!

Water-skiing on June 29.

Circus rehearsal on June 30.