Pictures!

Since I am so, so behind on keeping up with goings-on around here (I'm having to decide between blogging and sleep), I'm going to post a bunch of pictures from the past couple of months to record some of the highlights.

First off: It was a COLD winter for Austin.  Actually for most of the midwest and east, I think.  However, despite many below freezing days and nights, we really didn't get any snow.  We got a light dusting one night, but it really crusted over and was sort of just a thick crunchy frost that covered everything.  Still, the boys enjoyed getting out in it.

A few weeks later we got an ice storm.  Not as dramatic as the one 7 years ago when we first moved here, but enough to delay-start school and cancel seminary.  I went out to take a few pictures.  Nothing new for anyone in more northerly parts of the country, but definitely a novelty for Austin!

This is my favorite picture of the bunch-- here it is, spring time in Austin, and we get an ice storm!  What the heck?  Still, the ice-encrusted twig against the green grass background is really beautiful.

Brigham is my baker.  He loves to bake!  He makes pancakes or french toast nearly every morning.  One Sunday morning a couple of weeks back he made a blueberry smoothie, blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, AND a blueberry coffee cake.  Everything was eaten up by dinner time.

And speaking of baking, here is Mosey's cake entry for the Blue and Gold banquet this year.  It's a volcano apple cake, with raspberry jello "lava" inside, and topped with orange strawberry cream cheese frosting.

And here is Mosey taking part in the flag ceremony.  I love my little cub scout!

Another big thing this winter was the purchase of our cabin!  We own 50% of a cabin along the Colorado River, directly across the river from Colorado Bend state park.  We've gone a couple of times now, and we can tell it's going to be a favorite hang-out for our family.

The cabin came with a couple of kayaks, and we spent most of the day on the river.  Central Texas in March is pretty much paradise.  It was a gorgeous day.

Joseph spent most of the time fishing, but had no luck.  The drought is still pretty bad here, and the water in lake Buchanan, just a few miles downstream, is very low, making it difficult for the bass and catfish to run upstream for spawning the way they normally do this time of year.

Sandy LOVES the cabin.  I mean, she is in the ultimate doggy-heaven when she is there.  She did not want to come home.

We bought the cabin from the original builder, a native Texan who inserted his Texas patriotism into the decor.  Here we see a lone-star motif on the bathroom light fixture:

A Texas cowboy-boot toilet paper holder:

A Texas long horn pull on the kitchen trash bin:

Which is also liberally decorated with Texas lonestars:

 Since we are only 50% owners, we have to clean it every time we leave, which is probably a very good thing.  Brigham was a super-good helper.

Homeschool is going.  We have good days and bad days, days when I think I'm doing a good job, days when I think I should register my kids for public school tomorrow.  :-)

Here are Joseph and Mosey doing "schoolwork."  :-)

My little nephew sent us "Flat Stanley" for a tour of Austin.  Google the Flat Stanley project-- it is fun!  He hung out at home with us and we took him around to see the sights and take a few pictures.

When we sent him back, we gave him some new Texas clothes as well as some souvenirs from Austin.  I hope Luke's 1st grade class enjoyed it!

Austin has an In-n-Out!  I took the boys there a few weeks ago.  They thought it was definitely worth all the hype.

Joseph and Brigham also went to a Merit Badge "University" a few weeks ago down at UT.  They took classes on Geology, Nuclear Physics, Energy, and Veterinary medicine.  The classes only covered some of the requirements, so we took a couple of days and did a crash-course in the rest of them.  It was many, many hours of work.

Brigham working on his Isotopes poster:

Brigham and Joseph with the homemade cloud chamber they constructed:

And a closeup of them just because I have so few pictures of them together recently:

We went to the capitol building to try and get some "native" Texas rocks that they used to sell at the gift shop, but which they no longer carry.  Oh well.  It was a beautiful day at the Capitol anyway.

The most exciting thing recently was that Joseph broke his arm!  Poor kid.  He fell off his skateboard and broke both bones right above his left wrist.  He finally got a cast (after 10 days! and two $45 orthopedist visits...), but he still won't be able to play his Debussy (Claire de Lune) for the recital...  I'm not sure if he's most relieved or most disappointed about that.  :-)

Well, those are all the pictures I have from the past few weeks, so I will end there.