With Daddy out of town this week, everyone pitches in. Tonight Graydon did storytime for his brother and sister!

Harvey Update

In the Austin area, Harvey has now mostly come and gone. Sum total about 9" of rain in 2-1/2 days, and some pretty fierce winds. Our poor Monterey Oak tree in the back yard was partially uprooted. Neal and I went out at about 7am on Saturday to stabilize it - with the stays on, it looks like it's just fine! :)

The neighbors had the same thing happen with a larger tree in their front yard, and they had their arborist come out. So I asked him to take a look at ours, too. Now we know what we need to do - and unfortunately, we're stuck with the posts for another year or so until the roots have grown back stronger. But we are grateful that this is the only damage we had from the storm.

Five inches and counting

We haven't seen much of Hurricane Harvey other than some pretty gusty winds and steady rain over the last 24 hours or so. The weather radar shows the storm has already substantially weakened, but we are now more "under" it than previously. We'll see how much rain is in the gauge tomorrow...

First day of second grade

Graydon's first day of second grade is over and he said it was a good day and he likes his teachers ! (And the most important he has no homework today)

Life is good...

... when you have a next-door-neighbor who lets you use her pool!

Graydon at Camp Tanner

Guest post by Nana: "We've had a good week at Camp Tanner. We made mesquite bean flour and then crepes and brownies from the flour. We ran trot lines and jug lines and fished for perch. Graydon ran minnow traps and learned how to pick up a catfish. We also had great sailing, skiing and lots of swimming."

Graydon comes home today and starts school (second grade!) on Monday.

Welcome to August in Texas...

Silly Cousins!

Jonathan and Wiley enjoyed horsing around inside Wiley's tiny little lower-bunk space.

Ride 'em Coyboy!

There's a little farm of sorts in Ste Emelie where Grossmama often buys eggs (and occasionally Haitian art...), and the owners had invited us for horse-drawn carriage ride. While we were out in the carriage, Graydon got to ride the friendly little horse Sunshine. Look mom, no hands! (Thanks to Doreen for the photo!)

Wiley in a tree

We found a burned out tree on our hike to the blueberry patch the other day and Wiley wanted me to take a picture of him in it. 

Aloha from Canada?

Berries, berries, berries!

It's been quite the year for blueberries! Here are some photos of our intrepid berry pickers and some of our previous haul. Each of those bowls is of the large cereal variety (on the bottom right is a pint-sized plastic tub, for comparison).

Picking blueberries in the rain

When the blueberries are too wet to collect for later... you just eat them right away!!

Sandbox "Cheese!"

They were playing in the sand box and I asked them to look at me. They both said "cheese!!!" but were clearly more interested in the sand...

Story time with Granddad

Playing in the creek

Throwing rocks into the water is an age-old favourite kid activity!

Excited to head to Canada!

Hanging out with GMM

Don't forget to #carrythecanoe !