Dallas for a wedding

I spent a year in Russia with these friends after college

And this fall, Mistie was married! It was a great occasion for a mini-STINT reunion! She was a lovely bride. Kristen and her husband and Thad and I met in Dallas for the weekend. We got back-stage passes to see Mistie before she walked the aisle - it was such a sweet gift to me! What a great time reminiscing, catching up with old, dear friends, and enjoy Texas! 

Lucky me, we have some RPI alumni who have recently moved to Ft. Worth and graciously drove to our hotel so we could have coffee and catch up! 

'

What beautiful cakes!

 Mistie's reception was wonderful in every way. The buffet was Texas barbecue and Persian food.

At Mistie's recption (the Women's Club in Waxahachie), there was a Texas Declaration of Independence on the wall! I loved it!

Fall

The beginning of the school year means all sorts of activities are beginning, too! Soccer! This is Will's first year playing soccer, and he loves it. He plays with a big grin on his face all the time. He has some of the best coaches we have ever encountered.

Lucy is delighted to be taking tap and ballet. That's Anna Kate in front of Lu. She's deciding about dance.

We took a great hike on a day off from school. Beautiful!

While we were at Camp of the Woods for our Northeast Staff Conference, we took a hike to a waterfall. 

orientation

Will on his way to Kindergarten orientation. He's my fourth child and my first to go to kindergarten!

The school gave the kids tickets for the ice cream truck! It took us a while to visit 3 classrooms plus visit AK's teacher from last year (a total fav!), so we ran after the ice cream truck to catch it.

In preparation for middle school and city buses as transportation and who knows what else, Anna Kate got her first phone.

Anna Kate got to set up her locker at orienation! She loves the lights-really-work-on-a-sensor-chandelier!

 And some other fun stuff, too. She is not excited at all!

Summer fun!

We kicked off summer with strawberry picking! 

Sonic is finally near Albany! Oh, we were excited! We waited over an hour for these drinks!

We helped deliver pull tabs to the Ronald McDonald House!

We attended a wedding in Pennsylvania of some fav students

Will shows off his independence - climbing in to the fridge to get a cheese stick.

The middle of August the kids and I went to Ithaca! It was so fun, and it happened to be Ruby's birthday!

This summer has brought my best, most fruitful garden yet! (I hear it's a good year for other gardeners, too, which means it is probably weather-related and not me-related.)

We had so-much-fun with a slip and slide at Myra and Peter's house!

Peaches mean canning and making jam!

El Paso - sneak peek

Hillery met us in Las Vegas, NM, to take the kids to El Paso while Dave and I attended our National Staff Conference. Her girls surprised my kids by coming along. They were so sneaky, sitting in chairs outside the hotel room reading magazines. . . .

 Everyone got back to school haircuts!