los patitos

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Overheard recently

Luke and Autry are playing family. Luke is the dad and she's the mom.

Autry - Honey, you need to take our daughter to preschool. It's her very first day!
Luke - Um, I can't do that.
Autry - Why not? I need you to take her!
Luke - I have a very important business meeting.
Autry - Oh.
Luke - But then he really went skateboarding, right?
Autry - Right.

Also, the other day I overheard Luke telling Autry that he is dedicating his life to science, magic, and mystery.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

West Texas 2012 - Part 1

We left for our mostly annual West Texas adventure early Friday afternoon. We stopped in Johnson City for a yummy lunch at a hidden little cafe and then again in Stonewall for our peach ice cream. It was a good year for peaches, and Brian loaded up with fresh peaches and plums.

We arrived at the River Haven Cabins in Leakey just in time to get a quick swim in before it got dark. The Frio was beautiful and clear, and it was fun to experience a new place. Everyone did some exploring with their goggles, rock throwing, etc. The cabins were full of extended families on vacation, and it really made me miss my cousins... We made a late dinner and crashed out around 11, after Autry had a nice long freak out.

The next morning we got up, ate some cinnamon rolls, and headed out to Kickapoo State park, about two hours away. It's a new state park, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and Brian had signed us up for some spelunkering. I was hesitant about the idea because it was a lot of driving, but it ended up being a really cool experience. The cave was awesome and huge, and the guided tour was way more relaxed than any we had been on before. It was a lot of scrambling around and more freedom to explore rather than just stay on a small trail following a guide. The kids did great, we were in there for an hour or so and even Autry hung in there until the end. We spotted a Painted Bunting and a Vermillion Flycatcher at the state park, and Brian was excited to finally get to eat some berries off a bush that someone told him were ok to eat.

We got back to Leakey in time for a little more swimming, made dinner, and crashed. We got up the next morning, packed, said goodbye to the Frio and were off to Balmorhea.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Mom, I've got a really good plan I've been working on.
Yeah, what's that, Luke?
At school, I act like I can't run very fast. Everyone thinks that I am slow. I almost slipped up when Linus was over the other day, but I don't think he saw me.
Why do you want people to think you are slow?
Because the day of the big race, I am going to break out my speed and beat everyone!
Okaaay...

Luke told me that Brian and I are the perfect parents because Brian is firm and I am nice. "You need to be firm so that your kids are respectful, and you need to be nice so that your kids are nice."

I went to Autry's class to give a presentation during Ayyam-i-ha. I took about fifteen minutes to explain the holiday and how we celebrate and Autry passed out little gifts. I felt that it went well. As I was leaving the classroom, one kid grabs me and says, "Sooo, is it Autry's birthday?" Before I could reply another one answered, "No silly, it's Valentine's Day." Oh well...

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The Bookmark Project

Luke.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Yakona at Jacob's Well

On Saturday we all got to play film crew and "help" Anlo with a shoot. His latest project is Yakona, a documentary on the San Marcos River. We headed out to Wimberly to test out his homemade jib, which he rigged to get some cool overhead shots of Jacob's Well. The water was freezing. Sierra, Brian and Anlo got in with wetsuits and swam around a little, but the rest of us were mostly spectators.

Enchanted Rock

Brian and I have developed a nice tradition over the last few years of getting out of town on our birthdays. We usually head to West Texas for his (June 18) and Port Aransas for mine. Unfortunately, this year the red tide - which is a toxic algae bloom that makes you cough, watery eyes, etc. - was terrible in Port A, so we had to scrap those plans. We still wanted to do something for both my birthday and the Birth of Baha'u'llah, which is an important Baha'i holy day on the 12th of November. Another tradition we love is celebrating Baha'i holy days by getting out into nature with the kids. So... I had a nice low key birthday at home, and then on Friday we went to Enchanted Rock. We hadn't been there for a few years, and were very impressed by everyone's independent hiking/rock scrambling skills. It was perfect weather, if a little bit windy, and we had a great day. I think my favorite part was listening to Autry and Luke converse (in strong British accents) as we climbed. It was something like this:
Professor Luke? Yes, Professor Autry? I believe I've found gold! Oh, I believe you have! Let's dig it out, shall we? Of course! We are going to be quite rich aren't we? Oh yes! Professor Dad! Professor Mom! Can you please put this gold in your pocket? Lovely!
They kept us quite entertained with all the professoring as we huffed up the rock...