First day of school

This summer flew by and now school has already started. Here is the obligatory doorstep photo of the first day, complete with sulking pre-schooler brother.

Olivia is starting 2nd grade and is a pro when it comes to school. She had no issues and was excited to be going back.

The big news is that Carmen started Kindergarten! She was very excited about the whole idea and did great the whole morning until she actually got to the classroom and started acting a little shy. That's normal for her, though, and she's already getting used to it and comes back excited to tell us about what she did each day.

California Trip

Amber wanted to visit her grandma (and parents), so she took the kids and headed off to California, leaving me behind for a week. Wouldn't you love to travel with these companions?

It wasn't my trip so I can't elaborate, but it sounded like they had a good time playing in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa's house, playing with cousins, feeding ducks, picking berries, and of course, spending some quality time with Great-Grandma Anne.

Toothless

It had been a while since the last one, but in a period of just a few days, Olivia lost both of her front teeth. The first she pulled out all by herself, and the second came out while she was brushing her teeth a few days later.

Too bad they'll start growing in before Christmas...

Texas State Capitol

After the caverns, we drove to Austin to see the Texas State Capitol.

We went to the Visitors Center first, where there were some interesting exhibits about Texas around the time the capitol was built.

Some of them were interactive, like a land surveying activity and this cowboy dress-up station.

After the Visitors Center we explored the grounds around the Capitol. They had beautiful lawns and trees and lots of statues and monuments to look at. Miles, however, was more interested in chasing the birds, while Carmen and Olivia collected leaves and feathers.

The building itself is beautiful inside. The dome dominates the design, leaving an column of open space all the way to the ground floor.

It looks cool from the exact center.

There were wings in each direction and we had fun exploring the hallways as we went up floor by floor.

Everything had the lone star on it, like these benches that Damon liked, outside the representatives' offices.

And of course, we had to check out the view below as we got higher.

We went on a Saturday, so most of the official business was shut down, but we watched part of a recognition ceremony for what looked like interns. Damon liked clapping for them.

Olivia and Carmen kept themselves entertained during the trip by taking picture with an old camera I let them use. It was fun to see what they decided to take pictures of.

Natural Bridge Caverns

This last weekend I took Friday off and we drove into Texas hill country for a mini-vacation. Our first stop was Natural Bridge Caverns, just outside of New Braunfels.

When we got there we were greeted by a big dinosaur in the parking lot, so of course the kids had to go take a look.

The caverns are named for the natural bridge directly over the cave entrance.

Having been to Luray Caverns fairly recently, I wasn't sure if this would compare, but I was impressed. There were lots of cool formations to see.

There were several very large rooms in the standard tour.

The tour was self guided and I was always the last one through taking my time looking at everything while the kids and Amber went ahead.

The tour ends with a cavernous cavern room, the size of which this picture does not adequately convey. It was very impressive. I kept thinking about what the original discoverers must have thought when they found it.

After we got out of the cavern, we walked back to the surface attractions.

On the surface they had a lot of touristy things, like a ropes course, zip line, and maze. Our kids were too young for most of it, but they really liked the sluice. We bought a bag of dirt that was pre-seeded with non-precious gems and minerals and we all took turns panning.

We got lots of pretty rocks from our panning, and bought some tumbled-smooth rocks in the gift shop, and the kids played with them for the next few days.