Our first morning in Austin...

We finally arrived in Austin last night about 9:15 p.m., which is about two hours later than I had hoped. Sabrina gave up waiting for us and finally put the little kids to bed. They were sound asleep when we arrived. We unpacked the van, put stuff away, and really didn't stay up very late last night ... we were really exhausted after being in the van for 14 hours.


But everyone was up bright and early this morning! It was really good to see the kiddos ... we have not seen Jackson, Karis, Olivia, Sabrina or Andrew in over six months ... way, way, way too long to go without seeing folk you love.



I've uploaded a bunch of random snapshots, thinking I could rearrange their order afterwards, but I'm not having any success doing that ... so we'll just have to take them in the order they were uploaded.
Andrew and Sabrina are members of a really wonderful community of believers here in Austin. They worship at a place called Hill Country Bible Church. This is the theme of their church ... to bless the city with the grace, truth and love of Jesus. I am always personally blessed after worshipping with these folk, and I love their kind and truly gentle-hearted pastor, Phil.

These are Karis's "Sunday sandals." Aren't they the cutest ever?
Karis is just a little past two-and-a-half. She is really delightful. She loves to wear dresses, but she is really a tom-boy. She roughs and tumbles with Jackson just like a brother would do ... well, almost ... when she is reminded that she is a princess, she plays the part rather well ...
Sabrina has beautiful flowers planted in front of their house, and you all know my weakness for pretty flowers ...
The lots on both sides of their house are still empty ... so Jackson has a bunch of running room! They tell me there are roadrunners all over the place here, as well as deer, bobcats, and even rattlesnake ... hmm ... I'd like to see a roadrunner and especially some up-close deer ... but the other animals I'm hoping stay far away ...
We were ready early for church, so we hung around the front yard for a little while. Andrew and Jackson watered the thirsty plants ... Jackson was pretty intense about it!

Since the boys were watering the lawn, Karis decided she was going to need her umbrella ... it was nice that Olivia was in this picture. She is difficult to get a picture of ...

This is a truck Karis helped to make (Jackson made one too) over at Home Depot yesterday morning. She is pretty proud of it too!
I thought while Livie was outside swinging, perhaps she wouldn't notice if I just leaned out the back door and snapped a quick picture ... but she was too quick for me! I'm going to have to be much more sly I see! Everyone is napping this afternoon. We are going to an evening potluck and baptismal service tonight. I'll try to keep this blog updated on a daily basis, at least while I have access to high-speed internet. Talk to you again tomorrow!