A little of this and a little of that

Last night we decided that I will be leaving this afternoon to go visit my sister Laura in Iowa for a while (originally I was going to leave this coming Monday, but gratefully flying standby lets you be flexible). So now I'm trying to get clothes washed, packed, and organized before our flight today. But of course I feel the need to blog about the last few weeks, especially since I won't be home for a while. So here's a few random things we've been doing:

Paul got scuba certified...this required him to dive at the Balmorhea State Park, about 4 hours away. The girls and I came along, thinking we would enjoy the day swimming in the natural spring while he dove. It turned out to be ridiculously windy, and the girls lasted all of 10 seconds in the water before wanting out. So I was stuck with two cold, wet, crabby kids with nothing to do in the middle of nowhere. Gratefully our friends Cassie and Jacob came along and we decided to visit the McDonald Observatory, about an hour away in the Davis mountains. The girls napped while we drove :). It was only sad that Paul couldn't come along since he is the astronomer in the family.

Hattie enjoying the giant sundial

This is the gigantic 433 inch mirror, made up of 91 hexagonal mirrors (it's lying flat looking toward the dome). It's the 5th largest telescope in the world.

Hattie liked Anna's carseat

Hattie has also taken an interest in photography. She borrowed the camera during the drive home from Balmorhea and actually had a couple of decent shots.

Proof that we really were in the middle of nowhere

Then yesterday she documented Paul mowing the lawn:

You can see from these two pictures, taken in succession, that she learned out to take pictures vertically

The girls have been a lot of fun lately. Yesterday Hattie was making Anna laugh like crazy...and it lasted for about 20 minutes! I love my crazy girls.

And some random pictures for your viewing pleasure: