where are we?

Camels??? In Wichita Falls??? Huh???

on the road

We are on the road, and thank goodness. It's so flamin' hot here I
thought we might catch fire loading the car. Heading up to Fort Worth
then over to Amarillo. It's nap time so the girls should fall asleep
any moment now.

Packing

We're leaving the great frying pan that is central Texas tomorrow,
and heading to Colorado. We'll camp for a week at Ridgway State
Park, which has some nice hiking trails, a river, fisihing ponds, and
a big lake with a swimming beach. The most important characteristic
of this place, however, is the simple fact that it is NOT 105
degrees. Not even close. The high today was 78 and the low is 52.
Heaven.

We're going to drive all night to get there Monday morning. We're
always optimistic before drives like this, and then about 2:00am when
Willa is screaming her head off in the back seat, we wonder what made
us think this was a good idea. We have completely baseless high
hopes for this year's trip for some reason.

Mary Grace is so excited she can hardly stand it. She was so wired,
she cleaned up the entire kitchen for me just to avoid going to bed.
She even emptied the dishwasher, and scrubbed all the counters. I
finally got her in bed around 10:00.

Jason has done his usual genius packing job. He's like Santa with
toys for all the children of the world in one tiny sack on the back
of his sleigh. I don't know how he does it, but no matter how much I
pack, he always fits it in. We head out tomorrow around 1:00. See
you on the road!

Julia is Here!

Our new niece, Julia Dianne Woods, arrived today! This is the first baby for Jason's sister, Michelle, and our brother-in-law Wayne. Julia was actually born on her due date, which indicates that she will be a very obedient child. We got to Dallas in great time after getting the call that she was on her way, but didn't have to wait at all to see her. Julia is rather impatient, and insisted on being born after only an hour at the hospital!

Jason, Mary Grace and I all enjoyed holding Julia, who slept through our entire visit today. Evelyn, who absolutely LOVES baby dolls (if a baby doll isn't handy, she'll cradle a shoe or a even a wooden block in her arms) watched closely as everyone took turns holding Julia in the rocker in the hospital room. When it became obvious that we were not going to offer the baby to her, she patiently climbed into the empty rocker and held out her hands, as if to say, "My turn!" I sat with Evelyn in my lap and helped her hold Julia while she looked under her hat, and patted her head so sweetly. It melted my heart. Willa kept remarking "Baby's not crying!" as if to say, "I thought they were supposed to cry!" What fun these girls will have growing up together...

Up! Not really...

We just saw "Up" the new Pixar movie with Mary Grace. We got a
babysitter for Evelyn and Willa and took Mary Grace out for a little
date with Mommy and Daddy. She got dressed in her best dress and
fancy shoes, jewelry, the whole bit. It was really cute. Too bad I
can't say the same for the movie. It's gotten wonderful reviews, and
maybe I would have liked it if I had seen it without Mary Grace, but
it is very sad in some parts, and very scary in others. I had Mary
Grace in my lap bawling two separate times during the movie. She's
seven, she loves movies, and even claims to like scary movies, but
this was way over the top in intensity level. I feel pretty
confident predicting she'll be in my bed before the night is over.
Uh, thanks a lot, Pixar.

p.s. Jason loved the movie, but I think it was mostly because of the
cool score by Michael Giacchino.