Zephyr and Violet (August 15, 2018)

Violet likes to sit in her food bowl to munch.  Zephyr dreams of joining Violet in the food bowl.

Moth that looks like a brown leaf (August 12, 2018)

This moth was circling around the porch light, looking for all the world like a floating brown leaf.  We lured him inside by turning off the porch light and turning on an inside light.  "Like a moth to a flame . . . ."  Or, as Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice: "Thus hath the candle singed the moth." 

Kids Acting camp show (August 10, 2018)

Fox attended Kids Acting camp August 6-10.  The kids had 4.5 days to learn their lines, music, and choreography for a shortened production of Wicked. Fox played Dorothy in some scenes and a munchkin in others.  Her big moment as a munchkin was when she did a cartwheel and the splits!

Anjanette and Fox after the show

Happy 67, Tom!

How can Tom be 67 already?  To celebrate, we started with dinner and a selfie at Kerbey Lane.

On to REI for Papa Tom to get good jogging/hiking shoes.  He'll break them in next week when we hit the Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Southeastern Utah.

No birthday cake, but a giant apple fritter at Voodoo Doughnut.

Could have had a doughnut with Oreo cookies or Fruit Loops on top.  Because. 

Saturday and Sunday and back to Austin (August 4-5, 2018)

Fox and Mimi (Brandy's Mom Cheryl) hit it off

Piper couldn't get enough corn on the cob

Piper and her mermaid at the backyard playscape

Flying River

River's breaking the hang time record!

River modified the pie face game so whipped cream lands directly in the player's mouth.  Love the modification, River!  Will play this game with you any time.  Whipped cream.  Mmmm!

The water park at Dollywood in Tennessee (August 4, 2018)

Okay, I admit it.  I'm the biggest chicken in the world.  This slide was too high for me.  And it wasn't even the slide with the 70-foot drop! I stood by the water slide to take photos while everyone else--including Piper--slid over and over again.  Then, the phone was put away and I spent a lot of time in the wave pool and running (instead of tubing) through the Lazy River: the first time, to catch Fox, who was running away from me; the second time, because it's good exercise.

Hard to see, but that's Ryder in the lead, followed by the three Asheville Lewis kids.  

Fun and games during a break in the rain (August 3, 2018)

Piper, Mya, and Fox with the Slip and Slide.

Piper, Fox, and River

Mya's making Olive and Sookie with Perler Beads.  Olive and Sookie are Mya and River's pet rats.

Picking cucumbers and tomatoes from a friend's garden while the friend is out of town.  With permission, of course!

Mylo, the best hunter ever.  He'll tap the ground next to a mole hole and capture the mole when the little head pops up.  Probably best if I end the story here.

Fun and games on a rainy day (Friday, August 3, 2018)

Tuned Brandy's guitar but couldn't play anything except "Killing Floor" from memory.  Promised the kids I'd know more songs next time.

Volleyball rules, balloons and flyswatters.  Don't let the balloon hit the ground or you're out! 

Remember Twister?  A friend from down the street played too.

The bets are in.  Which objects will be flung off the fan first?  Friend Clara from down the street was one of the scientists.

Setting up the centrifugal force experiment

The gymnasts get together (August 2, 2018)

We watched Mya do handsprings and back bends in her gymnastics class.  At the end of class, Fox got to participate in the parachute game.

Working the Ninja course at Launch (August 2, 2018)

The idea is to swing to the bags and work your way to the net on the wall. Go Fox!  I tried the course and made it to the first bag then fell into the foam pit.  Discovered one will sink hip deep into the blocks unless one crawls over them to escape the pit. I learn something new every day.  Seriously.

Mya's got it!

So does fearless Piper!

Ryder and River swinging and climbing on through

Onward to Asheville! (August 1, 2018)

Flat Stanley is on his way home to River.

Fox checked out the freshness of the air on the plane.

Four happy cousins at the Greenville-Spartanburg airport.

All the way to Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, for Tex-Mex at Chuy's.  Chuy's is Fox's favorite Austin restaurant.

At Chuy's until rush hour traffic clears for about an hour drive to Asheville.