On Saturday Stacie and I sleepily merged onto I-35 and headed north to Waco, TX. After a quick stop at Chick-fil-a for a breakfast sandwich and obligatory coffee we were on schedule for the 100th edition of Baylor University Homecoming. Stacie was obviously excited since Baylor is her alma-mater but I was eager to partake in college football and all the livery and atmosphere that surrounds it! I missed this experience in Scotland.

Parade Float

This picture is why stereotypes exist. I mean really, Texas beauty queen on a longhorn adorned Rolls Royce?!

Go Bears!

Meredith, Stacie & Becca

The big game

Meredith's daughter Mabry. Little cutie...big spirit!

We had a great time at the parade, seeing old friends and enjoying the festivities. Baylor was ultimately overmatched in the football game but we had a good time regardless. Even though I didn't go to Baylor I was able to enjoy the universal pride and spirit that surrounds collegiate athletics, which I appreciated.

-Kyle

A pumpkin & a park...

This past weekend Kyle & I tried to do a bit more exploring of NW Austin. To our surprise, we located a 200 acre park just minutes from our house! I would say we are so lucky, but in all honesty I think the Lord just continues to provide for the desires of our hearts and we sometimes don't even realize it. Needless to say, we were very excited. The park is mostly like a woodsy trail with a few creeks and lots of cactus. Also, icing on the cake- you can have dogs off the leash! We took Deacon & Mercedes and they ran themselves into an exhausted stupor. It was fabulous.

The Park

After the park, we went with our friends Mike & Michelle to pick out a pumpkin at a local church pumpkin patch. Kyle was up to his usual antics- see below:

Thankfully this was not real puke, just a smashed pumpkin!

Little Finley

Mike & Michelle's son Finley got to pick out his first pumpkin. What a cutie! It was a fun time. Next year we're hoping to go to a "real" pumpkin patch, but things have been a bit too rushed this Halloween for us to do any proper research on places to go. After the patch, Deacon & Mercedes got to meet Finley for the first time (Finley's first dog encounter) and it went surprisingly well! Check out their blog if you want to see pics.

-Stacie

Errands...

I probably couldn't count on both my hands and feet how many times I have gone to Target, Lowe's, the grocery store- the list goes on, in the past two weeks. I had forgotten how many errands moving (in America) entails. Whenever we moved in Scotland (which was three times to be exact!) we just threw our stuff in a suitcase and hopped on the bus. That's not exactly how things go here in the good ole' US of A. Thankfully though, two weeks in and we are pretty much done running errands and are all settled in. Today is the first day we have had internet at our house, so hopefully we'll be updating the blog more frequently now.

The new pad

That is our new place. We are very excited about it and are happy to be settled down once again. We are just renting, but it is a great little place. Quite the step up from a tiny apartment in Edinburgh!

Kyle has been busy working and I am currently seeking employment, so I lots of free time on my hands to do whatever I please. Not too shabby really. I'll admit, it can get a little boring. But with two dogs around, you never lack much for entertainment. Luckily, there is a park close to our house that the dogs and I have been frequenting. Even in the 90 degree heat- they are more resilient that I anticipated.

Not even breaking a sweat! (I know, I know, dogs don't sweat)

The park by our house

All in all, the transition has been good and we are so far enjoying our new home.

-Stacie

Roadtrip!

As promised, I am updating with more about our roadtrip to Texas. We rolled out of Spokane on Monday morning and headed down to Boise, Idaho. It was a short 7 hour drive and then we hung out with friends for the evening. We stayed with Kyle's good buddy Alan & his wife Casey. Alan's new pastime is riding dirtbikes so Kyle got a little taste of that while we were there!

Alan showing Kyle the ropes

We also got to see the Kuntz family. Kyle & Ryan went to U of I together and both Kyle & I were in Japan with Ryan's wife Dara. It was so fun to see them and their two little boys!

The Kuntz clan

Tuesday morning we rolled out to Jackson, Wyoming to visit our friends the Fixters. It was another short day- only 6 hours. We got to meet their son Kye as well. The dogs were happy to get out and stretch their paws with another four-legged friend, Aberdeen.

Kye

After our night in Jackson, we got started at 5:30 am and made the 16 hour drive to Salina, Kansas. We ran across snow, sleet and rain- it was quite the trip. But we arrived at our hotel safe and sound- just very tired. Thursday morning was another early start and we made the rest of the trek to our new home in Austin.

The movers brought our stuff on Monday morning and we are now officially all unpacked. After a year it is a great feeling!

-Stacie

We're here...

After a four day trek we have saftely arrived in Austin! Of course I took photos along the way, but silly me packed the camera cord somewhere in our all of our stuff. So, I'll have to update more on that later.

We've mostly spent the last few days getting aquainted with our new home. We've made numerous trips to Target and Lowe's and now we're just waiting for our stuff to arrive on Monday morning. Kyle has his first day at work on Monday and I will be trying to unpack our house.

Unfortunately, will not have internet at the house for another week so we won't be able to post again until then. We'll update more once we have internet.

-Stacie