It’s still very warm outside in Texas so Colin is preparing for indoor adventure.

It’s still plenty hot here in Texas so I tried a bike ride through the local off road trails instead of the paths. It is definitely harder, and there were 2 puddles, one was really deep!

We are now a week into the new school year. Colin in grade 4 and Laura in grade 9. It’s going to be a good year at school.

It also means we are back to school lunch prep every morning.

Colin and Daddy enjoy playing darts. Colin’s darts skills are improving, but are not yet as strong as his trash talking skills.

Colin wanted to finish the first week of school with a board game. (He won)

Made it through the first full week of schools and activities. Time for a celebratory ice cream!

We did another mystery picnic! This one was in the Heights, a neighborhood in Houston. It was not as good as our Mornington Peninsula adventure last year, but still enjoyable.

Enjoying our picnic in the park.

The vacation house we rented was very rural and had no neighbors. It gave us lots of opportunity to view cool birds and animals right from the deck.

Laura and Cliff went to an orientation session at the high school on Monday morning, so Colin and I went for a bike ride around the lake.

It was hot and we were quite shiny when we got home.

As we hiked around High Island looking for birds, this deer suddenly appeared and followed us around. I think perhaps they have been fed by humans, as they were quite determined to keep following us. Spoiler: we did not feed the deer.

And I am surprised any birders would feed the deer, which makes me wonder if non-birders come here more often in the summer or something.