Austin

We are officially residents of Austin, TX!   (Or ATX as the cool kids and hipster bloggers say.)  The movers arrived at our new home a week ago today and the past week can best be described at boxes, boxes, boxes!  (With a side of taking and picking up Claire from week-long Camp Travis, which was planned long before our move.)

We are in Cedar Park which is about 15 miles north of Austin and west-northwest of Round Rock.  It is hilly and less developed than Austin with a great (Leander) school district.  Our neighborhood is a planned community, much like our neighborhood in Houston, but not quite as big.  It's adjacent to a city park, Brushy Creek, where there is a creek that is actually more river than creek, even in this Texas drought summer.  There are trails, pavilions and a splash pad for kids, but the best part is there is a kayak and canoe rental place to explore the creek.  We are excited for that outing!

Jack started back at work last week and is excited to be with the rest of the staff and in a more productive environment than our house.  And with the house being about 90-95% set up and out of boxes, we are all feeling a bit back to normal.  On tap this week is registering Claire and Anna for their schools, taking Claire for a sports physical so she can tryout for her school's volleyball team the first week of school, and hanging out with Meghan's bff, Natalie!!!  Natalie is on the road to Austin as I type this and we are all excited to welcome her to our new place.  (Natalie is also going to UT and will be moving to the campus here in about 3 weeks, so this will be her 2nd home when she wants to get away for a home-cooked meal or free laundry!)

We miss all our friends and neighbors in Houston, but it is really nice to be on the other side of this move....finally.  We are excited to explore this new city and experience some new things.  School is making the girls a little nervous (and I certainly can understand that having moved cross-country when I was in 6th grade), but they are acting like champs and embracing it with smiles and mild trepidation.  (Taking Meghan to UNT, 3 hours north of Austin, in a short 3 weeks is a whole other post!)

Here are some pictures of our past week. 

 Meghan in her near-empty Houston room.

 Anna checks out the moving van as the boxes are ready to load up.

Our garage filled with boxes and containers.

 We loaded up two of these trucks with our belongings.

 Meghan made this sign for our garage to hang the week before we moved.

 Our "home" while waiting for the movers was the Cedar Park Candlewood Suites.  All 5 of us plus the dog and 3 cats were in this room for three days.  Here is Jack on the recliner while watching "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC.  (4 girls overrule 1 guy when voting on what to watch on the only tv...sorry Jack.) 

 Here is the motley crew now, including Lucy, our fat cat.

 Here is Jack trying to do some work in the kitchenette area.

 Jack and me in our new kitchen. 

Boxes everywhere.

I'll post some more pictures of the house in a few days.  We love it!  It is quite different from our old house and we are enjoying some unique things about it. Okay, it's time for me to get rid of that other 10% of boxes around here!