Houston Livestock and Rodeo

Baba, Pa and Nini accompanied Chris, Mary and John to the Houston Livestock and Rodeo. We first visited the livestock section, where Nini bought Mary an awesome cowgirl hat. Then the kids went on a pony ride, petted some rabbits, learned about bees, went on some rides and won some prizes at the carnival.

Swing in Spring

It's a perfect spring day here today. Baba is visiting and he and I drove the kids over to Pa and Nini's house. From there we all walked to a nearby park.

Meg arrived safely in Benghazi after stops in Frankfurt and Tripoli.

UPDATE: Meg's most recent e-mail reports: "It is really different here; 90% of the people you see are men and 90% of the women are covered with head scarves. Not too many full burkas (covered faces) but a few. I'll definitely be staying close to my compadres on this trip."

John's first baseball game

John and the Texas Rangers played the Houston Astros today on a beautiful spring morning. Every kid on the team got to hit twice and they took turns playing different positions in the outfield. John's favorite part of baseball is baserunning -- unless you count the post-game snack as part of the game.

Mary's real BFF

Every night when Mary goes to sleep she makes sure that our cat Chicken is on her bed. Chicken has been in our family since long before Mary was born. (In fact, Chicken was Meg's cat before we ever met.) So Mary has never known life without this little black cat.

Chicken is getting pretty old; we think she's about 14 years old and she is having some health problems. But no matter how long Chicken is around, she will always be Mary's BFF.

This photo was taken this morning before Mary started getting ready for school.