welcome Gabrielle

We haven't posted in a while because not much was going on. I have resumed the life of a desk biologist and Randy was been getting busy with his project at work. Then last week we wento Texas to visit my family and await the arrival of my 4th niece. Gabrielle Skye was born Set 15! - her birthday is 1 day after her grandma's. All went fine and dandy and she is now closing in on 2 weeks old!

baby in belly

baby out of belly

I also met my new feline niece - a beautiful kitten only a few weeks ago who looks so much like Snowball that I almost took her home with me!

Precious Belle

Besides hanging with the fam, RC and I headed to the coast with our kayaks. We paddled the Lighthouse Lakes trails in the mangroves. It was pretty cool being up close and personal with all the wading birds - great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, tri-colored herons, reddish egrets, and 1 roseate spoonbill! We spent ~4 hours paddling, by the end we were heading into a strong headwind and we pooped by the time we came ashore.

We also paddled down a 6-mile stretch of the Colorado River through Bastrop, which was really fun and neat to finally really experience the river that was in my childhood backyard. And we hiked around some of my study sites in Austin one day.

All in all a fun and much needed vacation.

Jack and Tiger were extremely happy to see us when we got home and have been rather needy and attached to us, but it is really sweet:)

fun in the sun

I have a long, hard and very exhausting week doing field work in blazing hot and humid weather (as in heat index up to 110 degrees!). I was quite ready to enjoy a relaxing weekend at home with RC and Jack and Tiger. RC and I decided to go to Smithville Lake yesterday with our kayaks - we paddled out to a cove he'd found the weekend before (while I was working) with his bro, Brent, and sis-in-law, Wes. We bought a couple float and lounge chairs and had a great time floating around in this cove. Despite the crazy heat, it felt great on the water. Later we ate burgers over at Brent and Wes's.

Today, we brought Brent, Wes, and Wes's mom to the same spot. We had an awesome time - just chilling in the water, throwing the ball around, eating cold cheeseburgers (still really good!).

the brothers cartwright

jenn and randy in our "floatation devices"

jenn and wes

preparing for Voyageurs

Randy and I continue to prepare for our trip to Voyageurs NP, where we'll face 'big water'. I took my camera out to practice dealing with it on a kayak (not easy!).

Jenn on borrowed sea kayak (dry bag w/ camera in front)






Randy in his new sea kayak










Double-crested Cormorant












Great Blue Heron












Hopefully I get many good pics and don't screw up my camera on this trip!

smithville lake kayaking

RC and I enjoyed some time together yesterday by taking our kayaks out to smithville lake. He bought another, longer kayak while I was away last week, so we now have 3, yes 3, kayaks. It was my 1st lake kayaking experience. We had a good time and luckily had no encounters with boats.
The best part was wading through the lily pads.