Ella's First Day of College!

Ella is a freshman at The University of Texas at Austin!!! Hook 'Em. 

She is currently undeclared with a plan to move into a Business or Math Major. 

Fishing

Asher is obsessed with fishing!  Too bad we can't take him all time, but he went with Carter a couple of time this summer and even snuck some in on a golf course the other evening.  Of course he fishes at Lake McQueeney too when we are there!

He even got his tackle box super organized at the beginning of the summer!

First day of School and Finn's 5th Birthday

8th and 11th Grades

Happy 5th Birthday to Finn!!

Ella's College Move In to UT Austin

Over the last month, our dining room was slowly filling with more and more than the week before, simultaneously, Ella's room was getting more and more empty.  We had a week FULL of appointments, to do's and packing. Luckily we started early so it while it felt super productive, it wasn't stressful.

The morning before her move in day, Thomas came to wake her up and spent the entire day with her, not leaving her side until 1am that night. They had a great day. She made waffles for all the kids, got her nails done for rush, finished packing and then Michael and I cooked a wonderful steak dinner.  We played spades and then she went over to the Bucks to say goodbye. How sweet that their Aggie family all took a photo with their horns up just for Ella! 

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Saturday, August 15...Move in Day! Wow. With all the prep and attention given to this day, it's hard to believe it's actually here. The day That we have truly prepared 18 years for. The one that you can't help but think about when they are babies and it feels so far away. And then BOOM. The day is now. There are so many emotions. Ella said on the drive that she literally had ALL of the emotions at the same time and it's so true. I felt the same.

 

Her alotted time for move in was 12:30pm so it gave us time for a slow morning. The boys both had early morning plans so they were gone before she even woke up. Easton had a golf tournament and Asher was fishing.

Good-bye photos. Finn thought he was going with her! 

Sad goodbyes.

Her dad asked her for a photo on the trapeze swing the she hung on countless times as little girl. Leaving the house was definitely the most emotional. 

We had a great drive to Austin and when we arrived at her dorm, the process was incredible. We pulled in, had a quick check in from the car and immediately there was a huge team of guys who quickly unloaded our 2 cars into bins and they were all fully moved into Ella's room before we even parked and got to the room ourselves. We truly didn't have to lift a finger for that initial unloading. 

The work began once we opened her door and realized how small the room felt with all her stuff in it! Luckily her roommate's time slot was just a bit later so we had little time to get started. There was TONS to do and at times you don't know where to begin, but we got through it. Everyone stayed in good moods. Her roommate and family are incredible and we all worked really well together. It was a really fun day. We worked all day from 12:30pm til 6pm when Ella and her roomie had to leave for a Rush meeting. We were mostly done at that point and Ella just has some organizing to do now in her closet and some drawers. 

We grabbed dinner at Hula Hut and then it was time to say goodbye. There were some watery eyes, but it had been such a great day and we were all pretty tired that we all held it together fairly well. 

And then 2 minutes later she called that she had left her leftovers in the car. The cafeteria is closed this week so she really needed that food. We turned around to get it to her.  One more hug!!

And then after driving away again, we realized we had her water bottle in the car! One last hug and we're all laughing at this point for our final final goodbye! 

This next week is Rush week and I can't wait for her experiences and to hear all about it.  It will be busy for sure but she'll have the week to get settled before classes start on August 24! I'm so excited for her.

Love you Ella Bella!!!