The Brown Kiddos: A Very Fast, Fun Trip to Aggieland to Meet Baby Colton

We made a fast and furious trip last night to go and meet the newest member of the Brown side of the family, Baby Colton! He is such a sweet and calm baby, and we're so glad we got to see him. Dane was very sweet and careful with him, so he was able to get a little closer to him than Sydni could. Dane's had practice with babies - Sydni, not so much! Colton has the prettiest, blondest hair, and he has a cute cowlick in the front just like his dad. Here's some pictures of the little guy.

Colton with his Uncle Lane and Big Cousin Dane

This is about as close as we let Sydni get - these two will have wildly fun times together, I'm sure!

I like how it looks like he's smiling in this picture - actually, he was whining because of the flash, I think.

We spent the night in College Station, much to Dane's delight, and we took a couple of hours this morning to take the kids on a walk around campus. Dane is at such a fun age right now, so other than his legs getting tired from walking, the sights and sounds around campus really kept his attention well. He kept on pointing out Aggies to us - he would yell in astonishment, "There's an Aggie!" to most people wearing Aggie shirts, which we discussed and estimated to be roughly 45% of the student body population. We stayed at La Quinta, so of course, we ate breakfast at Denny's. Well, there was a group of Old Ags meeting in the banquet room, and we found out that they were actually former fighter pilots and were all graduates of Texas A&M and former Corp of Cadets members. They all had on matching maroon polo shirts with "BSA - Been Shot At" embroidered on the front of them. So, as they are starting to leave, one of them walked by our table, and Dane announced loudly, "There's an Aggie!" The man just turned around, and with the proudest look on his face, smiled and said to him, "That's right!". They all looked to be around the age to have fought in either Korea, or most likely, Vietnam, we thought. It was neat, I thought. Anyway, here's some pictures from around campus.

Dane, in front of the 12th Man statue at Kyle Field.

November 18, 1999, was a tragic day for the Texas A&M community - the collapse of Bonfire, and sadly, 12 Aggie students died as a result. I can't believe it has almost been 10 years. Well, the University made a memorial on the site of Bonfire, in honor of those students and of the tradition of Bonfire, itself. Lane and I had visited several years ago, but I had forgotten what a moving memorial it really is. I really think they did such an incredible job, and they paid tribute to each of the fallen students in such a personal way. It is really very touching and was done in such a respectful and meaningful way.

There are notches for each year of Bonfire along the walkway, starting in 1909.

A nice shot of Dane sitting on a pillar in front of the Administration Building. I think he looks so grown up!

We were walking along across campus, and Dane spotted this pulley on the side of the library. He insisted that we stop and take a closer look, so we did. He's big into the show, Sid the Science Kid on PBS, and he learned about pulleys on that show. As a side note, one afternoon a few weeks back, he came up to me and said, "We need a volley." I asked him, "What?" He said, "A volley!" I said, "What's a volley?", and he replied, "Well, it's a simple machine that helps you pull your toys up to your treehouse." Then, I realized, from his very accurate definition, that he meant pulley, and I said, "You mean a pulley?", and he said, "Yeah, a pulley, we need a pulley." So, Lane helped him install a pulley on his playground, like Sid, the Science Kid. I thought that was pretty smart of him. So, in honor of all pulleys everywhere, here's Dane with his A&M pulley!

Me and my babies under the Century Tree

Outside the MSC, the student center, one of the guys' dorms had an old beat up car for people to hit with a sledge hammer, as a fundraiser to help fight cancer. So, Dane donated $1 for 3 swings at the car. Here he is helping to fight cancer. He had fun, but he was a little confused about why the sick people were letting other people hit their car. We tried to explain, but I'm not sure how successful we were. I think all the students had the most fun watching him. They let him keep on hitting it and were taking lots of pictures, too. They even gave Dane a broken piece of the car as a souvenier! Lane and I figure the pictures will really help Dane out a lot in his campaign for either Student Body President or Yell Leader someday.