Race Winner!

Wahoo!  I signed up for a 5k a few months ago, and when I signed up I figured they just put the wrong date.  Nope, I signed up for a race on a Monday at 11 am.  I slipped out for an extended lunch to run it, and thank goodness I did!  still being on the mend from whatever sickness I had, I figured I wasn't going to be able to run as fast as I might hope and even offered to run with my buddy.  About 45 seconds into the race I could see the race leader out in front of us and I said "I think I could win this," and he told me to go for it, so I did!  I will say, I was NOT fully recovered, and making a call 45 seconds into a run is not really the time to decide how good you're feeling.  I definitely slowed down through the race, and my heartrate was chilling at a cool 200 bpm, but I was able to make it to the end without getting passed and won the race!! Yay!  Here I am with the winners of some of the age groups.

Grayson was finally healthy again for a school week, and got to go back to school.  Between spring break and being sick I think he missed out on the last 3 weeks, 2 for sure.  He always has a good time at school, so I'm glad he was able to go back.

Brooke hurt her toe playing Twister with the Packers when they were here, and it was still hurting this week so we took her to the doctor.  She got an x-ray, but it wasn't broken, just sprained.  She got a note so she can skip out on things in gym at school, but she's still been dancing as her competitions are all coming up in the next few weeks!  Hopefully she'll have a speedy recovery.  It doesn't seem to be bothering her much anymore, so that's good.

Winry and Grayson started volleyball this week, and they both loved it.  The first week was mostly fundamentals with shagging balls and bumping.  They both really enjoyed it.  Winry's group was, unfortunately, on the other side of the gym from us, so it was harder to see her.  Grayson was very excited, and I don't think he stopped jumping the entire class.

Monica went in to have lunch with the girls on Friday, and Vivian stopped by.  She helped make Brooke a beautiful butterfly, who was, in turn, weightless on her back.

Grayson had a hard time when he started his second round of antibiotics, and Monica offered him a trip to Chick-fil-a if he would take his medicine.  If you don't know, Grayson can really struggle with eating things if he doesn't like them, but after the first few doses of Augmentin he turned it around and was great for medicine the rest of the time.

On Saturday there was a big stake primary activity in the morning.  It was pioneer themed, or I guess mid 1800's themed.  There were several activities, such as square dancing.

And a hand cart race.

And that stick pull game.  Brooke also came home with a tin can lantern and some butter that she made.  She seemed like she had a really fun time.

Flash back to last week, the kids pottery came back from the kiln!  Winry made an octopus, Brooke made a Narwhal mug, and Grayson made a turtle.  Grayson's been especially exited about his turtle, taking it all over the place.  I'm really worried he's going to drop it an it's going to break on our impossibly hard floors, but so far they've all been okay.

Not to be forgotten, when I went to that 5k on Monday I dropped Jelly off at the groomer, and picked her up on my way home.  She was getting matted fur again, so it was shave time.  She's been so cuddly ever since, and I think it's because she's feeling a little cold.  I'm really glad I waited for the weather outside to warm up a little before taking her in, I would have felt really bad if there were any highs of 60's since she was shaved.

I was out working in the yard Saturday and specifically I was spraying weeds when I realized I sprayed this hornet.  I then I REALLY sprayed it so it wouldn't fly away and ran to get wasp killer, and now it's dead.  Also, I had to get wasp killer because the last time we went to grill I found a wasp nest on the side of our propane tank!  It was still really small, and I think was just being built by the first wasp so, glad I found it when I did.  Anyway, something about this being red just makes it seem really menacing.

Last night Grayson ran to the back door to show me there was an animal out there.  It took me a while to find the lizard because I was looking for something big out on the lawn.  Great news, the lizards are back!  I've seen one or two already, and I even saw one in our window sill again like last year.  Same size and color, maybe even the same guy?  He came back for his tail.

And that's it for our week.  I hope we've got a good one ahead!
 

Spring Breaking!

Hello from sunny Texas!  Spring break has sprung, and as alluded to before, we had friends out to visit!  The Packers were down staying with us, and on Monday it was warm enough that the kids all went swimming in the pool.  I had work through the first half of the week, so I wasn't able to join, but I heard the water was pretty cold, but everyone had fun.

I spent the front half of the week getting sicker and sicker.  That's always a fun place to be after starting to feel better over the weekend.  To jump ahead in the week a little, on Wednesday I ended up going to the doctor and got antibiotics, and they've been helping a lot since.  I'm still clearing things out, but through this sickness I'd have a roll of toilet paper at my desk while working (there's just not enough tissues in a box) and I've gone through 2 rolls... yikes!  I'm glad that currently things are greatly calmed down, and I mostly just need a good nose blow first thing in the morning.  I kinda hijacked this picture to talk about my week of health, but this picture is actually of my new AR glasses I ordered.  Essentially there's just a screen in these glasses, and then you plug a usb c cable into the back of one of the stems and my phone/steam deck can run it like a monitor.  I like them.  If you try you can see through the image to still see and interact with the world around you, but it's also been easy to see the image too.  As an example, I used them to watch an F1 race while folding laundry over the weekend.  Pretty slick!

Grayson's been having a lot of fun playing outside, and we put water back into the water table this week too.  He really loves playing out there.  I went out and sat on a chair next to him and we made "chocolate" together.  It was pretty fun, and fortunately, low effort for me.

Jelly's really been loving going into the backyard.  She'll wander a little, and then she plops down as flat as she can into the grass.  I honestly think she's probably trying to hide from us so we don't take her back inside.

I was working during this tree climb, so I don't have context, but I liked the picture.

Lincoln and Winry both really enjoyed the piano and metronome.  They even worked on playing duets together.

Here are the Packers at the home they're putting an offer on.  I thought to take a picture while I was sitting in the car with the kids who were early leavers.  Didn't think to take one any sooner.

After seeing their house, we went for a hike!  Oh, this was Thursday, and I took Thursday/Friday off for spring break.  We were actually supposed to go meet up with Oriah's family in Dallas, and then head to OK and AR and go camping, but on Wednesday I was feeling too sick and figured there was no way I could do it.  Fortunately, we weren't the only party poopers and William and Michael had COVID.  Not good that they were sick, but my understanding is everyone is still doing alright.

Anyway, back to that hike.  We just went on a short hike next to a bridge.  The name is something like 360 bridge hike... That's not the name of the bridge, but close enough for Google I guess.  Anyway, it was short, like maybe a tenth of a mile, and up a hill.

And the hike ends up on top of a cliff overlooking a bridge and the Colorado river.  It's almost like being home there.

On Friday morning we took the kids to Pinballz.  It was Grayson's first time, and great news, it was the first time giant hungry hippos was working!

Grayson and Winry and Monica also played mini bowling while Brooke and I went and rode the virtual rollercoaster.  When Brooke and I got back we were able to throw a few balls ourselves and the mini bowling is pretty awesome!  I think it's one of the best value games in the whole arcade.

After that we had a snack and went and played some actual video games, and then we wrapped things up and headed out.  We all had a super time at the arcade, and if you're around Austin, I highly recommend giving it a try.

In the afternoon we went to a pottery painting place, and all of the kids picked something to paint.  We left them there to head to a kiln, so when we get them back I'll try to get a picture of them all together.

Friday night we had a campfire on the driveway and roasted hotdogs over the fire.

And then we toasted marshmallows and ate smores!

And finally did some camping in the backyard.  This was in lieu of our camping trip that got cancelled.  Grayson was having a hard time going to sleep, and in the end Monica took him inside to sleep in the house.  He was up at least half the night with his ear hurting, so that was likely why he wasn't able to get comfy.

Here's the tent in the backyard.  The night mode really brightened this up, but we did have a lantern on inside and we left the back porch light on as well.  I really enjoyed sleeping in the backyard, and it was also nice that it's not hot yet, so it cools off over night.  I also busted out those new AR glasses and watched a show while the girls were going to sleep and I was waiting for my own bedtime.

Grayson's ear hurting?  His ear drum ruptured in the morning... back to the doctor.  While the morning was rough, you can see here that he was still able to be his happy self.  We're onto the third round of antibiotics and second dose of ear drops.  It's been quite a month for this little guy, and I hope he's better after this round.

Later on Saturday, we went to a nearby river for a short hike.  The river bed is rock all the way across, and there's a pretty cool surprise along the way.  Here's a potential sneak peak as to why, but here's all the kids laying in a big depression in the river bed.

And further along at the bend in the river there are a bunch of awesome dinosaur tracks!  There are like, 8 or 9 of these three toed tracks. When I was looking for info on the hike someone had a drone shot, and a paleontologist who worked in the Texas area commented that he thought he saw several other tracks around these ones.  They were not as easy to see, but cool to know there was a lot going on there.

In the river we saw a turtle, and little snake, and this little frog!

From what I read it sounds like if you go after rain the river will go all the way across and you have to hike through some water, so we were all in water-safe shoes.  On the way back we did some rock jumping to get across some of the water for fun!

And on the way back home, we stopped at Jeremiah's for a water-ice!  Yum!!  I love going to that place, and I really like their frog mascot.

And when we got home... Grayson crashed on the couch.  To be honest, he didn't want to stop and get ice cream on the way home because he was really tired.  The thing that got him through was sitting on my lap, and in the end he had a great time the whole time we were there.  However, he really was tired, ya know, cause he was sick, and was awake most of the night before.

On Sunday, Grayson stayed home from church, and the last few days he's been really enjoying building magna-tile houses around different plastic animals that we have.  He calls it freezing the animals, and we built a bunch of different shaped "ice blocks."  In the end it was a giant tower.

And that's our week.  While we missed out on our trip, we had a really great extended weekend at home.  We had a lot of fun while the Packers where here, and found a lot of fun stuff to do around town once they had to go.  I hope Grayson gets better soon, but even he was doing super through it all.  Hopefully he'll be back to full health next week, and hopefully my antibiotics work effectively as well.
 

Very Short Update

Well, not a lot of pictures from this week.  Guess that doesn't mean a lot less happened, but it does mean I'm less likely to remember as many things to talk about.  Sitting here at the end of the week I'm currently sick, and it's crazy to think that at the start of the week I had some great workouts.  I've created a strength workout that I've enjoyed doing, and on Wednesday I squeezed in a quick run of 2 miles around 7:15 pace, which I honestly wouldn't have believed I could have done before the run.  And after the run on Wednesday, I never quite recovered to normal, and instead got sick.  I'm kind of surprised it took as long as it did.  I feel like everyone else has been sick for like the last 3 weeks or so, so I held out for quite a long time.  I think part of the catalyst was Grayson getting sick again.  I think it got mentioned at the end of last week, but Grayson's ear got really liquidy and yucky and we went to the doctor and got him on the next antibiotic and ear drops.  After the first few days he's definitely seemed more back to his old self, which is great, though he doesn't love the taste of his medicine.  It was a fight at first to get him to take things, and we offered a lot of bribes, like playing Mario together, and after a few days he just took right to it and things got a lot easier.

Monica's been trying to spend a lot of time out in the garden getting things planted and ready for growing to kick off.  I believe Grayson was out in the backyard often with Monica, well, when he was feeling alright, and Monica found some worms to help in the garden too!

This last week was SxSW here in Austin.  What is that?  Something about music I think.  Anyway, there were a LOT of people around the train station.  To be fair, it's also right outside the convention center, so this was probably the heart of everything.

Oh, and here's another picture of Grayson recovering.  Oh, you might notice his bowl.  He didn't have a stomach thing, sometimes he'd just cough so much he'd throw up a little.  Anyway, I'm glad he's on his way up.  He ended up missing all of preschool this week.  He was on antibiotics long enough to not be contagious, but he was coughing a lot and stuff and so we figured we'd just give him another day home and let him go back... after spring break.

Oh, we had some CO friends arrive at our house Saturday.  I think they've told people they're moving, but I'm not sure, so I'll leave out their names for now, but they should show up in here next week.  Anyway, they're in the area looking for a house and staying with us!  Yay!
 

A Flurry of Activity

Well, I got my pictures for the blog just a little too early last week, because Sunday afternoon, Brooke made banana bread.  I think Grayson helped her as well, but when I say Brooke made it, I mean Brooke had the kitchen to herself.  She wasn't sure how to grease a pan, so I helped her with that and putting things in and out of the oven, but she did everything else!  And it was delicious!  Great job Brooke!

Grayson had a Dr. Seuss day for... national reading week, or something like that.  Anyway, they had a fun thing each day and a Dr. Seuss book that went along with it.  One day they all got to bring stuffed animals to school and Grayson stole center stage!

Early garden harvest!  That seems pretty crazy.  I'm not gonna lie, when I go outside I think it's May-ish, not early March.  We're still having the occasional "cold" day with a high under 60, but generally it feels like spring, and into spring enough that I'm starting to get worried about the heat of summer.  Back to the garden, look at all those carrot colors!  That's so awesome.  And they all tasted great.

Jelly followed me into my closet one day after my run and plopped herself down on my pile of dirty running clothes.  She started rolling around in them, and got her paw inside my shirt and started tangling herself in it.  What bliss!

Thursday was crazy hair day and spirit shirt day.  LOOK AT THAT HAIR! Perfection!

Jelly has been loving the weather and trying to get outside every day.  Fortunately, the weather has been nice and we've all wanted to go out with her.  Brooke carried her in one day, and she said it was her first time picking Jelly up!  Good job!

Monica and Grayson found themselves at a duck pond this past week.  It's actually right next to the library, and was with a walking group Monica has been going to.  Ever since, Grayson has been asking to go back and walk around the pond again.

And here's Grayson with the Weeks boys riding the train outside the library!  Everyone was having a great time.

Grayson had a dentist appointment.  He did an awesome job, and it was also his first time getting x-rays.  He took care of that unicorn the whole time too.  Good thing he was there to help the dentist's office out.  

We finally got a shredder this past week, which means that Monica and Grayson started working through shredding our decade long backlog.  Shred baby shred!  And Grayson loved it, especially the expired credit cards.

Grayson wanted to play some t ball, and set up a nice stack of buckets and stuff to try to hit over with the ball.  He knocked it over his very first swing, so I started a video, and it would appear knocking everything over is a little harder than it first appeared.

The girls keep leaving their socks around the house, but Jelly see's that as an opportunity.  She's just always looking for something with a... let's say strong scent.

Brooke had her first competition on Saturday.  We didn't really know what to expect, so just Monica took her.  It was probably for the best because they ended up staying for like 5 hours so that Brooke could watch the solos, etc.  So Brooke had an absolute blast, and Grayson would NOT have been able to handle that.  As for Brooke's performance, she had two dances.  One was to the Hercules song that she did a few weeks ago.

And the other one was one I hadn't seen before.  It's got some cool lifts and stuff in it.  Fortunately, she's got 2 more competitions, so I should still have a chance to catch it live.

Here's her team together after their dance with their awesome ribbon.  They got gold for their dances, which has something to do with how well they did with scoring or something (I don't know how the judging works yet...).

As Jelly's been wanting to go out every day, we don't always have someone to hold the leash.  Meaning, the kids usually make me play with them, so we need to attach her leash to something, so I printed a clip to attach it to the back of a chair.  This works alright for now, but she can pull over the chair if she tries (and she has already), so it's not a perfect long term solution...

And poor buddy Grayson is getting sick again... :(  He was feeling sick Saturday, which is another good reason for us to have not gone to Brooke's competition.  On Sunday I stayed home from church with him, and even didn't have other meetings after church.  It was pretty crazy having a not busy Sunday.  First in a long time.  Anyway, while I was hanging out with Grayson he got pretty tired and fell asleep on the couch.  I hope he feels better soon, poor buddy just finished his last round of antibiotics!

As I get to the end of this I realized that Winry isn't in any of these pictures... Fear not, google is here to save the day, as it's giving me a "They Grow up so Fast" slideshow of Winry right now!  And oh my goodness, she is SOOOOO cute!!!