Back to School

Because of a major Covid outbreak and subsequent lockdown in Jakarta, the kids and I decided to spend an extra month in Houston. With no chance of school opening in person and not much to do in Jakarta, we voted to enjoy some more fun with our family in friends.  I was pretty happy to celebrate my birthday with Grammy and Grumpy (and Tommy) instead of in hotel quarantine!

We enjoyed church in person and had a great time at the Cidercade with Aunt Amanda...it was full of throwback and modern video games for one flat price.  Hours of fun!

Indoor putt-putt was fun as well and sure beat being out in the August heat.

The boys had a different first day of school this year. We were still in our Airbnb and they insisted on attending classes live, so school started at 7:30pm and run until 2:30am (middle school) and 3:00am (high school).  The first few days were rough but they started sleeping until 12-1pm and it got much easier.  Lunch/second dinner happened around 10:30pm-12am, then I would head to bed because I was still awake by 7:30am.  It wasn't perfect, but these determined boys made it work!  Here's to 8th and 10th grades and another unique school year!

The new school schedule didn't leave a lot of time for activities but at least things were pretty empty when we went! The boys loved rock climbing and continued to go twice a week.

I joined the YMCA and had a wonderful time working out in classes again.  I could hit the gym, buy groceries, and relax by the pool before the boys even woke up!

We had some last laughs with the Hesters and even made smores on the stove since the grill wasn't working!

One last cookie cake when our days were numbered. Why not celebrate a Tuesday?

We had a little more active fun, part of my requirement of our vampire schedule.  Again, we were about the only people at Top Golf in the middle of the day and we really enjoyed it.

On our last day at the rock wall, both boys conquered the bouldering overhang! They really developed some strength from all their work.

We started the sad work of clearing out the pantry and wrapping up our extra-long summer.  One happy chore was to make sure the ducks enjoyed all the rest of their oatmeal.

Fun with Friends

Matt was able to stay a full 3 weeks this year by doing some remote work and get his second vaccination.  Of course, the weeks flew past and all too soon it was time for him to head back...but not exactly when we expected.  Because of a visa mix up, he didn't leave on his scheduled flight and had to take an Uber back home.  But the good news for us was that we got a bonus night together! We found a great race track on Saturday morning and had some fun.

We also had time to get ribs at McKenzie's...definitely made this guy happy! Then we dropped him at the airport again and he started his long trip back.

On Sunday, the Dulaneys arrived and we had a much overdue reunion with one of our favorite couples! They are always so much fun and such wonderful people...we had a wonderful few days playing and laughing together.

We all went to the Armstrong's for dinner and had a wonderful evening with a rowdy game of dominoes.

We kept up our perfect streak on esape rooms! Couldn't have done it without these two.

A few days after they left, Hope and her boys came to town as well and we got a chance to catch up with part of another favorite family. Thank goodness this Airbnb had lots of sleeping space to accommodate all of our friends and family passing through...it was wonderful being able to stay in one place and enjoy our friends' visits! 

Both of the boys took rock climbing after school this past year, one of the few activities they were able to enjoy until the rock wall closed because the inspector couldn't fly in from Singapore.  We were very happy to find Climb Woodlands just around the corner and found a great air-conditioned place to work out some energy.

It's a small place and not too crowded, so we took advantage of the space many times over the summer.

It even has a ropes course, but it became less interesting as their endurance for climbing increased.

With Jakarta in the midst of its worst Covid outbreak to date, we decided to spend an extra month in Texas and enjoy all the freedoms.  Instead of packing up towards the end of July, we took our fully vaccinated selves to an Astros game with the Hesters!

The Saturday night game against the Texas Rangers was a full house.  At first, I was a little freaked out because we hadn't been around thousands of people in about 18 months, but then we relaxed and enjoyed how NORMAL it was to be at a baseball game!

Meanwhile at home, I started a 2,000 piece puzzle.

It was slow going by myself with a little help from Alex.

After a few hours with Grammy and Stacey helping, suddenly it looked possible!

We spent a night in Katy to catch up with old neighbors and friends.  My night out with the ladies!

And the next day we took Ryan and Presley to Typhoon Texas and the kids had a great time catching up and enjoying their favorite waterpark.

Farah invited me to play golf and I had my first round ever without a caddie! We had a lot of fun together, lost plenty of balls, and finished 9 holes in exactly 2 hours.  Not bad for two non-golfers who've only recently started playing.

We had a cheering squad and two willing drivers along with us as well.

After several more days of work, we finally finished the puzzle!

Well, almost...turns out it was only a 1,999 piece puzzle.  I spent so much time looking for this piece that was probably missing from the start.  It was a free-to-me puzzle, so I can't complain because the rest was tons of fun.

Alex solved the problem for us.

 

Alex is a Teenager!

Somehow we blinked and we no longer have children, we have two teenagers!  Happy 13th birthday, Alex!!

This boy LOVES his birthday and wants to celebrate with everyone for the entire month.  We decided to keep it to a one-day celebration but did have plenty of visitors in and out of our Airbnb house all day.

We had Alex convinced that cookie cakes weren't available on his birthday and he had to settle for just a regular cookie from Great American Cookies.  He was clearly disappointed but took it like a champ.

The first round of gifts and hugs!

The thrill was real when we pulled out his real cake and this boy was excited.

The second crew to come celebrate, and Stacey and the boys were staying for the week!

We found that the ducks at North Shore park were happy to be fed any time of day...they were such friendly guys and girls.

Grumpy wanted to rent a boat on Lake Conroe and take all his grandsons out tubing.  They happily accepted!

We found a very willing driver as well.

It was a really gorgeous afternoon and such a fun couple of hours on the water.

We had some water fun at the Airbnb as well.  It had a really great pool and backyard.

We had to stop by and feed all the ducks again!

Carter found the perfect hiding spot!

Reid had fun playing chess with Uncle Matt.

It was a wonderful week celebrating our new teenager and enjoying time with the cousins!  Too bad every week can't be like this one.