July in Texas

Almost 7 years to the day we moved in, we finally said goodbye to our beloved house in Houston.  It was bittersweet but time to let go and let a new young family put down their own roots there.  Our renters moved out in March and we discovered managing an empty house from half a world away isn't easy, so it's a relief to be done.  The timing worked out incredibly well (especially since we didn't miss that flight and have to miss closing!) because I was in town to get some repairs done and take care of the handover.  

It would not have been possible without my amazing friend/neighbor/realtor who picked up a lot of my slack and made everything happen.  She even had these awesome cookies made for me at closing.  Made me teary-eyed!

Speaking of dachshunds, this little girl got so much love all summer.  She is greatly missed in Jakarta but definitely not too worried about us because she's got a pretty great thing going with Grandma and Grandpa.

We spent the rest of our time in Texas enjoying time with all the people we love.  We were so grateful for our friends and family making time to meet us or accommodate our crazy schedule.  Ryan and Gabriella are still as sweet as ever and the kids loved catching up again.

Several meals were devoted to queso and (virgin) margaritas

We loved getting to visit Caroline and Eleanor in their new house and knowing we'll see them again, even though we're going to miss them so much in Jakarta.

We finally got to see the World Series Champions!  Love our Astros, even though their home schedule was almost the opposite of ours.  It was tricky finding a game we could attend.

Grammy and Grumpy had a daily guest that we always enjoyed seeing.  Some days she'd bring her four babies along with her as well! 

It's always a rowdy house when we get all four boys together but tons of fun with the cousins.

We spent a morning with Grammy and Grumpy's friends to check out their little farm and meet their gypsy horses.

Sweet Abby was a constant visitor at every meal.  Even at 16, she never missed a chance to ask for a tasty nibble from a soft heart.

Sadly, right after we left, she got very sick and had to be put down.  We were so thankful she was happy and energetic with us and we can have happy memories of our time with her.  She hasn't been my cat since 2007 but she'll always have a special place in my heart!

We went to Dallas to spend some more time with the cousins and went to a super cool video game museum.  Alex and Reid played Super Mario Brothers for ages!  I blew their minds when I showed them how to find a warp zone...Mama's still got some tricks :)

Ben was fascinated with all the old technology and in total geek heaven.

They even had original Oregon Trail!  For the second time in my life, I made it all the way to Oregon.

Super-sized Pong!

I love how well the biggest and littlest get along.  Ben still loves reading to Carter.

This was a very hard goodbye.  It's tough knowing they'll be a year older next time we see them.

We had our traditional last Tex-Mex with everyone to wrap up a truly wonderful summer.  We're so blessed to have all these people to love us.  As hard as it was to leave, we were missing Matt in a big way and he gave us a great reason to get back on the plane.

Alex is 10!

Somehow an entire decade has passed since this guy came into our lives and completed our family!  It was so hard to believe we were celebrating our baby's 10th birthday, but this guy did it up in style.  His biggest request was to have his cousins celebrate his birthday with him, so we held his party a little early.  He chose the new GlowZone in Katy for the big event.

After playing outside on the ropes course and ninja warrior course, the kids all came into the party room for some more shooting fun.

We finally got them to sit down for a few minutes and eat some pizza.  Around the table (L to R): Ben, Michael and Maddie (Katy friends from the street who just moved back from Bangkok), Eleanor and Jack (Katy friends), Alex, Eleanor and Caroline (Jakarta friends who just moved back to Houston), and Alex and Jordan (Katy friends).  Reid somehow didn't make the picture.  It was a great group of kids and so much to see our friends from all over the globe back in Texas.

Alex loved his Leafy cake, his favorite character from Battle for Dream Island.

Happy birthday, Alex!

I love all these sweet faces! And all their moms, who got to hang out together while the kids went back to the air guns.

On his actual birthday, we were so happy to do our favorite birthday breakfast - chicken minis and donut holes, plus a bullseye from Shipley's.

After we escaped the Gold Mine in Chicago, Alex was dying to do another escape room.  This time we did the playground and made it out with 8 whole minutes left.  It was tons of fun!  I was secretly happy he picked this over Splashtown because it was way more fun for the grownups, too!

We had another celebratory meal together with all the grandparents at Denny's, Alex's choice of course.  He wanted a milkshake and chocolate chip pancakes, because there is no such thing as too much sugar on your birthday!

Happy birthday, sweet boy!  We love you more than words can express and love how much excitement and laughter you bring into our lives.

Chicago

The kids and I got to fly into Peoria, Illinois, to catch up with our dear friends the Dulaneys.  We've been wanting to visit the Caterpillar visitors center for years and finally got the chance.

The big mining trucks are unbelievable!

Naturally, the kids enjoyed checking out every vehicle available.

The simulators were pretty fun as well.

The front of the mining truck.  Fun fact - they prefer women to drive them because they're more careful!

Our plan was to take the train into Chicago on Friday evening but that changed with the A/C went out on our train.  The other option was the bus, so we made the best of things and headed into the city.

We had some delicious and authentic deep dish pizza Friday night and decided to check out the museum of science and industry on Saturday morning.  Turns out it was so interesting we stayed through mid-afternoon!

They had a toy assembly line that would custom make spinner toys for each kid with their own choice of color and name.  We watched them be assembled one station at a time.

The science hall was beyond cool.

The German U-boat was a highlight and touring inside was pretty incredible.

The actual Apollo 8 capsule is on display there.

After we finally made it out of the museum, we passed through Millennium Park to check out Cloud Gate.

And of course, we had to have more deep dish pizza for dinner!

On Sunday, we attempted our first escape room and it was one of the most exciting and challenging things I've done in a while.  We made it out with 3 minutes to spare, which was not too shabby for a bunch of novices.

Our visit wouldn't have been complete without admiring the view from the 360 Observatory.

Lake Michigan was much prettier than I realized!  It would have been nice to enjoy the shoreline a little more but it was one of the hottest weekends they'd had (total Houston weather!) and it wasn't pleasant outside at all.

As always, we enjoyed every minute with Mr. Scott and Miss Lou Anne but they had to catch their train back to Peoria so we had to say goodbye.  The kids and I stayed in the city a while longer before our flight, so we went to Navy Pier and stopped into the Children's Museum.  Most things were too young but the construction area was hours of fun for these two.

We made it to the airport with no problems but thunderstorms threw a wrench in American Airlines' schedule and our flight was cancelled.  We were rescheduled for the following day at 3pm.  I did some major praying and found the right guy to talk to because he was able to get us the last 3 seats out of Chicago that evening on United.  God was watching over us because the following day I had a house to sell and a birthday party to host!  We got in around 1am but we made it back in time to get everything done.  Whew!