Pontoon Boat Rental

We still have lots of pictures to share from our trip to Milwaukee earlier in the month. Patrick and I will be tag-teaming the blog posts for the next week or so. Today, I wanted to share a few details about when the whole family went out on a pontoon boat.

Grandpa loves being in a boat on the water and misses the boat he had when they had their cottage. It was getting too hard for him to get the boat in and out of the water by himself, so he sold that boat. He used having everyone there as an excuse to rent a pontoon boat on Friday (August 8th) after everyone made it to town. While he rented it for the entire day, the kids, particularly the younger ones, were done after a few hours.

We found a nice spot near an island in the lake to relax a bit. Unfortunately, the island was private property so we simply stayed in the water. The island was for sale but none of us seemed to think we'd make enough use of it to spend our spare change.

Braeden wasn't thrilled with wearing a life jacket but in the end he tolerated it and was a champ. He did get to take it off and go into the water with his dad, though, and he really enjoyed that. Everyone except Grandma, Grandpa, Lisa, and Melanie went out in the lake near that island.

Alex swam out there and got short of breath. We were wondering if he had some exercise-induced asthma, but it also could have been due to the fact that he didn't get much exercise this summer. Hopefully, it's not the asthma.

We lost the lid to one of the styrofoam coolers we had on the boat to hold some of the drinks and sandwiches we had for lunch. Derek, Lisa's husband, made it his mission to retrieve the lid, first driving the boat right to it. He tried to reach for it while still in the boat, but couldn't get it, so he dove in. He challenged Melanie to put that on her blog, so of course she took some pictures and well--now it's on the blog. :)

Eric loved meeting Derek and had a blast playing with him. Honestly, everyone had a blast together. The entire trip was a lot of fun. Here, Eric was pretending to surf while standing at the front of the boat with the wind blowing against him. Derek decided he would do the same--fun!

Grandma and Grandpa ordered some Subway sandwiches for lunch for everyone. We had Chicken Teriyaki, Club, and Roast Beef sandwiches with veggies. Unfortunately, some children (my younger two) complained about the veggies in the sandwiches. Natalie coped with it (although she probably removed the veggies when she ate the sandwich). Eric is our pickiest eater and refused to eat anything because of the veggies included. What else could Melanie do but remove the roast beef from the sandwich totally and put it on a separate plate? He then ate all the roast beef. He had to be hungry by then.

Grandma and Grandpa didn't get into the water but relaxed on the boat. We all had a nice ride around the lake. Of course, Grandpa was constantly going near the shoreline to check out the cottages, particularly any that were for sale. He is perpetually looking for real estate.

We went back to the dock after about three or four hours. Patrick's sister Linda and her son Joe came in that afternoon, so they missed going on the boat. There will be another post this week about the other activities we did together.

First Day of School 2014

Today is the start of another school year. Eric met his teacher last week. Natalie and Alex are going in today not knowing exactly what their schedule will be. We're hoping their schedules aren't too hard to sort out.

This is a picture of Eric that I took this morning. He is holding up a picture that I took last year on the first day of school for first grade, where he is holding up a picture that I took the year before that, when he was going into kindergarten. Wow, time does fly! Now I wish I would have given him bigger pictures, since you can barely see the other images from years past in the picture he is holding. I got the idea from someone's blog, and I hope to keep doing it (and that Eric lets me) until he is a senior in high school.

He got a new backpack this year. His dinosaur backpack from the last two years was actually still in good shape--Alex decided to use it this year (see below), but I happened to mention getting a new one and Eric was all over that idea. There were several to choose from--Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, another dinosaur one, Avengers. He decided on Transformers. He saw the fourth Transformers movie this summer and he loved it, even though the rest of the family (I didn't get to see it with them) universally panned it. Now, if there had been a Pokemon backpack, he might have chosen that one instead.

Notice also that he is wearing a shirt with a shark on it that says "Trouble". He doesn't put any thought into what he wears, so the shirt he chose was probably just the first one he pulled out of his drawer. He is wearing relatively new shoes also--Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He still has a good pair of Avengers shoes, but he seems to choose this pair more frequently. He is actually wearing socks with it because Patrick and I asked that he wear socks. He loves not wearing socks and leaving his sweat in the shoe, resulting in very stinky shoes and feet.

Eric is my only child that will allow me to take pictures of him when there are other people around, in other words, he let me take pictures at the bus stop. We were out there first just so I could take photos. He decided to pose for me here. One of our neighbors drove by after I took this picture and said that he loved the pose. That's pure Eric. I'm just happy that he lets me take pictures of him.

In the past, there have been several kids at the bus stop on the first day of school. This year there was only three, including Eric. I figured that the parents decided to drive their kids to school this morning, but this afternoon, only three kids got off at our bus stop. One of them was different from the morning. His mom drives him to school in the morning because he has a hard time getting up that early. There were certainly a lot of people dropping off kids when we drove Alex to school and when I picked him up. More on this later.

This is probably the only time Natalie lets me take pictures of her without trying to shield her face with her hand or arm. She even let me take three pictures, until I got the settings right--I'm still a very amateur photographer, after all. She had a better half-smile in the first picture, but I liked the color on this one better. I did tell her that it was okay not to smile--I just didn't want a frown.

My sister Cynthia managed to take a picture of her daughter Alyssa near the bus stop. Natalie would never allow that, because someone might see me. I'm happy to be able to get this photo by our front door.

She is using the same backpack as in the last couple or so years. I remember buying that red backpack for me for about $25 (on sale at half the usual price of $50). I didn't think it would last this long, especially with how Natalie stuffs it full of heavy books and throws it around.

Notice also that this year, she is not wearing the uniform top, which is a white polo. She learned right away last year that she didn't have to, as long as she wore a "spirit shirt", and she was all over that. She always hated that polo shirt. She is much more of a T-shirt girl. Notice also that even with expected 100 degree weather today, she is wearing a jacket, albeit a light jacket. She is also wearing a headband along with the ponytail this year, and her new navy blue Toms (with purposely mismatched no-show socks, of course).

When I told Alex that I wanted to get a first day of school photo of him, at first he balked. We agreed that he didn't have to smile, because he said that his smile isn't very good in the morning. As long as he isn't frowning, I'll take it!

He is wearing a Florida Gators shirt, even though he's not a fan. He just liked the design. He is also wearing his new sneakers--ONE of his new sneakers. He has gotten several new pairs over the last few months. Notice that he has Eric's old dinosaur backpack. He already said that he probably couldn't fit his books in there, since it's smaller than his usual backpack, so he won't be able to use this all the time.

I told Eric that I would take him to Baskin-Robbins for ice cream after school today, but when he got home, he decided that he would eat some of the crescent rolls I made for breakfast this morning. I filled some with chocolate chips and some with cinnamon sugar--his favorite was the chocolate chips.

I looked in Eric's "agenda" book in his backpack, and for today's entry, he had put "stay on green". Apparently, it's his "goal" to "stay on green" for a whole month. He added that one of his classmates had a goal to "stay on green" for the whole year. When I asked him why his goal was only one month, he replied, "It's really hard to stay on green for a year." At least he's honest. :)

Patrick left early to pick up Natalie from school instead of her taking the bus, since she had a physical therapy appointment at 4pm, so I picked up Eric from the bus by myself. After his snack, I took Eric with me to pick up Alex from school. Surprisingly, there was no traffic getting to the school, but there was a ton of traffic to get into the parking lot. It probably took me more time to get into the parking lot than to drive there from home. Luckily, Eric was fine reading his dinosaur book in the car.

By the way, notice the light differences in the photos above. Eric's bus arrived around 7am. Natalie's bus gets there around 7:30am, and we left to take Alex to school at 8am. It got easier and easier to take good pictures as the morning went on. The kids have a staggered school start here so that the older kids have a later start. My sister Cynthia's high school son had to catch the bus before Eric did. That's crazy!

So, that was the first day of school. I haven't heard many details yet, mostly that they weren't happy with their schedule and that they already miss summer vacation. I'll report back here if I actually hear details. Thanks for reading!

Visit to Robinson and Chicago

This is still Patrick talking about the road trip up to Milwaukee. Years ago we lived in Robinson, Illinois where we made some fantastic friends. After spending a full day in Memphis we made the drive to Robinson to spend some time with my dear friend Gary Oxford. When we lived in Robinson we would get together for dinner with the kids (who were much younger then) for dinner at least once a week. Gary grilled for steaks for all of us and he and I had some amazing margaritas.

The first picture shows Grant and Anthony with Alex almost hiding behind Grant. Yes, we all know that Alex will dodge a picture every chance he gets.
Natalie, Allie, and Janelle stayed still for a picture of the other side of the table. Not that Natalie is trying very hard ;).

Gary is also Natalie's GodFather so he had a cake as well as a present for her because he knew her birthday was coming up. Gary has always been amazing at remembering birthdays no matter how insanely busy his life gets at times.

I don't know of any way to move Robinson, IL closer to San Antonio, TX, but I think we all wish we could find a way to get together more often.

I know that Gary, Janelle, Melanie, and I would love to find a way to live close enough and somehow also somehow have the time to have weekly dinners together. The children get older and even if we lived closer it would still be hard to get together as often as we did before, but it would certainly be nice. We miss being able to spend time with the Oxfords. After we moved to San Antonio we did get to spend a nice vacation to Disney together but we definitely need to find a way to schedule another vacation together.

After Robinson, we drove up to Chicago. First, I wanted to spend a little time there with the kids, second, Melanie was scheduled to fly into Midway Airport the next morning. Basically, we had an excuse to spend a little time in Chicago before picking Melanie up to drive to Milwaukee. I booked a hotel in the downtown area so that we could walk to Millennium Park and see the bean (Cloud Gate) as well as some other sights.

The extensive travel time in the car and Natalie's back did not get along. She was hurting a bit and decided she didn't want to go for a walk, no matter how short. Okay, it would have been probably a mile or two of walking for her, and she wasn't ready for it. The boys definitely were though.

Anthony has already seen "the bean" when he visited Chicago with his Model United Nations club during his senior year of high school. He told the others all about it and got them exited too.

Eric LOVED it. He loved seeing his distorted reflections as well as reflections of the buildings "all bent and silly."

More importantly, he was thrilled to have his picture taken in a variety of places around the bean. We also visited the Jay Pritzker Pavilion but they were setting up for an event that night so we had to move on. The boys and I took the time to walk alone and see a bit more of Chicago before getting back to the hotel to meet Natalie and go to dinner. The boys wanted to go to a "good" deep dish pizza place in Chicago so we ended up a Lou Malnati's near our hotel. We had to wait a long time for a table but we ALL enjoyed the pizza as well as the free dessert (courtesy of the hotel concierge). Lighting in the restaurant was poor and it was very busy. The few pictures I bothered to keep were poorly lit or had people in the background.

Our first visit to Chicago was fun, but our excuse for it disappeared at about 4 AM the next morning when Melanie found out her flight was severely delayed. Making a long story short, the next day I drove the kids up to Milwaukee (really, Pewaukee Lake) and then went back to the Milwaukee Airport (General Mitchell International Airport) to pick Melanie up that afternoon. Needless to say, Melanie did not have a pleasant travel day, but we all made it to Milwaukee. I will post more about my view on our visit to Milwaukee and my parents 50th Anniversary Party later this week. The kids start school tomorrow and Melanie will want to post about the first day of school.

Visit to Graceland

This is Patrick taking over for a few posts here and there on the Road Trip to Wisconsin (and home again). I decided that on the first day we would make the drive all the way to Memphis on our first day of driving. The scheduled drive time would be about 11 hours but I am afraid that with traffic and stops for food it took a little longer. In fact, the worst part of the drive was construction on I40 between Little Rock and Memphis.

Anthony drove a small block of time for me earlier in the day, and I originally planned to have him drive the last portion of the trip with me navigating. However, the construction was so bad that instead of him driving, I had him on his phone googling ways to get me around the massive parking lot that I40 was turned into. That help allowed us to negotiate around a large part of the mess.

Eventually, we finally crossed over the Mississippi into Memphis on our way to the hotel I scheduled us to stay in for two nights. I had my phone passed back to Natalie so that she could take pictures while going over the bridge and she decided to go ahead and text Melanie one of the pictures. She was her usually silly self, but with all those hours in the car it is probably easy to understand.

My driving plan up to Wisconsin included staying a full day in Memphis with time to spend in Graceland as well as Mud Island. I chose Mud Island over a River Boat trip as I thought the kids would enjoy it more and the schedules for the various boat tours was a bit daunting. Anyone thinking of seeing Mud Island after following the link above, you need to know that it is CLOSED on Mondays.

Graceland was open and we all went on the tour. The tour was a bit too long for Natalie and Eric. Alex, Anthony, and I enjoyed it.

The mansion itself is quite amazing, from the entry way and living room on past the dining room and a number of the other rooms.

The dining room is quite ornate and stately. I didn't include the picture of the one bedroom on the first floor which, if I recall correctly, was for Elvis' parents.

The second floor is off limits to visitors, apparently it was off limits to guests even when Elvis was living in the home.

The audio tour was both informative and entertaining. Even though Natalie didn't seem to say much about the tour she certainly seemed to be listening all through the tour. Eric would periodically get lost and we would have to reset the audio tour to the correct room for him.

The older boys and I enjoyed the stories about, and the appearance of, the Jungle Room.

This is another picture of the Jungle Room that you get to after traveling through the basement. We enjoyed the fact that Elvis had a TV room in his basement with three televisions so he would watch all three stations at once. Yes, all three channels at once.

The green shag carpet on both the floor and the ceiling made the room a bit different. It is quite clear that Elvis enjoyed his partying.

Outside we were able to view the resting places of Elvis and some of his family members. I didn't include some pictures of those due to the large number of people in the background, including children.

At this point in the tour, Eric was clearly fading and bored.

But still willing to smile for the camera.

After the Graceland tour we also visited the car museum to see some of Elvis' cars. Eric was willing to ham it up for some pictures. most of the displays were so dark it was very difficult to get a good picture. The black Ferrari has Eric's approval.

Yes, the most tired member of the family is willing to pose for pictures.

Here is where my planning failed. After Graceland we made the drive to Mud Island, planning to eat nearby and explore there. When we arrived the woman at the parking area informed us it was closed on Mondays. Sure enough, it is, says so on their website. Great planning Papa!

Fortunately, we did find a place to eat that the kids enjoyed. We ate at the Kooky Canuk in downtown Memphis. The kids loved seeing the huge burgers on the menu as well as the "contests" of people that ate some of these massive burgers in a ridiculously short amount of time.

Then we drove around a bit to try to find the Glass Pyramid we saw while driving in. Meanwhile Anthony and Alex googled information on the Memphis Pyramid. They found some of this entertaining enough to make up for Papa's planning blunder. The pyramid itself is closed as it is being renovated now by Bass Pro Shops but we did stop outside the fence to snap a picture.

Tomorrow will be the next leg of the trip--Robinson and Chicago.

Natalie's Belated Birthday Post

It's been another chaotic week, chaotic because of Patrick and the kids coming home and the kids getting ready for school to start on Monday. It was also chaotic because I lost 24 hours being on call last Sunday--plus the extra hours catching up on sleep after that call.

This was a picture that Patrick took of Natalie eating the Molten Chocolate Cake at the Chili's in St. Louis. They were still traveling across country at that time, so this was the best he could do for her under the circumstances. Chili's is one of Natalie's favorite restaurants, and she ordered her favorite dish--Salmon with Garlic and Herbs. It's one of the few times she will eat broccoli, which is the veggie that usually comes with the dish, so I'm good with that.

Then, last Friday, August 15th, we invited three of her swim friends over for a sleepover. We didn't tell them it was for her birthday or anything, but Natalie knew we were celebrating her birthday. Patrick grilled steak (again, Natalie's choice), which her friends all really enjoyed. These are high-powered swimmers, so even though they were on their yearly three week break from swimming, they still had the appetites to match. They were almost fighting over the first steaks to come off the grill. I enjoyed it because I usually only see them at practice or at swim meets. This was a much more relaxed, fun atmosphere.

After dinner, I took all the kids, including Alex and Eric, to Brindles for ice cream. I convinced Alex to come along so I would have someone to talk to, but he ended up listening to his music with his earphones in place for most of the trip. The girls were hilarious in the car, though, so I was enjoying hearing them talk about this and that. Natalie can talk, but not like these girls.

Her three friends ended up sleeping on the floor of her room. Although there is an extra twin bed in there, they wanted to be together. Aspen had a hard time sleeping, so the others ended up waking up too. They didn't get much sleep, but clearly they didn't mind.

The next morning was an early one, as Renzi's dad and Aspen's mom came to pick them up by 10:30am. I made them red velvet waffles and turkey bacon. Again, they basically fought over the first pieces to come out and I barely got to eat any of the turkey bacon. Luckily, Eric was there early helping me in the kitchen, or he might have lost out also. Ally's mom didn't come pick her up until noon, so Natalie got a little more time with her. This is the only time of year that these three can have a sleepover, because the rest of the year, they have practice every weeknight and some Saturday mornings plus swim meets almost every weekend. Natalie actually wanted to invite a couple of other non-swim friends, but she felt like their interests might not overlap, so she wants to invite them over at another time.

This is one half of a scrapbook layout that I made quite a few years ago about Natalie's birth. I can't believe that my baby girl is now 12 years old. Her body is definitely maturing, and I think I can finally see her personality maturing as well, especially with the back problems and how she is coping with that and other things. Swim practices start again next week, along with school. Wish us luck with that!

Howdy Night

Tonight was Howdy Night at Eric's school. It used to be called Meet the Teachers Night, but I guess maybe they thought "Howdy Night" was more Texan or something. We only received notice yesterday, Wednesday, of who Eric's teacher was, via a postcard mailed to our house. Last year we didn't get that postcard until after Howdy Night. We had to go to the school that night to ask which classroom to go to.

We were a little disappointed that Ms. R wasn't Eric's teacher. When we went back to the public school system from private school six years ago, Ms. R was Alex's fourth grade teacher. She really impressed us when about a week into the school year, she already knew that Alex was way beyond what she taught the class, so she gave him different work to do so he could stay challenged. We were also disappointed when Natalie didn't get her for fourth grade. She started teaching second grade last year, so we were hopeful that this would be our year--but no. Ms. C is Eric's second grade teacher for this year.

We'll have to wait and see what sort of teacher Mrs. C will be for Eric. She said in her info talk about her class that she was trying a format with less structure for the second year in a row. That might benefit Eric because then he can just go at his pace. We already know that strategy won't benefit a classmate of Eric's--someone who was in his class last year and is in his class again this year, someone who NEEDS structure. Ms. R already told us to watch what is going on in Eric's class. We'll see how it goes.

For now, Eric is excited that a couple of his classmates from last year are in his class again this year.

End of the Road Trip

After Anthony and I were at the Chicago airport taking our respective planes, Patrick again packed up the van and drove cross-country with the kids. This time, he was doing all of the driving himself since Anthony was no longer with them. On Monday they drove from Chicago to St. Louis and stopped at the Arch. Natalie actually seemed excited about this one, and Eric told me that he thought it was pretty cool that they got to get in the Arch and ride to the top. At the top they got a wonderful view of the city.

They had a late lunch/early dinner at Chili's. Patrick planned on specifically stopping there because it's one of Natalie's favorite restaurants, and Monday was her birthday--more on the birthday later. After that stop, they drove on until Springfield, where they stopped for the night. The drive was over seven hours total.

On Tuesday, they drove another six hours plus, until they got to the Dallas area. There, they specifically stopped by to see Patrick's paternal aunt. Even though they technically live close to us (about 5-6 hours), we haven't seen them since Anthony was our only child. We would have seen them in Milwaukee this weekend, but they had a devastating loss last week. Their daughter-in-law died suddenly, and they are still recovering.

They had a nice visit. The kids got to meet Aunt Jean and Uncle Dave for the first time, and Patrick's cousin Debbie was able to come over. Aunt Jean even baked cookies for them. Now we're all Facebook friends so we can keep tabs on each other. I was sad that I missed it.

Today, Patrick made the five hour or so drive back home. I got off early from work, but they still beat me home. I'm slowly combing through all the pictures and I still hope to post more of them by the weekend.

Home Again

I flew back home this morning, and I've been busy getting some stuff done around the house that I've been meaning to do for months, so this will be a short post. Hopefully I'll get around to editing the photos from my trip and I'll post many of them here. Some of the group shots may require some head-swapping, which will take time...

Anthony flew back to Boston this morning also, and Patrick is on the road again with the other kids. Poor Natalie is spending her 12th birthday (today) in the van for seven or so hours. They did stop in St. Louis and they got to see the Arch plus they went to a late lunch at Chili's (one of her favorites), but we'll be trying to make it up to her this coming weekend. They should be back by Wednesday, in time to enjoy a week and a half of the summer before going back to school.

Patrick's mom and dad had their 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration this past weekend. This is the best photo of all the kids together, so you might see this again on our Christmas card this year. I'm unhappy with how grainy the photo is (dark room and all). One of these days I'll actually learn how to use my flash correctly. It was really nice to see both of Patrick's sisters and some of the relatives we haven't seen in many years. Patrick's sister Lisa planned the whole thing, and she did a fabulous job. I'll share some more photos in the coming days.

Finally With My Family Again

Wow, what a day. I was so happy when I finally saw this cute face covered in chocolate ice cream. I was supposed to leave San Antonio at 8:15am. I got a text at 4am, saying that my plan wasn't going to take off until 11:55am. I was supposed to get into Chicago by 11am, but now I wasn't even scheduled to leave San Antonio until after my original arrival time.

Patrick was with the kids in Chicago, waiting for my arrival. He was planning to pick me up and then we would drive to Milwaukee to meet up with the rest of his family. Now that pick up time was getting pushed back. I was not happy. Also, I had arranged for a friend (and co-worker) to pick me up on her way to work. I couldn't just stay home. I had to be at the airport for another three hours.

When I got to the airport, I went to the Southwest Airlines Ticket Agent and asked why my plan was so late. She immediately said that she had instructions to give me a $100 travel voucher for my inconvenience. Then, she informed me that the departure was delayed even further--2:15pm. Oh my goodness. She then offered me a second $100 travel voucher. She never stated why the plane was delayed so long, but I heard another agent tell someone else on the same flight that the plane was in Dallas and had been struck by lightning, so they were checking it out and they didn't know when it would be ready.

I was worried that after they delayed the flight for so long already, there might be the possibility of the flight being cancelled all together. Patrick was worried that he had to check out of the Chicago hotel by noon and he didn't know what to do with the kids where he didn't have to park somewhere with a van full of luggage. We were both worried that we wouldn't get out of Chicago and arrive in Milwaukee until late in the afternoon/evening.

I explained this to the ticket agent, and she eventually found another flight for me, except going straight to Milwaukee. I had to rush to get on a plane going to Phoenix because it was already boarding. I was the last passenger to board that flight. Luckily, the seat I found was in the middle seat between two people that weren't too obese and they didn't smell. I had to change planes in Phoenix to get to Milwaukee. Meanwhile, Patrick went ahead and left Chicago and drove to Milwaukee. The kids were already having fun on the beach outside of my in-laws' condo when Patrick went to the Milwaukee airport at 2pm--earlier than that original flight was supposed to leave San Antonio. I got to have my Eric hugs and I got my $200 in vouchers for future travel on Southwest Airlines.

The kids were all on the beach when I got there. We all had ice cream at a nearby shop that was a short walking distance from my in-laws' condo. The weather was bright and sunny and in the 70s--20 degrees cooler than San Antonio.

Natalie got reacquainted with her other girl cousins. Natalie even played with Aunt Lisa's old Barbie dolls with cousin Sydney. Gasp. Natalie hasn't played with dolls in years. They said they didn't have anything else to do. I had to take a picture to document the event, of course.

I probably won't be able to post again until we get back home, but I wanted to share what happened today with my plane flights.

What They Are Up To

I have been going to work like I normally do, and either Patrick or Natalie have been texting me pictures of what they are up to. Patrick will have to do a full report when we get back, but for now, this is just a few pictures of what they're up to on the road trip, and even fewer details.

They spent the day in Memphis on Monday. Their first stop was at Graceland. I didn't get too many details, but I'm happy that even the big boys are in this picture. I had to laugh because Anthony and Alex are posing in their own special way, but that is part of their personalities. Eric seems to be the one posing for most of the pictures.

Patrick wanted to take the kids to see Mud Island, but it was closed on Mondays, so they went to the car museum instead. They seemed to enjoy the car museum enough. This photo made me laugh because, as I mentioned a few days ago, Eric seems to be into doing this thumbs up thing right now. He might as well get it out of his system now, but he is definitely a little cutie when he does this.

This is the part of the trip that I really wish I could have been there for. They went by the town that we used to live in, to visit our good friends. Gary is Natalie's godfather, and he had an early birthday celebration planned for her. I spoke to Gary the night before, and he said he had the margarita mix and the fridge was full of meat.

I received this picture today. They got into Chicago yesterday, and they visited the Chicago Bean today. I didn't get too many details about this, except that they walked there from the hotel and that they left Natalie in the hotel room because her back was hurting from all of the walking they had been doing already.

I miss this sweet kid. I'll be able to see them all tomorrow.

Road Trip

After Patrick and the kids left on their road trip yesterday, I parked the extra car in the garage. I saw this in the driver's side door pocket. Anthony had left his name tag there, and seeing it made me very sentimental. Sure, I'll see Anthony again when they pick me up from the airport later this week, but next week, he will travel back to school.

My friend Alicia and I were talking tonight about whether or not it's easier to send Anthony off to college this year. Right now it feels harder. Last year I was trying to hold it together because I knew Anthony was nervous. This year, I guess I don't care--Anthony isn't nervous this year. He is happy there, and he is enjoying himself so much that he wants to go back early. This year, though, I'm going to visit him in October, instead of waiting until December to see him again. That will make it easier on me. I've already booked the flight.

Patrick and the kids leaving just aggravated this feeling. They drove approximately 740 miles yesterday, until they reached Memphis. Patrick let Anthony drive only about 85 miles, and he drove the rest. He was very tired at the end of the day. Natalie texted me throughout their trip, sending pictures of her brothers trying to sleep, playing games, and she even sent me a selfie. She told me, "You said to take pictures." Yes, I did, and I was so happy that one of my children paid attention to me.

They are headed to my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary party. I was talking to Eric about the party last week. He said, "Kids don't usually go to anniversaries." He just remembers that when Patrick and I go out to celebrate our anniversary, he isn't invited. He was wondering why he had to go to Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary celebration. He also wondered out loud why kids don't go on honeymoons. I told him that the 50th wedding anniversary is a big deal, and that Grandma and Grandpa wanted to celebrate with their kids and grandkids. Eric said, "50 is a lot. Doing one thing 50 times is a lot." That boy cracks me up. I can't wait to see him again along with the rest of the family at the end of the week. I'll have to get Patrick to do some blog posts about the trip when they get back.

Family Time

As I mentioned in a previous post in June, the kids have been playing a game called Smash Up almost daily. Anthony plays when he wasn't at work. Patrick, Eric, and Alex play the most. Natalie plays some of the time. They finally got me to play a couple of weeks ago, after giving me those big puppy dog eyes, and saying, "Please, Mama!".

I've played three times total--I even won one of the games. It's a great game and has really great re-playability, but I overthink it and that confuses me, so most of the time I'm content to watch the rest of them play. Alex usually has to help me sort it out. I can totally see why Alex and Anthony are great at it, because their minds are analytical that way, but I'm also pleased to see Eric starting to think that way too. He gets some help from his brothers, but he has won games before. He amazes me with how intelligent he seems to be, even at seven years old. Of course I'm a little biased...

Eric also exudes personality. This is a picture of him yesterday, just after he put on the 3D glasses for watching the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. He put his thumb up on his own--no one told him too. Yesterday also, after tasting some lime sherbet at Brindle's Ice Cream, he put this thumb up to show that he liked it and that he wanted to get the lime sherbet. He cracks me up.

The whole family went to see Guardians of the Galaxy yesterday at the Rialto Theatre, where Anthony worked this summer. He had pre-arranged it with the management, and got us all in for free, as long as the movie was not going to sell out. We went to the 11 am showing, which happened to be the 3D version. We didn't originally care about the 3D, but the first non-3D showing was at 12 noon, and we wanted to go earlier. An additional plus to seeing the 11 am show was that since the 3D version is usually more expensive, at $9.50 a person, and the morning showings are less attended anyway, we figured it would be highly unlikely that the movie would sell out.

We all had a really great time. The movie was very entertaining. My family likes action movies anyway, but this one also had a lot of humor that everyone in the family could understand. The 3D feature did add a little something to some of the scenes, but seeing it without the 3D would have also been very enjoyable.

We didn't end up buying any snacks, so this movie was super-cheap for our family of six. The boys had gotten up shortly before we left, and the rest of us ate a big breakfast of pound cake waffles with chocolate chips, and turkey bacon. The kids did all go to Whataburger after we got home though. Patrick wanted to get through his list of things to do before their road trip, and I wanted to get through the leftovers in our refrigerator.

We all went to church Saturday evening and went out to dinner at El Mirasol. This was Anthony's last meal in San Antonio before going back to school, so he tends to always choose El Mirasol. Tomorrow I'll post a little about the road trip.