Pre-Halloween Post

I'm trying to get into the blogging routine again, and I didn't think I would have the energy to do a post tonight after trick-or-treating, so here is my "Pre-Halloween" post instead.

Alex went to his school's "Pink Out" football game last night with his four of his friends. They all wore pink shirts for the occasion, four of them with the "official Pink-Out" shirt made for the occasion. Two of his friends were still there when Patrick and I got back from the gym this morning. At least that meant only feeding three for breakfast and lunch unlike the five teenage boys we fed last night for dinner. I saw them playing chess in the dining room with Eric watching intently, and I couldn't resist taking a picture. Later, they played with Eric and taught him some things. Eric is so lucky his older siblings teach him useful things, and we're so lucky that his siblings have friends that are great with Eric.

For those of you that are not on Facebook, Anthony finally posted a photo from Venice this week. This is the first photo we've seen of him since he got there at the end of last week. He is there with one of his fraternity brothers, so I'm sure this was mostly posted for his fraternity's benefit rather than ours. Still, it was good to see proof that he is alive and doing well. He's been super busy this year and we haven't had a chance to communicate as often. He'll be studying in Venice for this quarter (from the end of October to the Christmas Break), and we'll be visiting him for Thanksgiving week. He has an apartment there, provided by the school, and he has apparently already cooked a meal. He has been cooking for himself since this past summer when he was staying at his frat house with no food service.

Yesterday, we got a text from my sister Cynthia that my brother-in-law John and my nephew Nick were headed to San Antonio for a band competition. We met John at North Star Mall so he could grab some dinner. He specifically mentioned wanting to see Eric, but Natalie and I came along for the ride also. We originally thought we might be able to see Nick also, but the band decided to stop elsewhere for dinner after their performance at the Alamodome. We usually go visit family in Houston so we can see my Mom and Dad, who doesn't travel well, so it's nice to have some family come to our hometown once in a while. We're hoping John will be able to stop by for dinner tonight, but we'll see how Nick's band does today.

We went to the annual Halloween Party of some family friends this past Saturday. They had this "swamp house" set up in their garage and everyone got the opportunity to get pictures taken in front of this cool backdrop. I might never have gotten a picture of Natalie in her Halloween costume otherwise. She originally balked at getting her picture taken. She has a matching wooden bow and arrow, but she didn't bring it to the party.

I got Eric his costume months ago when it was on sale. He is the character Ezra from the Star Wars Rebels animated show, one of his favorites. Because he was already in the Star Wars theme, I decided to get a costume for Rey, one of the new characters from the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie that comes out next month. I've always disliked the lack of good Star Wars female costumes, and this one was pretty decent. Patrick decided to be a "generic" Jedi complete with hooded robe. I don't think Patrick and I will wear our costumes tonight, but it was fun to dress up for one night.

I'll try to get more pictures tonight and hopefully post them by tomorrow. Happy Halloween!

Jedi Academy Project

Eric has been busy this week. He had his usual weekly homework, which is more extensive than last year, and then he had a project that is due tomorrow. The project was about a favorite book, which for Eric is the Jedi Academy series by Jeffrey Brown. He had to do a story sheet to include information about his book--a summary of the story, information about the characters, etc. The second part of the project was decorating a paper plate to look like the main character. If you look closely at this picture, you can see that the main character on the front of the book looks very much like the character on the paper plate. Way to go, Eric!

Patrick and I hate "school projects" because they are actually projects for parents, and we have both been through enough school that we have done more than our fair share of homework. Of course, we let our kids do the work, but organizing it and making sure they do it is additional work for us parents. Eric is just now getting to the age where he has more complicated homework to include such projects. Patrick and I heard about this last week, but of course we didn't realize it was due this Friday until Tuesday night. Eric actually pointed it out while he was doing his homework at Natalie's swim practice. I just thought, "Oh no. When are we going to find time to do that?"

Tuesday is one of our busiest nights of the week. This week, as with most weeks, I took the kids to their piano lessons, which involves leaving the house by about 4pm (right after Natalie gets home on the bus) for Natalie's 4:30pm lesson and Eric's 5pm lesson. I was off this Tuesday, so at least I didn't have to come home from work and turn right back around and leave again to take them to piano. There was a lot of traffic on the way home, so we didn't get home until almost 6pm. That meant that I only had 15 minutes to feed Eric and me (Natalie usually eats after swim practice) before I had to go back out to take Natalie to swim practice. Easy Mac, anyone? Patrick, in the meantime, was gone to pick up Alex from school at 6:30.

Natalie's back has been hurting again. Tuesday's practice was the only practice she has attended this week. Because of a change in their dry land schedule, they were doing dry land exercises when we got there, which Natalie doesn't participate in when her back is hurting. When they did get in the water, Natalie was only in the water swimming for about 10 minutes before she was back out again. By this time, though, it was late enough that we didn't get home until almost 8pm. Patrick and Alex were home by this time and had brought Subway sandwich for Eric because he was still hungry after the Easy Mac. He had to eat that quickly so he could get to bed. His usual bedtime is 8pm. This is all a long story to make everyone feel sorry for me (*wink*) but also to show that we didn't have time to do anything else on Tuesday night. Eric actually did do most of his homework while we were at swim practice.

Wednesday night (yesterday), I was on call, so I was not going to be of any help at all. Patrick spent a lot of time with Eric working on that story sheet. Eric also went to Jiu Jitsu for an hour yesterday on top of all of that. Today, Eric finished up the story sheet, the rest of his homework, and the paper plate. He then read for 40 minutes (he is supposed to read for at least 20 minutes every day as part of his homework). With all of that, he didn't have time to practice piano today.

On the plus side, we were able to watch Tuesday night's episode of Marvel Agents of SHIELD, one of our favorite shows, and one that we enjoy watching together every week. Even with all of the chaos of the school week, it's nice to be able to spend time together, even if it's only for about 45 minutes. It was certainly a nice reward for Eric after finishing the project.

Week Recap

I am totally out of my blog routine. It's not that I've been too busy as much as I am just out of the habit of writing on my blog, but I'll at least try to recap some of the events of this past week. Most of these details are probably only important to me, but anyone else that is interested can skim the text below.

Last Friday, October 16, I was on call at the hospital. My cousin Rachael flew into Austin for the weekend, but because I was expecting a busy night, I didn't get a chance to meet up with her and her new baby girl Harper. I took a nap on Saturday morning/afternoon instead. On Saturday, Alex was off with his friends, and Natalie was at a UIL competition. Natalie got "only" an award for Math. Patrick's parents came back in town for the winter, so he and Eric had lunch with them. In the evening, Patrick and I attended a retirement dinner for one of the CRNAs from work. Major G is retiring after 24 years in the Army (she's the one to my immediate left in this picture). It was fun seeing work friends in real clothes instead of our scrubs plus I got to dress up a little.

Also last Saturday, my Dad was discharged home from the hospital in the afternoon. On Sunday, his PICC line (long-term IV that they send patients home with) was clogged, and he missed a dose of his antibiotics, but the home health nurse was able to give him a dose in the afternoon after she unclogged the line. The line clogged again, so they spent a good amount of time in the ER on Monday getting that taken care of. Everything seemed to be fine after that, although Mom is getting used to using Dad's feeding tube to feed him. He is apparently complaining constantly about being hungry and wanting to eat food by mouth, which he isn't supposed to do.

On Monday, October 19th, I was off work, so Patrick and I got to have a late breakfast/ early lunch at Magnolia Pancake Haus after going to the gym. In the afternoon, we did the usual Jiu Jitsu with Eric. Natalie also had another physical therapy appointment.

On Tuesday, Alex stayed after school, so I went home right after work. I met Patrick at piano so he could take Natalie to swim practice after her piano lesson and I could stay with Eric for his piano lesson. After he got home with Natalie, she decided that her back was more sore and that she didn't want to go to swim practice. After piano, I took Eric to Willie's Icehouse for his school's fundraiser night. Meanwhile, Patrick picked up Alex and met us at Willie's just after we finished eating. With all of this coordinated pickup/dropoff of children, it's too bad we didn't all get to eat together.

On Wednesday, Natalie texted Patrick from school in the afternoon, saying that her throat was sore. The substitute teacher for her class wouldn't let her go to the nurse for "just" a sore throat, otherwise, the nurse might have taken her temperature, found out that she didn't have a fever, and convinced her to go back to class. Instead, Patrick picked her up from school and found out when they got home that she didn't have a fever. Her core classes are all in the morning anyway, so she didn't miss much schoolwork, but because of this, she didn't go to swim practice on Wednesday evening either. On the plus side, we were all home after Eric's Jiu Jitsu class. I had picked up Alex from school and gone to the gym. When we all got home, we all watched Tuesday night's episode of Marvel Agents of SHIELD, one of our favorite shows.

On Thursday morning, Patrick and I both received texts at 4:30am from Anthony saying that he had arrived in Venice, Italy. The time there was 1130am. He and his friends are now staying at a hotel until they can get into their assigned apartments on Saturday. Alex stayed after school again, so Patrick picked him up later when I was with Natalie at swim practice. She wasn't even able to make it through warmup before she was hurting and out of the water. At least she made it to part of practice.

Natalie's physical therapist is on vacation next week, so she had another appointment today (Friday, October 23). Patrick picked up both Eric and Natalie from school early in order to go to PT. I took Alex to get his haircut after school. The place where we get our hair cut is right next to Eric's Jiu Jitsu class, so Patrick met us there and I stayed with Eric for class while Patrick took Alex to his friend's house where he will stay overnight.

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but that was our week in summary.

ER Visit

I posted this on Facebook yesterday, so I figured I should post here also. I took the "little ones" with me to visit Houston on Friday. Alex had plans with his friends to go the the Corn Maize this weekend, so Patrick stayed here in town with him. We had an uneventful trip there, which is good, because I still have a little PTSD from my accident in February on the way to Houston.

Anyway, I was staying at my sister Cynthia's house, and so on Saturday, I took my kids plus my niece Aly to go visit my parents. My sister Melissa had already mentioned that Dad had some recent wheezing for which he was getting home nebulizer/breathing treatments. When I walked in to the house, it was like walking into my job at the hospital. Dad was half sitting/half lying down on the living room sofa. His caregiver Susan was sitting with him, rubbing ice on his chest. Dad's breathing looked very labored and I could hear his wheezing from across the room. As I told my mom later, I have a selection bias (of people I see that look like this). In the past, whenever I saw someone that looked like my Dad looked, it's usually because their doctor has asked me to come intubate them (i.e. put a breathing tube in). He looked and sounded that bad.

I asked Mom a bunch of questions. Dad had wheezing off and on for the past couple of weeks. He had seen his primary care doctor, who prescribed Albuterol nebulizer treatments for at home, every six hours. Dad's caregiver Susan gave him one at noon, and he sounded better, but within a couple of hours, (to me) he sounded worse than when I first arrived. Mom said that before yesterday, he had the wheezing off and on and the breathing treatment helped. Today, she said he was wheezing continuously and he was breathing more often. I counted over 30 and up to 60 breaths per minute plus I could see him use his accessory muscles (i.e. he looked like he was struggling to breathe).

Mom kept asking Dad if he felt like he was having trouble breathing and he kept saying no. He was a little disoriented (his usual), so I wasn't sure if he answered correctly. He complained of some chest pain on his right side in one place about mid-chest. He said that pain went away after he had the breathing treatment at noon. Mom had a stethoscope that I was able to use, and all I could hear was wheezing throughout both lungs. The audible wheezing improved with the breathing treatment also, but two hours later, it was bad again, so I told them to give him another treatment, and not to wait until 6pm when his next one was due.

By this time, my sister Melissa had arrived, and she didn't seem to notice Dad's breathing. That made me wonder if he had looked like this before, maybe he'd been doing this for two weeks already. By the time I decided that I couldn't leave Mom with Dad like this, Melissa had already left to take her daughter and Natalie to go shopping at the Galleria.

Mom tried to call Dad's primary care doctor, but his answering service did not provide a way to contact him and did not provide an on call doctor to answer questions. The only thing they said was that "if this is an emergency, go to the emergency room". I kept wondering how a non-medical person would be able to tell what was an emergency and what was not. I didn't think this was an emergency, but Dad was not going to be able to wait until Monday to see the doctor, so Mom, Susan, Dad and I set off to find an urgent care center. We left Aly and Eric at the house. Melissa later picked them up.

We drove around for over an hour trying to find an urgent care center. Google was not helpful because when I googled "urgent care center", the information was divided into different companies, and then different locations, so it was not a quick search. We went to what I thought might be the closest one, but there was no urgent care center at that location. We drove around to where Mom thought she may have seen some urgent care centers, but again, we didn't see any. Finally, we were already on Highway 59, so I remembered seeing a location at Highway 59 and Highway 6 during my search, so I headed in that direction.

We ended up at a freestanding 24 hour emergency room. When they heard "shortness of breath", they jumped on him immediately. They drew blood for lab tests and placed an IV. Mom seemed a little alarmed when she heard about the IV, but I assured her that was routine. They also took a chest X-ray right away and gave him oxygen. It seemed to be a manner of minutes before the doctor came out and announced that Dad had pneumonia and that he would have to be admitted to the hospital. I'm glad I was there to interpret some of this to Mom and to reassure her that this was the right thing to do. When the ER doc mentioned the possibility of Dad having to be intubated, I was there to tell Mom that it was okay and that it might be necessary but that it was likely temporary until he got better. Thankfully, Dad didn't have to be intubated.

We waited a few hours before the transfer was done and then for the ambulance came. We didn't go to the hospital until about 7pm. I realized that we had never eaten dinner. Luckily I had a Fiber One bar that I could give Mom to eat. Dad, of course, complained of being hungry. At least everything seemed better once Dad was in the ICU. His breathing was not labored anymore, although he still needed some oxygen. I felt comfortable leaving him at that point to take Mom home to rest. The charge nurse was even Filipino, so at least Dad would be able to communicate somewhat. He has reverted to speaking in only his native language, not even speaking Tagalog or English much anymore, so Susan and Mom tried to remind him to try to talk in only Tagalog or English so the nurses could understand him.

I headed home this morning, early, around when Melissa was headed to the hospital to see Dad. She called me when I was about 30-45 minutes from home, because the pulmonologist was there and she wanted to be sure she was making the right decisions. Mom had gone to church and didn't get to the hospital until shortly after our conversation. I had to pull over at a rest stop because I don't think it's safe to have in-depth conversations like that while driving. Dad was doing a lot better breathing-wise, so he was probably going to be transferred out of the ICU today. The doctor thought this was "bilateral aspiration pneumonia", which is a bigger problem.

Basically, Dad is having more and more difficulty swallowing as his Parkinson's progresses. He has had a problem swallowing even his own saliva lately, but food is a bigger problem. Even with pureed foods, some of his food ends up in his lungs instead of his stomach, so pneumonia could be a continuing problem, so they will place a feeding tube in his stomach tomorrow (PEG tube or percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube). I told Melissa and Mom that this was a good idea. This would actually make it easier for Mom to feed Dad. The problem she'll have will be to convince him that he can't "eat" anything by mouth. This will allow him to get as much nutrition he needs, which had been a problem.

The bad news is that his kidney function tests are getting elevated, meaning that his kidneys may not be working as well. For those who know the numbers, his creatinine level two weeks ago was 1.1. Yesterday in the ER it was 1.7, and today it was 2.6. They'll have to figure out what's causing that and how to fix it. It could just be his being dehydrated, so the doctor ordered IV fluids. It could also be related to the infection/pneumonia. He also had a problem with urinary obstruction a few years ago, which caused his creatinine to be elevated to 8, so the doctor will have to sort all of that out.

Dad is doing much better today. I just heard from my sister Cynthia, who is at the hospital now, and she says his breathing is quiet. That makes me feel so much better. My visit was stressful, but I'm glad I was there for my Mom.

Smoothie King

Alex has always loved fruit, and he has also loved shakes and smoothies. I love shakes and smoothies too, and I blame my discovery of Sonic shakes when pregnant with Alex for his love of the same. About a month or so ago, we bought a Nutri Ninja from Costco just so we could make our own smoothies. I had tried to use our old blender and we couldn't even find all the pieces. I then used a cheap blender that I bought specifically so I could make paper (one of my old crafty projects), and that wasn't nearly strong enough. After some comparison shopping online, we decided to get the Ninja blender.

This is a picture of the blender with one of our first "healthy" smoothies which included kale and spinach. It was just okay, and since then, we've really only made fruit smoothies, which we liked much better. I used the recipe that they use at work for their smoothies. I watched them make them, and all they use is frozen fruit, vanilla yogurt, and milk. I've used greek yogurt in mine to boost the protein content, especially the low fat low-sugar versions. Alex has even bragged to his friends about my smoothies, and this past weekend, his friend Christian had a tropical smoothie (using the "tropical mix" frozen fruit from HEB with extra bananas), and he said it was good, too.

Tonight, Alex asked me to make him a smoothie and I told him that maybe he could try to make his own. I was right there with him telling him what to add, how much to add, and in what order to add the ingredients. This is a picture of him taking a video of the blender working. I'm not sure why he wanted to take a video, but I'm just happy he was recording this event. Of course the smoothie turned out the same as when I made it, so he was excited about being able to make smoothies on his own. He even warned Patrick and me about how he might be using the blender (which is very loud) late at night. He asked if there was an outlet in the garage so he could muffle the sound of the blender, but we discouraged the idea of him blending things out in the garage.

Alex usually has a number of friends spend the night here at home at least one night per weekend. I can see it now, he is going to be making smoothies for all of his friends at all hours into the night. I've created a monster.

I'm Alive

I'm alive, really I am. Last month wasn't really busy so much, but I was preoccupied with two lectures I had to give. One was for the residents, and the other was for the Anesthesia techs at Wilford Hall Medical Center (otherwise now known as San Antonio Military Medical Center South). We haven't been too busy because Natalie's back is hurting again, so she hasn't been going to practice, and even before that she wasn't going often or very long at each practice. Eric is the one that has been busy. He's been going to Jiu Jitsu class three times a week. Alex has been busy too, he has been staying after school for PSAT classes and studying.

This first picture is very blurry--don't feel like you have to adjust your monitor. I was out running this morning, and the weather and sky were just beautiful, so I stopped for a second and snapped a photo with my phone. I guess I didn't stop long enough because the picture is blurry. I decided to use it for my blog post anyway.

Finally the weather is cooler here in San Antonio. This morning it was in the low 70s. It is a whole lot easier to exercise outside when it's cool. A couple or so Fridays ago, I tried running after getting home from work. It was around 5pm and it was 97 degrees outside. I had to resort to walking because I was getting so hot.

Patrick and I have been on an exercise kick since May when we both got our fitness trackers. I took it a little further by also starting to run. I started running a minute for every five minutes walking or so, and gradually increased it. I still don't run more than 10 minutes or so without walking, but I'm proud to say that I can run 3 miles now in a little over 30 minutes, or at least that's what I did this morning. I also don't try to run every day, but when I don't run, I usually take a brisk walk of at least 30 minutes. Patrick is my pace setter because he walks fast enough that he probably walks faster than some people jog. There are some days when that walk didn't happen until 8pm, but I still managed to fit it in. When I was on 24 hour call at the hospital, I walked around the hospital.

I have also been using the My Fitness Pal app on my phone to keep track of what I eat. I'm still amazed, but I've been able to lose about 15 pounds since May by exercising every day and watching what I eat. This has to be sustainable for me for the long term, so no fad diets or food that is different from what I ate before. I definitely don't snack as much (my big weakness) but I do indulge occasionally. I was so happy when I got to the weight I was before Alex was born, and now I might actually get down to the weight I was before Anthony was born. I'm definitely alive and feeling good about myself. I'll also be posting more this month!

Eric's Science Lab

This is Patrick posting again. I volunteered for the 3rd grade Science Lab for Eric's class this morning and, due to a few distractions, forgot to take any pictures. I hope this post will make up for it a bit.
Today's lab was basically about buoyancy. The children had a clear plastic tub of water and a variety of items to put into the water. They were expected to fill columns indicating: the item, what it was made of, prediction (float or sink), result (after they put it in the water) and distance from the bottom for those items that "floated." If an item did not go all the way to the bottom, it was considered to be a "floater" while anything that sank to the bottom was a "sinker." Items included: a wiffle ball, glass marble, round flat plastic disc, round piece of cork, small sheet of paper, wax crayon, aluminum pop tab, foam die, metal key, plastic square, and a wood cube.

The kids were split up in groups of 2-3 at 6 different tables and had to fill out their piece of paper with the information mentioned above as well as a drawing of the tub of water and where items floated or sank to. They only needed to choose 6 of the items above and they didn't all have to do the same items even in a particular group. The main challenge was to remind the children that they had to "predict" the outcome before testing and "observing" the outcome. Several of the kids wanted to simply toss things into the water (it is 3rd grade after all).

I was surprised by several different things. First, I volunteered a few times for art last year when Melanie couldn't make it and I would say that for the science lab, in general, the children were MUCH better behaved and focused than last year. I don't know if this is because they are a year older or because this teacher keeps better discipline in her classroom. It is also possible that the idea of the science lab helped keep them under control. Second, I found it very interesting to see some of the "predictions" made by a number of the children. I would say half of those that chose the wood cube expected it to sink (including Eric). Eric, at least, didn't seem surprised that it floated, and I began to wonder if he was just writing a prediction down quickly just so he could put it into the water.

In general, the lab was short, well organized, easy for the kids to do, and they seemed to be very well behaved as a class. I will be volunteering again next week and plan to set reminders so I actually get some pictures.

Force Friday

This past Friday (September 4) was apparently nicknamed "Force Friday" because that is the day that the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens toys and other merchandise were released for sale to the public. There were news stories about people waiting in line to be able to be the first to buy those items at midnight. We did not participate in that. In fact, we didn't get to any store until Saturday afternoon.

The whole family plus three of Alex's friends that spent the night on Friday, all went to IHOP for breakfast. That was a large breakfast bill, but Alex's friends all seem like good kids, and it was to give them a little treat. All of them got up on their own by about 9am except for his friend John, who Alex literally dragged out of bed. We sat in adjoining booths, the boys in their own booth, otherwise it might have taken forever for all eight of us to get seated.

After breakfast, Natalie and I took advantage of some of the Labor Day sales at La Cantera Mall. After that, Eric reminded me that I told him I would take him to Target. He really wanted me to take him to Target first, but that would have involved his having to go shopping with Natalie and me, and that is not what he nor we wanted to do.

My whole family loves to go to Target. Eric always likes to hang out in the toy section to look at their Legos. He can spend quite a while there, but since it was just the two of us at Target, he knew he would have to do "shopping" with me first then I would take him to the toy section. This time, there was a big area for just the Star Wars stuff. There were costumes, clothing, toys, and lots of items all in the Star Wars theme. Some of the stuff was not necessarily Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie-themed, but just Star Wars in general.

We spent quite a bit of time in that Star Wars area. Eric honed in on the new Kilo Ren lightsaber. Kilo Ren is a "bad guy" in the new movie and he has a red lightsaber that has three points. According to Patrick, there has been talk online about how impractical such a shape would be because it would be difficult not to strike yourself with the perpendicular lightsabers when fighting with the long central lightsaber. It didn't matter--Eric really wanted that lightsaber.

He also discovered a large "Jedi Master Lightsaber Set" with interchangeable parts that you can customize to your liking. At first we thought that set was $19.99. The Kilo Ren lightsaber was $12.99. The prices weren't cheap but I didn't mind spending that for my Star Wars-loving boy. Then when I did the price check and discovered that the big set retailed for $49.99, that was too much to spend for a non-birthday, non-Christmas gift for Eric. Target had a coupon for $10 off a Star Wars purchase of $50 or more, but that was still a lot of money. I presented the situation to Eric, who said, "But I really want it." I had to admit that the big "Jedi Master Lightsaber Set" was pretty cool. He volunteered to pay for it with his allowance money. I agreed to give him a discount off the tax, and he got two lightsabers for $55.

The top picture above is of Eric with the two lightsabers put together. On Sunday night, when we had our family friends over for dinner (Patrick smoked ribs again--yum!), they were also impressed. I texted that top picture to Anthony and he was impressed also. Eric has been playing with them since then, and so has Natalie. Eric also showed Alex and of course he thought it was cool too.

When Eric went to bed on Sunday night, and Alex was still expecting some of his friends to come over to spend the night, I asked Eric to put away his lightsabers. He had them by his bed near the window (where I couldn't see them), and he laughed when he realized that if he had left them in the game room where Alex and his friends usually sleep, one of them might accidentally have laid down on the lightsabers and gotten a surprise lightsaber sound in the middle of the night. Eric thought that would be funny but not a nice thing to do to Alex's friends when they were trying to sleep.

The second picture above is of Eric in his usual "stance" when it come to looking at Legos. He was looking at Lego Ninjago Legos at the time, but he likes to squat down to get a better look. He was doing that today also, when I took him to North Star Mall to the Lego Store there. I had to take him there before the week got busy, to see the new Legos and to see the new merchandise at the Disney Store. I took this last picture after we went to the Disney Store. I saw the big poster/graphic on the front window and told Eric that I wanted a picture. I didn't tell him how to pose. He decided on his own to reach up as if he was actually holding the lightsaber in the picture. What a goof! I do love that he can use his imagination to have fun, and that makes it worth carting him around to all of these places this weekend.

Third Grade Orientation

Eric's Orientation Night was last night. I only got to go because Natalie's back was hurting (saying a little prayer), which meant that she didn't go to swim practice last night. Patrick was with Eric at his piano practice. I'm not so good at remembering details about the class, so I was texting Patrick some of the more important and interesting stuff plus Eric's teacher gave us a copy of her slides.

I took this photo of something Eric had to fill out at school. I love that his teacher did this, because it will be something special to look back on when he grows up. Just in case you can't read it, I'll type out the text here:

I'm glad to be in grade 3 (with a picture of him holding a sign that says "3rd Day of 3rd Grade".
I am excited about--going to the frankenstein science lab.
I wish we could--have a longer recess for example: an hour.
I'm wondering about--what I am going to write.
I'm nervous about--nothing right now.

I especially love that last line because that is such an Eric answer. As for the frankenstein science lab, his teacher talked about how they were going to have science lab every Wednesday morning. She didn't say "frankenstein" lab to us, but she may have said that to Eric. I'm trying to encourage Patrick to volunteer for that lab, because here it is many years later, and Anthony still talks about the time that Patrick was his substitute science teacher (for a couple of weeks), and some of the fun experiments they did. I want that experience for Eric also (and for Patrick). The problem is that the science lab is from 8:30-9:30am, and Patrick usually isn't back from taking Alex to school by that time. I'm hoping that it will work out in the end, at least once a month of nothing else.

Another interesting fact about Eric's class, is that he is expected to speak and write in complete sentences. This should be no problem, because he has his father as a constant example. The kids and I were teasing Patrick that even his text messages are in complete sentences. This year seems to be a turning point year, when they cover a lot more material than they did in previous years, so Eric will really have to pay attention. He is going to have a spelling test every Friday, and we're now allowed to correct his spelling on his homework, which they apparently discouraged last year (I really don't remember). She doesn't want them to continue making the same mistake, so correcting them when they first make that mistake is the right way to go.

This year they are really stepping up the technology. She said that they were going to start using Google Docs and that they would have to make a presentation on the iPad. I think that's great. These are things they will definitely need as they get further in school nowadays.

Patrick and I are pretty happy so far with Eric's teacher. She seems way more organized and communicates much better than his teacher from last year. Two more interesting facts that I actually learned at Howdy Night before school even started--this teacher graduated high school at the same high school that Anthony graduated from (although the Magnet programs were not there yet at that time), and that Alex is going to, and she graduated from Texas A&M, something that I'm quite sure that my brother-in-law John will love.

Weekend Recap

Nothing too exciting happened the rest of the week last week, so I didn't have anything to blog about, and I didn't take any pictures. Instead, I'll share some photos I did take, and summarize our week. This first photo was taken on the morning of the second day of school--for you folks that aren't on Facebook. I shared this on Facebook saying that Eric insisted on sitting on the comfy chairs at Starbucks instead of sitting at a table. That meant that he had to lean way over to keep from getting crumbs from his blueberry scone everywhere. He still got crumbs on the chair and on the floor, but not nearly as bad as he used to when he was two! I took him to Starbucks for breakfast on Tuesday, because I was on call that evening and therefore home in the morning. After breakfast I dropped him off at school.

I got some breakfast for Alex--his favorite is the Bacon Gouda Artisan Breakfast Sandwich, and he likes to have two of them for breakfast along with a drink. This time he requested the Strawberry Smoothie. Patrick did our usual drop off at Alex's school before heading to the gym. I worked Tuesday evening while Patrick had to juggle the kids' schedules on his own. He took the Natalie and Eric to piano practice at 4:30 and 5pm, then he took Natalie to swim practice. She has "dryland" on Tuesdays at 5:45pm, so they were late for that, but practice was as usual at 6:45pm-8:15pm. While she was at practice, Patrick picked up Alex at his friend's house where he ended up after school, dropped Alex and Eric at home, then went back to pick up Natalie. Whew--what an exhausting schedule!

I didn't get much sleep on call, but I did go to the gym directly after work on Wednesday. I saw Patrick there after he had dropped off Alex at school. We met back at home and we both looked at various Target and HEB stores for spiral bound notebooks. Alex didn't want to get any school supplies before school started, because he wanted to see what he actually needed in each class instead of going by the district-approved school supply list. Of course that meant that Target was cleaned out of plain spiral notebooks. Finally Patrick was able to find some at HEB.

I had lunch with my friend Alicia, at a new Vietnamese restaurant near our HEB, then the rest of the day was sort of a blur since I was so exhausted from call on Tuesday night. I did take Eric to Jiu Jitsu at 5pm, and Natalie was sore, so she didn't go to swim practice.

This is a photo of Natalie reading the new Rick Riordan "Greek Heroes" book that just came out a couple of weeks ago. I love that Eric looks so relaxed while Natalie is reading. They've both enjoyed this time together this summer. Eric has been reading some of the Rick Riordan books on his own as well. In fact, when I was able to leave on Thursday morning at around 5am, the light was on in his room--he was already up and reading at 5am! I guess it's a good problem that he loves to read, but he still needs to get sleep!

After work on Thursday, I picked up Alex from school then we went straight to the gym for a short workout. We got home just in time so Patrick did not have to take Eric with him to Natalie's practice. Natalie did go to swim practice on Thursday. She has had some "challenging" practices at the new swim club. She is enjoying the hard workouts and even though she has only been to three practices in the last week and a half, she seems to be doing okay with it, back-wise. We'll see how the next few weeks go.

On Friday, Alex went to a friend's house after school so he could go with them to the school football game. After the game, Alex's friend Jeremy brought him home and Jeremy stayed the night. They were up early the next day to go to a friend's pool party. Patrick took Eric to his Jiu Jitsu class at 5pm again.

On Saturday morning, Patrick and I went to the gym. By the time we got home, the boys had already left. Natalie was home with Eric. Natalie, Eric, and I went to HEB to get some snacks. Eric can now have a mid-morning snack at school, but it has to be a "healthy" snack--no candy or chips. We got some more fruit and apparently Goldfish are considered "healthy", so we got some of that. Natalie got a couple of types of granola bars for herself to have before swim practice since she doesn't always have time to eat dinner before swim practice. I treated the both of them to Starbucks (and me, of course) after the grocery trip. They have a new Strawberry Shortcake Frappucino that Eric and I tried and we both loved it!

On Saturday evening, Patrick grilled steaks. Alex invited his friend John, because he must have been bragging about Patrick's steaks to John and of course, John really wanted to try them. After dinner we showed John our large selection of ice cream, and he and Alex had several scoops. John is one of the few people who can beat Alex at FIFA 15 for the PS4, so they played on video games for a while, even after the rest of us went to bed.

On Sunday, Patrick was about to take Natalie and Eric to the library, when I got a text from Anthony's friend Alejandro, so we have nicknamed Eric's "other brother", saying that he was nearby and wanted to come visit his "other family". He had a couple of hours between jobs and it would've been too far to go all the way home, so he visited us instead. This is a photo of Patrick holding the iPad during Face Time with Anthony. Eric decided to stand above him and Alejandro to make himself just that much taller. It was a fun couple of hours chatting with Alejandro.

The whole family eventually went to the library together. We checked out the first Mission Impossible movie starting Tom Cruise and we watched it when we got home. I picked up PF Chang's for dinner, and now Alex and Natalie are both watching the Video Music Awards (VMAs) on TV. Patrick just found Eric reading in his room by the light of his night light, when he was supposed to already be sleeping. I just texted Anthony to thank him for telling Eric that he used to read by the light of his night light when he was younger. Jeez!

I know I rambled a bit in this post, but this is what our weeks are going to be like from now on this school year.

First Day of School 2015

Today was the first day of school for the younger kiddos. Anthony starts school up in Worcester on Thursday. Eric is starting third grade, Natalie is in eighth grade, and Alex is a junior in high school--yet another year where I have all the kids in different schools. Eric and Natalie still take the bus to school and Patrick usually drops Alex off at school since there is not bus that goes from our neighborhood to his school. Today, since I was off work, Patrick and I both took Alex and then went to the gym.

Eric wore a dinosaur shirt today. I thought he was going to wear a Star Wars Rebels shirt since he has a Star Wars Rebels backpack, but he is not one to plan what he wears anyway. We got him the backpack at the end of last year, so it's still basically new. Every year I take a photo of him with his backpack, and have him look over his shoulder. This made him giggle this year, and I love that you can see his missing teeth in this photo.

For the first year in eight straight years of one of our kids going to this particular elementary school, we didn't get a card in the mail to tell us what number the bus is and what time it's coming. There was some notice about looking that info up online. The bus has come around the same time in eight years, so we went to the bus stop at about the same time we usually do. There were no other kids at the bus stop. This isn't really that unusual on the first day of school, when a lot of parents drive their kids to school instead of making them take the bus, especially when they have to lug school supplies with them.

The bus arrived around 7:04am the last few years, although our bus driver tends to be early, so that's why we usually get out there by around 7am. Again, this is different on the first day of school--they usually run late on the first day. We waited out there until around 7:10. I was getting worried that maybe the bus had gotten there a lot earlier and that we missed it. I talked to Eric about possibly driving him to school. He was fine with that, so when 7:10 rolled around, he headed back home. Patrick looked up the bus schedule, and found out at about 7:16 that the bus was supposed to arrive at 7:14. By that point, I was trying to coax Natalie into letting me take a first day of school photo of her, so Patrick rushed out to the bus stop with Eric. The bus had indeed already come by, but they waited across the street from the bus stop so she could pick Eric up on the way out. Sigh--not a great start, but Eric was not fazed by it, so it was all good.

Natalie's bus info was the same as last year, so she went out as per usual. She wore her Junior Honor Society shirt to school. They have to wear uniforms at their middle school--white polo shirt or "spirit shirt" (which means a school shirt or school organization shirt), and navy pants/skirt/shorts. She used the same backpack as the last few years. I'm surprised that it's last this long with how rough she is with it. She was not excited about school today because she got her period yesterday and the second day is usually when she gets bad cramps. She's not at swim practice tonight for that reason.

I realized that I didn't include Alex's backpack in his first day of school photo, so I'll have to take a picture of that separately. He actually got a new backpack this year. He used Eric's old dinosaur backpack last year. This is the first year since middle school where he has had "short" hair also. I think he looks more grown up with that haircut.

Once again, I made Eric pose while holding a photo of last year's first day of school photo, holding a photo of the previous year's first day of school photo and so on. I should have made the photos bigger in the past, because you an't really appreciate the previous years, but it's too late to change that now. I'm going big next year!

I thought tonight was going to be a bit more hectic than it ended up being. I took Eric to Baskin Robbins for a traditional ice cream on the first day of school. Natalie's bus arrived soon after we got home, but after Patrick had left to go pick up Alex. She wasn't interested in going out for ice cream. I took Eric to Jiu Jitsu class from 5-6pm. We were just leaving when Patrick got home with Alex. He would have had to leave again with Natalie to practice when Eric and I were getting home, but we didn't have to do that. That means that we get to watch Mythbusters as a family while eating dinner. It's a nice end to the first day of school.

Scorpions Game

At Alex's last haircut, Bangz Hair Salon, the salon we go to, gave him two free tickets to the Scorpions soccer game tonight. They have season tickets and they sometimes give them to customers. Alex was excited at the thought of going to the game and made plans to go with a friend. Fast forward to this week when Alex made other plans with friends. We didn't want the tickets to go to waste, so Patrick planned to go in his place. Patrick asked Natalie to go with him to the game. Natalie has definitely been feeling better. When her back was bothering her, all she would want to do was stay at home in her room, reading or watching videos. She's been much more social lately, so she agreed to go with Patrick to the game.

What a fun night for Patrick and Natalie! She was asked to do some sort of soccer challenge during halftime. Patrick and Natalie were chatting with some friends they saw there, including her neighborhood friend Paige, who was there with her family. Someone came by to ask if they both wanted to participate in this challenge. Paige didn't want to do it, but Natalie with her renewed enthusiasm said "sure". Patrick said it seemed like they had a hard time finding girls to participate, and the girl that asked them got her friend to be the third girl for the challenge.

Patrick said that after Natalie agreed to do this, she got a little scared that she would embarrass herself or whatever, but she still did it. It apparently happened so fast that Patrick wasn't able to take a good video. The girls started at midfield, dribbled through five cones, and then took a shot on goal. Natalie's soccer ball was the last one to get in the goal. She placed third out of the three girls, and got a free T-shirt and a $25 HEB gift card for her efforts. The winner got a $100 HEB gift card.

Patrick was happy that he got to go down to the field with her, and our friend Angela, Paige's mom, snapped this photo of the two of them. Patrick knows he is lucky that his teenage daughter still enjoys spending time with him, and this was a nice father-daughter experience.

I just have to say a big "Thank you!" to Bangz Hair Salon for those tickets!

Howdy Night

We got home around 1pm yesterday, driving in through isolated thunderstorms, with one stop for lunch at Buc-ee's. We got in the house and started unpacking. Patrick had not bothered to stop the mail, so we had all of our mail for the last week shoved into our tiny mailbox. One of the pieces of mail was a card identifying Eric's teacher for this coming year for third grade. At the bottom was some info about Howdy Night (better known as Meet the Teachers Night) being yesterday evening at 5-7pm. We already knew that Alex had plans to meet up with some friends and Natalie had a swim practice for her new swim club, so this was just one more thing to do.

Alex went with me to the grocery store to get some staples like bread for sandwiches and milk. I then drove him to his friend's house across town with the plan that Patrick would pick him up later in the evening. I then went to the gym. After a week of eating out and being freer with snacks, I needed to get back on my regimen. As soon as I got home, Patrick and I put Eric's school supplies into his backpack, and Eric and I headed to school to meet his new teacher.

I can already tell that Mrs. S will be a fantastic teacher for Eric. She said to him, "That's Eric with a 'C'? My first name starts with a 'C'." Her first name is "Cristi". She graduated from Roosevelt HS, where Anthony graduated from and where Alex is going now, although they likely did not have the magnet program when she was there. She has two boys who go to Churchill HS which we feed into and where Natalie plans on going next year. The best part was how organized she was.

Last year, our biggest complaint with Eric's teacher was how disorganized she was an how hard she was to communicate with. Mrs. S had an info sheet telling parents which school supplies to label and where to put them. Some items went in their desks, some items went into a plastic box on top of their cubby, and some items were grouped for use by the whole class. I had to fill out the usual paperwork regarding how my child went to and from school (bus, car, or walking), and contact/ emergency info. Two sets of instructions were at the bottom of the info sheet. One told me to text a phone number and she will automatically be able to text us with important info such as permission slips being due. The other set of instructions gave her email address and instructed me to email her with Eric's name in the subject line so she would know who the email came from. I thought this was brilliant. She would automatically have access to her students' parents though email and text messages.

After we finished in the classroom, there was an area outside the third grade wing where there were big paper fish on the wall, one for each third grade teacher. There were markers nearby and Eric wrote his name in Mrs. S's fish. I thought it was interesting that he chose an orange marker and that he wrote his name nice and big. We saw some friends in the hallway, one of which seems to miss Eric a lot, but none of his "friends" are in his class. He knew some kids in his class, but they weren't already his "friends" or the kids he usually played with during recess. Eric said himself that he would make new friends, so I'm not worried.

We went out to Whataburger for dinner and then Baskin-Robbins for his favorite, Rainbow Sherbet. We went home and got him ready for bed and it was already after 7pm. Meanwhile, Patrick had taken Natalie to her swim practice where she apparently had a hard workout, but one that she was able to do. She met some new people, and Patrick said her coach seemed like a good one. While she was at practice, Patrick picked up Alex at McAllister Park nearby then they all picked up Whataburger for dinner also before heading home. We had a long and full day, but "Howdy Night" is definitely an appropriate title since we are now saying "Howdy" to our new school year, as busy as all the school years before!

Day Six--Salem

I didn't get to post this on Tuesday because the Wifi was wonky at the hotel and I didn't have my computer at Lisa's house--more on that later. We started out Tuesday with a visit to Lisa's house to pick up the kids, who had spent the night there yet again, and to say goodbye to Grandma who was leaving that afternoon. We also discovered that Sidney, at nine years old (ten in December) was indeed noticeably taller than Grandma now, and discussed how that has become a milestone with all the kids--getting taller than Grandma. We then headed to Worcester to pick up Anthony and head to Salem to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials.

There was a lot of traffic, and the trip took over an hour. We hadn't really researched where to go. I had just figured it was a nice day trip for the family. By the time we got to the Salem History Museum and parked, it was already noon, and the boys were hungry. The tours were every half hour, so we went ahead and walked around to find some place to eat. We settled on a place called Scratch Kitchen, and Natalie was grumpy, grumpy, and kept complaining how hot she was. Even Alex thought the temperature was fine in there, so we sent Natalie to go stand next to their big fan at the entrance. She came back in a slightly better, but still grumpy mood.

They had some interesting drinks on the menu. When Eric saw "Blueberry Soda" on the menu, he was determined that drink was the one he wanted. We were afraid that if he didn't like it, no one else would drink it. The drink was only about $2, but we didn't want to waste money. We worried for nothing. Eric enjoyed it, and the rest of us took a taste. Patrick said it wasn't necessarily something he would ask for, but it wasn't bad. The big boys had cream soda. I liked how the bottles looked, so I snapped this photo of the two types of drinks. Anthony had to add his special touch to the photo by peaking through the bottles. I miss that boy so much.

As we were walking back, we saw this interesting sight. According to the accompanying sign, this was artwork by Patrick Dougherty named "What the Birds Know". He has created artwork he named "Stickwork" that "blur the boundaries between sculpture, architecture, and landscape". His artwork uses tree saplings and this one was his first commissioned outdoor artwork that was completed May 2015. Eric enjoyed walking in and out of the sculpture and commented that it would protect you from everything except fire. I had to laugh at his statement, since obviously these structures would leave you exposed to the elements, not just "fire".

We joined the 1:30 pm museum tour. The first part was an audiovisual presentation, that told the story of the Salem Witch trials--how it all began, what happened, and the aftermath. We weren't allowed to take any photos during the presentation, and it was dark in there, so pictures wouldn't have been very good anyway. The second part was more of a talk about the history of witches, from respected individuals that knew how to use natural substances to treat illnesses to stereotyped green-skinned witches that rode on broomsticks (a la Wicked Witch from Wizard of Oz) to those who practice Wicca, a modern day recognized religion.

After the museum tour, we walked around a bit more. No one else seemed excited about going to any other museums. We did stop at this comic book store in the mall near where we had parked. They had this cool chess set made out of Marvel Universe characters. Alex took this photo for me with my phone camera. He loves tilting the camera to an extreme angle to make the photo more "interesting".

While in the comic book store, Patrick asked for directions to the Atlantic Ocean since it was so close to where we were. We lost Alex on the way there, but the rest of us saw the ocean. I didn't happen to take a picture because no one was interested in getting in a picture plus we had to go find Alex.

There was a pirate museum along the way, but again, no one was interested in going into another museum. Eric was interested in posing next to this pirate statue, however. He decided to stand like the statue, pretending to hold a sword.

There was a ton of traffic on the way back. Patrick decided to go ahead and drop Anthony off at his frat house so he wouldn't have to drive him back later in the evening. The trip took almost two hours, and then we still had to head back toward Lisa's house. The kids all wanted to stay there again that last night. We wanted to say goodbye to the cousins, but by the time we got there, we had just missed them. Luckily we had said goodbye that morning.

It was a good thing we ended up at Lisa's house. She ended up selling Braeden's crib plus his new toddler bed had arrived. Patrick was a big help taking apart the old crib and putting together the new toddler bed.

There's not much to tell about the rest of the trip. We came by yesterday morning to pick up the kids. We went to visit Anthony one last time and had lunch together, then we headed to the airport. Our flight was delayed, so we didn't get into Houston until around 9:15pm. We drove to my sister Cynthia's house and spent the night there then headed home this morning.

Day Five--Duck Tour

Today was probably our busiest day yet, during this vacation. Patrick picked up Anthony and Alex by around 9:30am so we could all meet up at Lisa's house. Braden was at day care and Derek was already at work. The rest of us drove to the parking garage at The Shops at Prudential Center. The garage was packed, so after driving around forever, we ended up using their valet service. We met Derek at the California Pizza Kitchen in the mall for lunch. Anthony was excited about getting to eat at CPK again.

We had Duck Tour tickets for 1:30pm. After lunch, we walked around nearby, in Copley Square, Trinity Church, and then the Boston Public Library. Of course the library was a big draw for all the big readers in my family.

They had a cool empty room in the library with this big fireplace feature. I had the kids do their random posing again, like the other day when they did that near the harbor. I liked the other photo better, but this one was still fun. Notice Natalie's huge smile. I love it when she smiles. We didn't have too much time at the library before we had to head to our Duck Tour.

This is the photo that they made us all pose for before we got on our vehicle. I had to buy it because everyone was in it, including me. :)

I took one more photo because I wanted a better picture of the boat vehicle. As you can see, it was rather large, and held 40 passengers (10 rows of seats). The driver was also our tour guide. He was dressed like a "Joker" from a card deck. When he started telling jokes, apparently Eric turned to Anthony, who he was sitting next to, and told him, "His jokes are like yours."

The temperatures got up to 91 today, so it was pretty hot outside. At least there was a nice breeze while we were driving around the city. At one point we drove into the Charles River and there was no breeze at all then. Patrick and I found it amusing that the local meteorologists on the TV news kept defining a heat wave as "three or more days in a row where the temperatures are 90 degrees and above". In other words, every summer back home is a prolonged heat wave. If they can make fun of us in the winter and how we handle snow and ice (the infrequent times we actually get snow or ice), then we can definitely make fun of them in the summer.

This is the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge that we kept driving around. It is apparently the world's widest, cable-stayed bridge and has ten lanes of traffic. Our tour guide said it was designed to symbolize the old (looks like the Bunker Hill Monument) and the new. I thought it looked really cool and I ended up taking several photos of it at various angles.

The tour was about 80 minutes, and it was a really nice overview of the city of Boston. I did not realize before the tour that the finish line of the Boston Marathon is permanently painted into the pavement. We don't have time during this trip, I think, but the next time we visit, we will have to do the Freedom Trail.

We stopped for frozen yogurt on the way back to Lisa's house, a refreshing treat after a busy, hot day. In the evening, Derek's dad and step-mom brought over an entire meal that she cooked at home, packaged, and transported. It was great to meet them, and so convenient for us. They even brought cookies for dessert.

After they had packed up the leftovers and went home, we realized that Anthony would not be seeing Grandma tomorrow, so we decided to go ahead and get a picture of all the kids with Grandma, who leaves for home tomorrow. Grandma told me that she's glad she came for a visit. It's been nice to see how well all the kids get along together. In fact, Griffin was happy that Alex was spending the night with them tonight instead of at Anthony's, because that meant that the boys could sleep in the basement.

Day Four--Rest Day

I didn't take many pictures today, so I'm sharing this photo from last night's dinner. Eric was going around hugging everyone, so I stopped him to take a picture with his siblings. We really enjoyed hanging out with Lisa and Derek and their kids. After dinner, Patrick took Anthony and Alex back to Anthony's frat house where Alex spent the night. They were well on their way there when Derek texted Anthony that Alex had forgotten his luggage at their house, but there were heavy thunderstorms, so it was too late to go back. Alex just borrowed some of his brother's stuff instead.

Lisa, Grandma, and the kids all went to church this morning, so Patrick and I decided to stay around our hotel. We took a really long walk along busy highway that our hotel is on (Highway 20) and along some of the side streets. There were some large houses near there and the area is thickly wooded and picturesque, so it was kinda cool. Patrick picked up the boys and we all met back at Lisa's house for lunch.

Everyone except for Grandma, Anthony, and me went swimming at their gym pool in the afternoon. I couldn't resist taking a picture of Anthony and Eric when Eric was sitting in Anthony's lap before they went. After swimming and showers, we headed back to Worcester. We took the whole family plus a couple of Anthony's friends, Julia and John, to dinner at the Boynton.

We had about an hour wait for a table. Alex got the Buffalo Wings appetizer and didn't really want to share, but he did end up giving one piece each to Anthony, Natalie, Eric, and me. Eric was so hungry that he kept nibbling at his one piece over and over again until it was picked clean. After dinner, we walked back to Anthony's frat house where Alex is again spending the night. This time he remembered to bring a change of clothes.

We also met Anthony's friend Liz, who apparently thinks Eric is adorable. She was back at the frat house visiting, and she came out and started hugging everyone. When we left, Eric in turn gave everyone a hug.

Tomorrow we're planning on taking one of the Duck Tours. Grandma was resting up today so she would have enough energy to walk around again.

Day Three--Walking In The City

My brother-in-law Derek took this photo last night at dinner. They grilled chicken and steak for us and then all the kids stayed over there overnight. The boys slept in the basement. The girls slept in their room upstairs. Grandma slept in Braeden's room. I'm not sure what time they all went to sleep, but Eric was acting tired today. Natalie was in her usual mood, so I can only assume she got the usual amount of sleep.

We drove into the city today, and we did LOTS of walking. Eric kept complaining that his legs were tired. Alex and I explained to him, at one point, that what he was feeling was "tired", and that he didn't have to say "my legs are tired". He can just say "I'm tired". Eric made a claim a couple or so weeks ago that he doesn't know what being tired felt like, hence the conversation today.

The kids got on these metal structures that looked like bent pieces of metal--"like a laptop" as one of the kids described. I thought it made a nice backdrop for a photo, although I probably should have repositioned myself so the water wasn't in the background. I was not able to get them all to get together, but I like the "spontaneous" look of their poses.

We got to the Boston Tea Party museum and none of the kids were interested in going into the museum at all. The cousins didn't want to go because they get to do that stuff in school field trips all the time. My kids just weren't interested. It was a hot and humid day, although still not nearly as bad as back home, so we took a break from the weather by at least going into the Boston Tea Party Museum gift shop. Of course, the kids found the toy "weapons" like the pop guns and the plastic knife that retracted when pressed into a surface--so that it looks like the knife blade is going into that surface. The girls were happy to pose for me using those weapons.

Of course my kids were not interested in posing for pictures, but Teagan was very willing. This is a statue of Samuel Adams in front of the museum, and she was happy to ham it up for me by posing like the statue, complete with somber facial expression.

We walked all around the Boston Harbor area, and then into the North End a bit. We had lunch at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Wow, that place was super crowded, but it was nice because they had a variety of different foods to choose from. It was also nice that eventually we were able get a place to sit--eventually expanding to the whole table. There were twelve of us, after all.

Most of the kids ate pepperoni pizza. Sidney had some Beef Teriyaki with noodles. Teagan had chicken pot pie. Grandma and I split a lobster roll since we weren't interested in a huge meal. Eric was more focused on having ice cream for dessert, so I was happy to oblige. He had the mixed berries gelato and I had the coffee crunch gelato. Interestingly, they would only serve two or three scoops, not singles, so he ate his gelato first then I finished mine. Patrick had a Chocolate Truffle Bomb that was very tasty. Almost everyone had a little bite, and Braeden loved it. Alex said, "That's the most I've seen Braeden eat--ever."

We didn't have any idea what this was, but it seemed to be some sort of sculpture made out of what looking like netting and suspended above one of the nice green spaces that they have in the city now. Anyhow, it was kinda cool, so I had to take a picture.

They had some of sort of design exhibition, and this was one of the exhibits. Grandma was happy to stand next to it for a size comparison. She commented on how her sunglasses hid whether or not her eyes were open or closed.

There was another exhibit that looked like a cool playscape to climb on. It was made out of wood and metal and even the adults were tempted to climb on it--except that there were signs that said "Please Do Not Climb." Really? Eric just looked at it and asked why they would put up such a structure and not allow kids to play on it.

I always love taking photos like this one, usually with people walking away from me, but we definitely had a large group. Grandma and Eric had a hard time with the long walk, but they both kept up with some rest periods.

Patrick picked up Anthony this afternoon and now we're planning to all go out to dinner together--a nice relaxing ending to a fun but exhausting day.