Welcome Allison and Avery

This morning we took it easy at home.

Morry and the kids left to pick up Allison and Avery around noon.

When they got back to the house we made waffles for lunch and then hung out at home for the afternoon.

For dinner, we went to Oasis with Grandma and Papa.

Now, the kids are all in bed.  They obviously didn't want to go to bed since they were having a fun time playing together.

Lots of Cleaning

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning, Rachel and I slept in.  When we got up, Rachel went to a church where they were having a clothing swap.  This is the third year she's gone.

The boys just played upstairs while I worked.

Rachel made waffles and pancakes for the boys for lunch.  Then she started to clean.  Allison and Avery are coming tomorrow so Rachel spent the afternoon cleaning.

For dinner, we went to Austin Pizza Garden.  They added an outdoor patio and playscape.

We stopped at HEB on the way home.

The boys are now making s'mores with Rachel in the microwave.

Until next time...

Return to Wholy Bagel

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

It was a low-key morning as we didn't have anything going on.  I had a phone meeting at 10:30, but otherwise, we were home.

For lunch we went to Wholy Bagel.  We missed last week since Rachel and I went out to a different lunch for her birthday.

We stayed home for most of the afternoon.  In the late afternoon, Evan and I went to the Oak Hill baseball fields so he could try to hit more home runs.  He hit three this time.  Two were absolutely crushed.  He had a good time, but it was hot.

We then went to Costco to get a few things.  From there, we tried to find a place to eat dinner.  The place we were trying to go, Uncle Maddio's, apparently went out of business.  We didn't find out until we got there.  We ended up eating at Chipotle.

Then we went to Academy so Rachel and Evan could get more shorts.  We also got some socks and sliding shorts for the upcoming baseball season for Evan.  Evan and Noah had some gift certificates for Academy that they hadn't used so they got some stuff.

We are home now and the boys are about to get ready for bed.

Until next time...

Downtown

Today the boys and I spent a lot of time downtown. We started at the Blue Cat Cafe. It's a "Vegan cafe serving light fare featuring rescued cats available for adoption plus resident felines." No, we were not going to adopt a cat. We got a couple of appetizers to share. There wasn't much on the menu that the boys would eat. We shared a pita plate that was supposed to come with humus, but they were out so it had black beans instead. We also got chips and salsa. The boys enjoyed playing with all of the cats.

 The boys couldn't agree on where to go next. Evan wanted Voodoo Donuts and Noah wanted s'mores from a coffee shop. We decided to make two stops.

 From there we walked toward Voodoo Donut. We passed the Toy Museum and stopped in there for a minute. I thought they just took donations, but we were told the admission fee was $9 for adults and $4 for kids. We (or I) decided we'd come back another time.

 We stopped in Voodoo donut and Evan ate his donut.

Then, we walked to Halcyon for s'mores.

 While we were walking the boys were playing the Pokemon game on my phone. There were lots of Poke stops downtown.

 Noah enjoyed the s'mores. Evan had a few as well.

 We walked back to the car as the wind picked up. It started sprinkling a little bit on a way home.

 We stopped at HEB to pick up a few things and got home around 5pm.

 We had pasta and quinoa (me) with veggies for dinner.

 We took Lizzy for a walk after dinner.

 The boys will be getting ready for bed soon.

 Here are some pictures from today.

Expensive Day

This morning we had a lot of rain and thunder.  Lizzy was not happy.

I drove Evan to his 11am dentist appointment.  He needed to get a cavity filled.  Everything went well and we were done in about an hour.

On the way home we stopped at HEB.

Finally, our car was ready this afternoon.  So, we drove to the dealership to pick it up.

For dinner, we invited Grandma over.  We had hamburgers, corn on the cob, and asparagus.

We walked Grandma home.

The boys are playing video games, but will get ready for bed soon.

Passports

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning we all got going early.  Rachel's car is still at the dealership.  How they are taking this long with an 100,000 maintenance, I don't know.  So we all drove up to Aaron's.  Rachel dropped me off so I could do some work.

Then Rachel took the boys to get their passports.  They had gotten the pictures done yesterday.  They just needed to go to the office on UT Campus to submit everything.  We're not going anywhere, we just thought it'd be nice to have.

After they were done, Rachel came back to the office.  We all walked across the street to the Little Deli to get lunch.  I think everyone enjoyed it.

Rachel and the boys then left to go to meet a family at a yogurt shop.  The boys are supposed to go to a 4-night sleep-over camp in a few weeks.  They were meeting a family that has two kids that are going.  Those two kids have been there before.  The one boy will be in Noah's age group.

For dinner, I grilled chicken wings.  For some we put on Buffalo sauce.  For other's we put on barbecue sauce.

Rachel and I took a walk with Lizzy.

The boys will get ready for bed soon.

Until next time...

Taking care of things

This morning we had an appointment to drop of my car at the dealer at 9am.  I drove my car there and then Morry and the boys came a few minutes later to pick me up.  My car recently hit 100,000 miles so we are getting a check up and oil change.  It's still not ready.

I took the boys to get passport photos taken.  We are planning on applying for passports tomorrow.  We don't have any international trips planned, but we figured it was a good time to get it done and have the passports ready if needed.

Wade came over during the afternoon.

Morry and Evan went to meet Coach Chris for a baseball lesson.  Shortly after they started it began to rain and lightning, so they came home.

We had corned beef, baked potato, and salad for dinner.

The boys are playing Legos now, but soon will get ready for bed.

Birthday Party

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan had a birthday party to go today.  They were doing standup paddle board on the lake.  We hadn't yet gotten a birthday gift, so Evan and I went to Academy this morning to get a gift certificate.

When we got back, we had waffles.  Rachel had made the batter while were gone.

Rachel dropped off Evan at the party.  When she got back, she, Noah and I walked to Grandma and Papa's to see them for a bit.

For dinner we picked up Pho Thai Son.

I picked up Evan from the party after dinner.  He said he had a really good time.  The boys were playing basketball when I got there.

The boys are in bed.

Until next time...

Birthday and Shopping

Yesterday was my birthday.  I had a nice day.  The kids were in camp for most of the day.

For brunch Morry and I went to Snooze AM.  We both had very good pancakes.

For dinner Morry, the kids, and I went to the Melting Pot. We had a good time there and the kids ate really well.

Today, we took it easy in the morning.  Evan and I walked to the school and he played on the basketball court for a little bit.

In the afternoon we went to a Taco Cabana opening party in Kyle, Texas.  I got invited as a blogger to come to the party.  We got our meal comped, in exchanged for me writing about the event and new restaurant location.  It was surprisingly good.  We went in with low expectations and were pleasantly surprised. We all liked our food.

From there, we went to the outlet malls in San Marcos.  We did pretty well there.  We got some good deals and bought things for all of us there.

We got home around 10pm.

The kids are getting ready for bed now.

Here are some pictures from yesterday and today.

Noah Without Evan

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning when I woke the boys up for camp, Evan said he didn't feel well and couldn't go to camp.  Given it's baseball camp and he loves going, I knew he must not have felt well.  I still picked up Wade, but just Noah went to camp.  I told Evan that if he felt better around lunch, I'd bring him out for the second half of the day.  Noah seemed to be ok going to camp without Evan.  He was talking to Wade in the car.  Noah also knows Josh well so there didn't seem to be any issue.

I worked from home all morning.  Around lunch time, I checked on Evan.  He said he didn't think he could go.  I asked if he wanted to come with me to get a smoothie at Smoothie King.  He agreed to do that.  He was very quiet on the way there.  On the way home, after he had had about 1/4 of his smoothie, he was suddenly alert and talkative.  He said that the smoothie was "really good" and it made him feel much better.  I think it's possible, even though he had an entire jug of water, two Gatorades and a juice box the day before, he still need some liquid and fruit in him.

When we got to the camp, Josh saw him first.  He yelled out "hey, Evan's here."  Just then, someone yelled out "Evan!" and then all the boys started chanting "Eh-van, Eh-van!"  Evan got a big smile.  Evan had told me on the way to camp how much he was learning at camp.  I talked to the coach and he said that Evan just absorbs everything.  He said he was able to pass on 10 years of knowledge to Evan in about 10 minutes.  He was just so impressed with him.  I thanked him and told him how much Evan loves baseball.

Rachel went to get the boys in the afternoon.  Both boys seemed to have fun.  Noah said camp was good the whole day.  He stuck with Josh mostly and Wade.  He really enjoys that camp.

I had promised Evan that we would go to Oak Hill to one of the coach pitch (smaller) fields so he could try to hit home runs.  So we went after I finished work.  Rachel and Noah went to the airport to get Grandma and Papa who had been in Seattle.  I threw about 70-80 balls to Evan.  He hit 6 home runs, 4 ground rule doubles, and hit the fence in the air between 15-20 times.  Evan was hitting a ton of line drives which I think is good.  The line drives were hitting the wall.  They had the distance but were just too low.  Evan was very happy.

We had leftovers for dinner.

Then Rachel, Lizzy and I went for a walk.

The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Third Day of Camp

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The boys seem excited in the morning to go to camp.  Every morning Evan decides what hat he wants to wear to camp.  It's usually a Pirates or Steelers hat.  We picked Wade up again on the way to camp.

I worked from home all morning.  I went to a short meeting in the afternoon.

Rachel picked up the boys from camp.  Normally there are 7 kids who do the full day camp, but ironically 4 had to be picked up early so it was just Evan, Noah and another boy when Rachel picked them up.  They had a good time though.

For dinner, we had tacos.

After dinner, Rachel, Lizzy and I went for a walk.

The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Lots and Lots of Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

The boys are going to baseball camp this week.  It's from 9am to 4pm.  Evan's friend Wade is doing a half day.  Evan's friend Josh from the Bucs is also doing and he's doing the full day with Evan and Noah.

In the morning, I picked up Wade and dropped the boys off at camp.  I talked to Josh's dad for a while.

I worked from home all day.

Rachel went to pick up the boys from camp.  When they got home, Evan was super excited to tell me their team in the wiffleball game ended when Josh hit a walk off home run with Evan and Noah on base.  Noah was the tying run and Evan was the winning run.

Rachel left to go to HEB.  While she was gone, I made the boys dinner.  Then Evan and I left to work with Coach Chris.

Evan was fairly tired, but he enjoyed working with Coach Chris.  It was good having Evan try to push through being tired and hot.  He was still pretty talkative on the way home about having fun.

Rachel got a rotisserie chicken at HEB.  It was in the oven when I got home.  The boys were hungry again so I carved off some for them.  After they ate, they went upstairs for bed and then Rachel and I ate.

The boys are sleeping now.

Until next time...

The Brew

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Rachel and I both got up quite late this morning.  It was really the first time we could sleep in in quite some time.

Rachel did some exercises and then we had lunch.

We hung out at the house all afternoon.  I did some work.

A little after 5, we left to go to the Oasis.  We were going to go eat dinner and listen to the Brew play.  Last year when we got there at 6:30 for a 7pm show there were no tables available.  So we got there at 6pm this time.  We had our choice of tables.  By 6:15, it was almost full and by 6:30, again there were no tables left.  It was good we got there when we did.

The boys ate pretty well.  It was hot but we had a nice time.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...

So-So Garage Sale

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We got up early to set up for the garage sale.  It was scheduled to start at 7:30.  Our neighbors next door as well as directly across the street were part of the garage sale.

We had quite a few people early, but then it petered off.  Even the people coming early weren't buying.  They looked like they were more wealthy people looking for some diamond in the rough that they could get cheap rather than people looking for stuff specifically.

It ended up being our worst garage sale in terms of profits ever.

After we cleaned up from the garage sale, we walked down the street to where Jack and his sister Audrey were having a bake sale.  We bought cookies from them.

In the afternoon, the boys and I watched Jurassic World.

Later, we stopped at Aaron and Mandy's for Jeremy's fourth birthday.  We spent about an hour there.

From there we went to Fujiyama for dinner.  It's a place where they cook in front of you.  I had wanted to do that for Father's Day or my birthday but we were out of town both times.  The boys ate well, but especially Evan.  Evan ate absolutely everything they gave him.

We're home now and the boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

Wade at Wholy Bagel

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Basketball camp was only 4 days so Evan didn't have to go to camp today.  Wade's mom did come pick him up around 9:30 to go to Wade's house.  They wanted to practice basketball trick shots.

Wade's mom dropped them off at our house around 11 because she was going to her daughter's dance recital at the dance camp.  Wade came with us to Wholy Bagel.

Both boys hung out at the house for a while, then back to Wade's for a little while longer.

I worked all day.  Rachel was preparing for the garage sale tomorrow.

Evan and Jack played together before dinner outside.  We had a light dinner at home.

After dinner, we went to CVS to buy soda to sell at the garage sale.

The boys are getting ready for bed now.

Until next time...

Jude, 2 Half Court Shots, and Ghostbusters

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Evan went to basketball camp.  It was the last day of the camp.  When Evan got home, he was very excited.  He said that when everyone was watching he took a shot from half court where he threw it overhand like a baseball and made it.  He said everyone was "going crazy" after he did it.  When Nathan's mom picked them up and they were leaving, Evan said he was going to take one more half court shot and hit it again.

I went out and got my hair cut and then stopped at Smoothie King on the way home.

Rachel took Grandma and Papa to the airport.  When she was coming home, Jude's mom texted to see if Noah could come over so Noah went there for an hour and a half.

After Noah got home, we met Deborah and another woman at Alamo Drafthouse and watched Ghostbusters.  It was enjoyable.  Nothing like the original, but it was good.

The boys are sleeping now.

Until next time...

98 cents

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Wade's mom picked Evan up at 7:40 this morning for basketball camp.  Rachel picked up all the boys after camp and then picked up Wade's sister from her camp.  The boys convinced Rachel to get ice cream while they were out.

I had two meetings in the morning.  Both were good meetings.

Later in the afternoon, Rachel and I ran out to Alamo Drafthouse to pick up tickets.  I had a free ticket for my birthday as part of the rewards program, but you have to redeem the free voucher in person.  We're going to see Ghostbusters tomorrow night so we picked up the tickets.  From there, Rachel went to Target and Academy to buy some things.

Evan needed a new backpack so Rachel was looking for one at Academy.  She found a nice one for $49.99.  She also got some shorts for herself. As she checked out they told her the total was around $25 something.  Rachel swiped the credit card and then thought, how is it only $25.  Just at that moment the clerk said the same thing.  They looked and the backpack ran up for 98 cents.  They called the manager over and it took some time to figure out why.  The manager said they'd give it to Rachel for half off.  But then the manager realized Rachel had already paid.  So the manager just let Rachel have it for 98 cents.

For dinner, I cooked ribs and corn on the grill.  Both were good.

We went for a walk in the evening.

The boys are about to get ready for bed.

Until next time...

40!

On Friday, we left for Pittsburgh.

Morry's 40th birthday was Sunday, so we decided to go to Pittsburgh to celebrate his birthday.

Our plane arrived around midnight and by the time we got to Mike's house it was about 2am.

Saturday, we hung out with the Gordons and then Trent's family at night.

Sunday, we went to the Pirates baseball game.

We got home around midnight last night.

This morning, Evan was picked up for basketball camp at 7:30am.

Later in the morning I went for a run and then Noah and I went to Whole Foods for a Pink Ribbon Cowgirls lunch.

Morry did camp pickup duty today.

For dinner we had hamburgers.

Then, we went to HEB.

The boys are asleep now.

Swimming

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Rachel took Noah to his cooking camp again this morning.  I left to go to Aaron's shortly after.  Evan was home by himself for probably 30 minutes or less.

When I got home, I had a phone meeting.  Rachel and Evan were going to pick Noah up.  When they got home, Rachel took the boys to the pool to go swimming.

Dinner was kind of make whatever each person wants.  The boys ate well.

After dinner, we left the boys home and we took Lizzy for a walk.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...

Another busy one

This morning Evan was still sleeping when I took Noah to camp at 9am.

After dropping Noah off at camp, I went for a trail run.

Then, I drove to Aaron's house to pick up Evan.  Morry had a meeting and brought Evan with him.

Then, I drove back to Noah's cooking camp to pick him up.  He had another good day. Today they made croque monsiur/madam, lobster tail eggs Benedict, omelets, empanadas, blueberry pancakes, smoothie, tres leches cake, chocolate croissant, and strawberry cake cookies.

We came home for just a little bit and then I took Noah to Owen's house.  He was there from 2-4.

I picked Noah up and we went to get his x-ray done.

For dinner we had leftover tacos from last night.

We just took Lizzy for a walk.

The boys (including Morry) are playing video games now.

Busy Day

Noah had his first cooking class today.  We left the house around 8:45am.  His cooking class started at 9:30, but we wanted to get there a little bit early.  I stayed for a few minutes after the class started and then left.  There were about 15 kids in the class including 3 boys.  Noah knew a few of the girls from school.

When I got home, Evan and I rode our bikes to the park and he played some on the basketball court. We rode back home.  I quickly showered and then left to pick up Noah.

Noah seemed to have a good time. I think, if I understand correctly, the class made all of the dishes today, but only certain groups/pairs made certain dishes.  They will rotate and make a different dish/es from the set the following days.  Noah said he made sausage and salad today.  At the end of class they got to eat everything.  Noah said he really liked the bacon, sausage, salmon, and crepes.

Here's what the website says they are learning to make:
Menu includes: French Toast, Ham and Cheese Omelets, Croque Monsieur, Vegetable Frittata, Peach-Mango Frappes, Eggs Benedict, Strawberry Shortcake, Fruit Smoothies, Blueberry Pancakes, Crepes, Smoked Salmon Tapas, Brunch Quiche, Flan, Sopapillas, Empanadas, Tres Leches Cake, Mexican Wedding Cookies, Key Lime Cupcakes.

We were home for about and hour and then left for Noah's doctor appointment.   We waited for almost an hour in the exam room. The nurse was very nice and apologized.   After picking up his medicine (long lines at HEB) we didn't get home until almost 7pm.

Morry made dinner, but was gone when we got home.  He and Evan went to a baseball tryout.  Evan said he had fun.

They just got home at 10pm.  Noah is in bed and Evan will (hopefully) get ready for bed soon.

Here are some pics from today.

July 4 and July 3

Yesterday Evan and I rode our bikes with Papa.  We rode about 10 miles.  We rode to the Velloway, around it, and back.  It was a good workout.  Evan really had a good time.

Last night we had our July 3 street party.  We joined our neighbors in the cul-de-sac for a potluck and to watch the fireworks at the nearby golf course.

Today we went for a hike and a new-to-us trail, Slaughter Creek Trail.  At the start of the trail we saw a turkey and two deer.

After walking about 2-3 miles of the trail we went to Sweet Carolines for shaved ice.

Tonight, we went to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Marvin's house for dinner and hung out there for a while. The boys liked playing in their huge yard.

The boys are in bed now.  There are still fireworks going off in our neighborhood, which is illegal.  We are hoping they end soon.

Here are some pictures from yesterday and today.

Walk

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Last night, Evan was invited to sleep over at Wade's house.  Noah ended up sleeping at Grandma and Papa's while Rachel and I went out to dinner downtown.  We then walked to a coffeeshop where they let you cook s'mores at your table.  It was nice.

This morning, Rachel walked to get Noah close to noon.  Evan came home just before that.  Wade's mom dropped him off.

We had lunch and then went for a walk around the Costco shopping center.  It was 95 degrees out.  It's a fairly short walk - a little more than a mile so we brought Lizzy even though it was hot.  Somewhere around half way, Lizzy just stopped and refused to walk.  We had brought water for Lizzy but it was back at the car.  We figured we'd make it around and then let her drink.  So Rachel, Evan and Noah ran up ahead to get the water for Lizzy and bring it back.  Lizzy and I slowly walked going from spot of shade to spot of shade.  We got the water for Lizzy and put it on her belly and gave her some to drink though she didn't drink that much.  We tried to get her moving again but she had laid down and looked comfortable and flat out refused to move.  Evan, Noah and I went back to the car.  We had parked at Smoothie King and we had promised the boys smoothies.  So we went in there and got smoothies for the 4 of us and then drove and picked up Rachel and Lizzy.  Lizzy is acting completely fine.  I think her not walking was more out of being stubborn and not wanting to walk when it was that hot than her not feeling well.  But we didn't want to take a chance by making her walk any more.

When we got back, Rachel made cookies for the block party tomorrow.  The boys and I watched Die Hard 2.

We got Papa John's for dinner.

The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...