Passover 2021

 Last night was the first night of Passover.

Morry and Evan were on a fishing trip.  Since Grandma, Papa, Aunt Diane, Uncle Jay, and I are all vaccinated, we decided to have a small in-person seder + Zoom with other family members. 

Yesterday, I made matzoh balls and meringue cookies and Noah made the Passover coffee cake.

Then, around 5:30 Noah and I walked over to Grandma and Papa's house.  It was the first time in over a year that we had been in their house.  

Noah is now almost as tall as Grandma.

We had a nice time over there last night.  Noah helped during the plagues part of the seder.  He enjoyed that. 

Then, we walked back home.

Today, I did some cleaning in and outside of the house.   

I took Chewie for a walk around the lake.

When I got back I made shaved ice for Noah and me.

Shortly after that Morry and Evan came back from their fishing trip with lots of redfish.

Morry and I went to H-E-B and then we made dinner.

Morry grilled steak for him and some of the redfish for the rest of us.  We ate dinner outside.

Here are some pictures from the last two days.

Noah's Birthday Part 2

 Today we celebrated Noah's birthday.

We went to Dukes Adventure Golf to play mini golf this morning.  We had a fun time.

After that, we went grocery shopping at H-E-B for fondue dinner tonight.

Then, we picked up Slurpees from 7-11.

This afternoon the kids played Wiffle ball in the front yard.

We had fondue at home for dinner.  That was what Noah chose for his birthday dinner.

Then, we got dessert at Bahama Bucks.  We brought Chewi with us.

Noah got a blue shaved iced and we gave a little bit to Chewie.  He loved it and it made his mouth turn blue.  We were cracking up.

Tomorrow, it's back to school.

Finally Home + Noah's Birthday

We are home! Our Spring Break travel adventure has finally ended… almost 48 hours after the time we were supposed to be home, we are finally done.

It’s all fun and games until you get stuck in Charlotte without your luggage. ⁣

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We had a great time in Bradenton, Florida for baseball spring training. I went to a couple of the Pirates games with Morry, Evan, and Noah, but what I would do was drop off the boys early. Then, I’d head to the beach or river for a while and come back to see the last part of the games. ⁣

We played mini-golf, ate a lot of good food, played on the beautiful white sandy beaches with turquoise water, and more.

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We were supposed to get home on Thursday, the 18th. There was bad weather in both Charlotte and Dallas that apparently caused lots of issues for both airports. We knew there was going to be bad weather in Charlotte and we even got a warning from American Airlines that our flight might change. But American wouldn’t let us change our layover to a different city even though they knew that the bad weather was coming through Charlotte. Well, that was unless we wanted to pay an extra $400 something dollars per person.⁣

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So after our first flight from Orlando to Charlotte was delayed, we eventually landed in Charlotte, a lot later than planned. We turned on our phones to an email that our next flight home to Austin was canceled.⁣

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After a couple of hours of trying to figure out how to get home, we realized there were no options that night.  We even tried renting a car to drive home, but there were no cars available. 

The kids and I took the hotel shuttle while Morry stayed at the airport a little longer hoping to get our luggage.

As soon as the boys and I checked into our hotel room, around 10:30pm, I ordered a couple of pizzas from Domino’s.   

We waited and waited for our pizzas. I even called to check on them and was told they would be coming soon.  

In the meantime, Morry came to the hotel finally but without our luggage.  American said our luggage would be sent to Austin the next day on the first flight out.

After two hours of no pizzas, and completely exhausted, I finally called to cancel our pizza order and get a refund.

We ate snacks from the gift shop for dinner at almost 1am and then went to sleep.

We woke up at 6:30am Friday morning to head back to the airport to try to get a flight home.

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After a crazy day, trying flight after flight to fly standby we eventually were able to get on a flight to San Antonio. 

Only one of our suitcases (mine) made it to San Antonio.

The cheapest way to get all of us back to Austin was with a rental car. So funny thing about the rental car. We just wanted to get home last night from San Antonio and they said for $30 extra we could have the BMW and drive it right then, otherwise, we would have to wait about 10 minutes for another car. So we went with the BMW, although it took us about 10 to 15 minutes to even figure out how to start the car and put it into drive. We had to actually Google it.

We finally got back to our house around 8:30pm last night.

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This afternoon, the other suitcase was delivered to our house. ⁣

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Our kids were troopers. All of the airline staff were super friendly and helpful. I don’t know how people did it with young kids or even babies. What a mess!⁣

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After Evan’s baseball game this afternoon, we drove back to San Antonio to return the rental car.  We had to return it to SA or pay a large fee for not returning it at the pickup location.⁣

Since we had such a crazy last few days, we are celebrating Noah's birthday today and tomorrow rather than packing everything in in one day.

Today, he chose Wholy Bagel for lunch and Black Rock lavender lemonade to drink.  Wholy Bagel made his sandwich wrong, so I had to go back out to pick up the correct one after we got home.  They threw in several desserts to make up for it.

When we went to pick up the car in San Antonio, we stopped at Genghis Grill on the way home.  Noah loves that restaurant, but we no longer have one in Austin.

When we got home, he Facetimed with Michael, Jen, Maya, and Artie and then Grandma and Papa.

Evan's Training + Another Kayak

 This morning I tutored.

At 12:30 Evan had his first session with Dio, a trainer at ATA who was also a baseball player.  Both Morry and I went to this first session.  Dio asked Evan a lot of questions about his goals and did measurements and analysis.   

Evan will start working out with him the week after Spring Break, twice a week.

After we got home, I went to the Walmart in Buda to pick up the other Kayak I ordered.  This one is a two person inflatable one.

I tutored from 4-7:30 and then again at 8:15.

Morry made steak for dinner and we ate in between my tutoring.

Noah worked on Hebrew with Grandma today.

And Chewie worked on protecting the house.  :) 

My Spring Break + Kayak

 This week and next is my Spring Break.

The boys have off next week.

Today, I went to Walmart to buy a kayak.  Last summer we wanted to buy a kayak but they were impossible to find.  They were either sold out or incredibly expensive.

I saw  Walmart had one on sale and went to get it.  Luckily, I was able to fit it in the car to bring it home.

Even though it's my Spring Break from my school, I still have tutoring.

I had a long afternoon/evening of tutoring.  I went from 4-7 and then again from 8:30-9:30.

During my tutoring break, we ate dinner.  Morry made flank steak and air fried french fries.  Everything was very good.

Now, I'm done working for the night and Morry and I will watch a TV show.

Week of Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

High school baseball has suddenly become a big part of our lives. Evan had practice on Monday and Wednesday.  He had games Tuesday and Thursday, two on Friday and two on Saturday. 

Despite it being a busy week of baseball, it was a very good week of baseball for Evan.  At the game on Tuesday, Evan showed his toughness and helped show the team he was a good leader.  Down 6-0, with a very large kid trying to score, Evan got the throw at home. Although required to slide, the boy lowered his shoulder and knocked Evan over in an attempt to knock the ball loose.  Evan held on through the big hit, jumped up and tried to throw out the runner advancing to third.  It was a very heads up play and got his entire team excited.  Despite the coach's pleas, the boy was not ejected despite the rules that state he should be dictated.  But the play fired up the whole team. So, when Evan's team came to bat, they scored 8 runs and won the game.

On Thursday, Evan was asked to fill in on the Varsity team.  It was a really big honor for someone who is a Freshman.  The game was at a fancy private school in the area.  They didn't allow parents to watch the game but they provided a livestream to watch complete with an announcer.  Evan started on the bench, but came in to pinch hit in the fifth.  He walked and then stole second.  The batter behind him also walked and when they tried to pick the runner off at first, Evan advanced to third on a heads-up baserunning and then scored when the team was more focused on trying to get the other runner out.  That run ultimately ended up being the winning run.  Evan came in to catch in the bottom of the fifth.  It was so cool hearing Evan being talked about by an announcer.  It was a very surreal experience.

Evan was back to the JV team while playing two games on Friday.  In the first game on Friday, Evan caught and he threw two runners out trying to steal third in the same inning.  He also singled and walked in that game.  He played short for some of the game and started a double play on a single to left where he took the relay and threw home to get the runner and then tagged out the batter who was trying to advance on that throw.  In the second game, Evan pitched and did really well against a team of sophomores.  A couple parents from the other team behind me kept talking about what a good pitcher we had.  I eventually told them that was my son.  He also tripled over the centerfielder's head.

On Saturday morning, Evan caught two innings and batted three time.  He got his 11th, 12th and 13th walk of the season in each of those at bats.  Evan's team won big, 19-1, and they let Evan rest for the first time for the last inning.  In the second game, Evan caught all 5 innings.  He struck out and walked two more times.  At catcher, he threw out his first runner trying to steal second as a high schooler.  His coaches really love him on the team.  They think he just makes plays and that he's a really smart baseball player.  It's nice to see.

Meanwhile, everyone else in the family did do things during the week. Noah was invited to be a member of the National Junior Honor Society.  I spent the week onboarding two new hires underneath me.  Rachel finished up her last week of work before spring break.

The boys are upstairs playing Playstation.  Rachel and I will sit down in a bit.

Until next time...