Kayaking

 Yesterday Evan had games near San Antonio.   I got a ride with Grandma and Papa to the second game and then we met Uncle Jay for dinner at Willie's.

This morning we took it easy.

In the afternoon Morry and I went kayaking and then picked up drinks from Black Rock.

Around 6pm all of us went to H-E-B and then we picked up Domino's for dinner.

After dinner, Morry and I walked Chewie.

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.

Hitting Lesson

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Again, it was raining this morning.  Chewie and I drove Noah to school.  Then I drove Evan to the bus stop.  Chewie did not come on that trip.

I went into Touch To today.  I had some meetings there.

I came home and made lunch and had a conference call.  Rachel came home from teaching.  She had stopped at HEB on the way home.

Rachel quickly unloaded the food from HEB and then took Grandma, Papa, Uncle Jay and Aunt Dian to the airport.  They are going to Europe.

From there, Rachel started her tutoring.

Evan, Noah and I went to TRPD for hitting lessons.  Noah did well.  He really seems to get it.  I think if he wanted to, he could be a good hitter.  He seemed to enjoy it.

We came home shortly after Rachel got home and then we made dinner.

The boys are having hot apple cider and then they'll get ready for bed.

Until next time...

Family Gathering

This morning Grandma and Papa went over to their new house to get some measurements.

Morry and Evan left around 12:30 to go play some baseball with some of Evan's teammates.

I went for a run.

This afternoon we got the house and food ready for later when everyone was to come over.

Jeremy, our cousin from Israel, is in town so we had a family gathering at our house.

Aunt Susan picked up Jeremy on the way to our house.  Uncle Jay, Aaron's family, and Lauren's family came to hang out.  We picked up food from Maudie's.  It was a nice night.

Evan got picked up to spend the night at a friends house.

Now, we are all getting ready for bed.

Here are some pictures.

More Thanksgiving Fun

We had another day of Thanksgiving fun.  Uncle Jay's family came over today.  It was so fun seeing all the kids together.  Ryan played baseball with boys outside for a while.  Everyone had a nice time.

We picked up Rudy's barbecue and ate other Thanksgiving leftovers.

Here are pictures and a video from the last few days.

Back from Dallas

Noah and I got back today.

We had a nice time in Dallas.

I had doctor appointments Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Everything looked good so far.

Uncle Irv and Aunt Ora came in from Israel, so I purposely planned my doctors appointment for this week so I could see them.

They were only in Dallas for 2 days, but it was nice seeing them and I'm glad Noah got to spend some time with them along with Uncle Jay and Aunt Susan.

Noah and I got back late afternoon.

For dinner we made pasta.

Soon, we'll get the boys ready for bed.

Rachel the Half Marathoner

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This weekend was spent in San Antonio.  Rachel signed up to run the San Antonio Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon.  I guess it's called Rock 'n Roll because they have bands playing along the way.  I don't really associate San Antonio with a Rock 'n Roll city.

We left yesterday morning - about an hour after we planned.  Both boys independently and consecutively threw massive fits.  That, unfortunately, was a sign of things to come.  We stopped in north San Antonio at a restaurant called Momak's which has a big soccer field and soccer balls, volleyballs and footballs to play with, as well as a play scape.  It was super crowded and it took forever to order and get food.  The boys did not eat as well as we had hoped considering it was a place that tailored to kids.

Then we drove the rest of the way down where I dropped Rachel off at the Alamodome to get her runners stuff.

From there we went to the hotel and checked in.  Both boys were cranky and caused issues while we were trying to get them to rest.

We stayed at this hotel last year.  At 5pm, they have snacks out including hot dogs and popcorn.  Last year we have a video of Evan eating carrots in the hot dog bun.  Well, Evan again ate that.  Noah just played with his hot dog.

We had hoped they would eat well there so we didn't have to pay for dinner for them.  We went to a restaurant called Zocca's which I made reservations for.  It is an Italian restaurant.  The boys shared a kid's bowl of spaghetti which was a tiny, tiny portion.  They ate that up, which was good.  We basically accomplished our mission of reducing the amount we spent on them.  The food was good for us, but again, small portions.  And the service was very slow.

When we went back to the hotel, the boys spent most of the night before falling asleep arguing with each other or us about stupid things

This morning, Rachel left around 7pm to go the start line.  She signed up for a service from RunKeeper Pro that allowed me to track her movements.  That way I knew when to leave to meet her at the finish line.  The hotel included breakfast with the room, so the boys and I got breakfast and then came up to the room for awhile before leaving to meet Rachel. We saw Rachel finish - with an even better time than last year.  She did great.

We stopped at the hotel for Rachel to shower and to pack, then met Uncle Jay, Aunt Diane, Susie, Ryan, Tegan, Anika, Jonah, Chrissy, Valencia and Aisha at a place called Chacho's for lunch.  It was good seeing everyone.  They have a play area where all the kids played together.  They seemed to have a good time.  The food was not very good, but we got to spend time with everyone and the kids had fun and really, that's why we were meeting so it was a nice time.

We came home through terrible traffic.  The boys played upstairs until dinner time.  Then we had pasta for dinner.  The lunch seemed to make Rachel sick so she only had soup.

After dinner, the boys and I watched the first half of the Steelers game which I recorded.  At half time we put them to bed.  They went to sleep fairly quickly.

The Steelers won, by the way.

Until next time...

San Antonio Weekend

We were in San Antonio over the weekend. My cousin Zach and Allison got married.

The kids were not invited, so we had babysitters for them for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. Both nights went well and the babysitters were good.

Friday night, the rehearsal dinner was at the hotel. Saturday we went to Brackenridge park with Grandma, Papa, and the boys. We rode the train and played Frisbee.

The wedding was at the McNay Museum of Art. It was a beautiful wedding. The music was good and it was very nice to see and chat with everyone.

Sunday brunch was next door to the hotel overlooking the Riverwalk. Evan and Noah especially had a good time playing with Ryan.

Before leaving to go home we hung out at Aunt Diane and Uncle Jay's house for a little bit. We drove Michael and Jen to the airport and then went back to Austin.

Grandma, Papa, and Bubbe are going to spend the night here and then drive back to Dallas tomorrow.

For dinner we ate at Trattoria Lisina. Evan and Noah ate well and were well behaved. We all enjoyed our food.

Now, we are totally exhausted. The boys are in bed, but still pretty wired. Noah doesn't seem like he's going to fall asleep any time soon.

Here are some pictures and video from the weekend.

Picasa Web Album of Zach and Allison's wedding weekend here.

Gruene, Texas

This morning we took it easy and then left the house around 10:30 and headed to Gruene, Texas. Gruene is about halfway between Austin and San Antonio. So we met Aunt Diane, Uncle Jay, Susie, and Ryan there for lunch. We all had a nice time. The kids were good and enjoyed running around after lunch. There was a nice grassy field next to the restaurant. Then, we went to the General Store and got some tin boxes for the boys and some fudge.

When we got back home we tried to put Noah down for a nap, but he didn’t sleep.

For dinner we all ate at El Chile.

We just put the boys to bed. Michael and Jen went out tonight.

Here are some pictures from today and yesterday

What Do You Get When You Mix Two Hyper Kids and Sea World?

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

If you guessed "two very tired parents" as the answer to the title of this blog you win...a nice pat on the back. Rachel arranged a trip to San Antonio for my birthday this year. We had a free night stay to use at the Hilton Palacio del Rio so we decide to use that. We thought we'd go to Sea World and then check in at the hotel, let Noah take a nap, and then go back to Sea World. Things didn't go exactly as planned.

Saturday began before 7:30am when Evan came in the room. He was excited to go. We got up, got ready to go, and woke Noah up and drove down. By the time we actually got into the park, between driving to San Antonio, parking and getting through the entrance it was just before 11am. We tried, immediately, to get into the Shamu show but it was already full. Evan and I went on a water rapids ride and go soaked in the interim. We tried going to a water skiing show but the boys didn't really like that. We ended up seeing the Shamu show later on and we got wet when Shamu splashed us. Noah thought that was great.

We went to the rides and Rachel took Evan on a kids roller coaster. I think Evan was a bit scared once he saw how fast it moved.

We ended up watching the dolphins before heading to the hotel.

I dropped Rachel and the boys off at the hotel and went to find parking. Rachel called to let me know what room we got. When I got off the elevator, I could actually hear the boys. Rachel said they were bouncing off the walls. They were running all over jumping on the bed, touching everything, just moving non-stop. We tried to get them to nap, but they wouldn't. Evan and I walked on the Riverwalk for a bit to try to let Noah calm down but he never did.

We decided to go back to Sea World. We tried to see a Haunted 4-D movie that Evan really wanted to see. He told us he was going to "punch the ghosts". Unfortunately, Big Brave Evan got scared about 5 minutes in and we had to leave. It may take him a few years before he can join the Ghostbusters. We got some Dippin' Dots and saw the sea lion and walrus show to close out the day.

Back at the hotel around 10:30 and these kids did not want to go to sleep. The quote of the night came from Evan when he heard him say, "Aww man, I just got snot all over my hands and then I wiped it on Noah's shirt." They finally got to bed around midnight.

At 8am they got up and continued their continuous movement. We ended up checking out around 10:30 and meeting Uncle Jay at a place for breakfast called the Guenther House. It was a really neat old mansion. It was a long wait for a table, but we stayed outside and Uncle Jay had brought a bag full of goodies for the kids including bubbles. It was easy to keep them entertained while we waited.

Evan ate a great breakfast and we all enjoyed seeing Uncle Jay.

Around 2pm, we left San Antonio making it home by 3:30. Noah went down or a nap while Evan watched Scooby Doo. We had to wake Noah up around 6pm for dinner.

For dinner, Rachel went out and picked up Little Caesar's.

We gave the boys baths and now they are in bed. Evan finally looked exhausted and I have not heard from him since I put him down. I think his eyes closed the moment his head hit the pillow.

Until next time...

Second

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

Today is the second day after chemo for Rachel and the second night of Hanukkah. Rachel seems to be doing MUCH better this Saturday than the previous Saturday following chemo. She's been downstairs a bunch and has eaten a bit. Her coloring looks much better too.

This morning, Evan came in our room at 8am. Rachel got up and brought Evan to her parents' room but he came right back in to our room. It was a bit of a fight to get him downstairs, but once he was down, he was happy.

Matt, Rachael, Ben and Molly came over around 11. The kids exchanged gifts and played together. I think everyone had a good time. They left just before lunch. Noah was talking a lot and he really likes Rachael. He got upset when I had to take him away from Rachael when they were leaving.

We gave the boys lunch and put them down for naps. Both boys seemed especially tired.

After naps, Uncle Jay and Aunt Diane came over, followed shortly by Aunt Susan. They all brought gifts for the kids. Evan wanted to light the candles so he could get to the presents faster. He's figured this thing out. They seemed very happy with all the gifts they opened tonight. When Evan was done opening up the gifts he got tonight, he wanted more. After we sang the Hanukkah prayer, Noah wanted more singing and wanted to eat challah.

Papa/Lenny went out and picked up the Salt Lick for dinner. It was pretty good.

The boys are in bed now. Evan was very excited to sleep in his Toy Story bed. Zayde got him Toy Story bedding.

Until next time...

Texas vs Kansas

Hello everyone,this is Morry.

Despite finally going to sleep after 11pm last night, Evan got up at 7am this morning. After holding him off for a bit, I got him breakfast and set him up in the game room with a movie.

Around 9:30 or so, Evan, Noah and I came downstairs. I cleaned up, started the laundry and made breakfast. Rachel stayed in bed as she was not feeling well today. She's very nauseous and wiped out.

For lunch I thought I'd take the boys to McDonald's. I know the generally behave very well there and it's a treat for them. The boys were very excited to go, but when we got there, Noah was not behaved very well. He didn't sit still in the booth, he didn't eat that much and at the end he threw a fit. Getting him the car was really difficult. He even kicked off his shoe and I didn't notice. McDonald's found the shoe and is holding it for us. I have to go pick it up tomorrow. Evan was very good and ate his nuggets, apples and cookies as well as Noah's nuggets.

When we came home I let the boys play for a bit and then put them down for naps. Noah didn't fall asleep for about an hour and a half. Evan went to sleep without any problems.

Rachel's Uncle Jay and Aunt Diane came over in the late afternoon to help with boys. I went to the Texas vs Kansas came so they took care of the boys while I was gone. They got dinner ready for the boys, ran to HEB and picked up some things for us, and gave the boys a bath. It was really appreciated.

I got home around 11:15 and Evan was still up. He is really being difficult going to bed. We've tried everything with him. If anyone has any suggestions about how to put him to bed and keep him in his room, I'd appreciate it.

Until next time...