Tucson, Christmas, Grandma's Birthday

 We went to Tucson from Saturday through Wednesday.   It was a bittersweet trip since Zayde was no longer there, but we had a good time being with family.   And, one day, we met my friend, Holly, for a hike.

This was our first Christmas home in many years.  Hardly any restaurants were open, so we made dinner at home.  Then, we watch the new Wonder Woman movie at home.

We spent the afternoon today doing some cleaning and organizing. We brought everything down from the attic.

Today was Grandma's birthday.  Papa picked up an early dinner for all of us from Troy and we ate outside in their backyard.  Chewie came with us and we all had a nice time.

Then, Morry and I went to H-E-B.

Here are some pictures from the last week.

The Week

 Here's what's been going on this week.

Morry left Tuesday morning to go to Tucson to help Jack/Zayde.  He came back this evening.

I taught and tutored.

The kids and I mostly stayed at home.  Evan missed his Tuesday practice because I was tutoring.  Wednesday's practice was canceled because the coach's wife had a positive Covid test.  It turned out to be a false positive and she's fine.

Yesterday, while I was teaching on my students noticed a coral snake slithering between our outdoor classroom and not of the other outdoor classrooms.  Of course, it was a big deal. Coral snakes are venomous and the kids were going crazy.  One of the coaches/teachers killed it when it slithered into the bushes.

Today the boys came with me to school.  They did their work there and we picked up bagels from Einstein's for lunch.

Morry picked up dinner for all of us from Simply Pho on his way home from the airport.

Morry and I just took a walk.

Here's a picture of the boys playing tennis today.

The Month of December and the Holidays

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I noticed that this is our first blog post since December 5.  That makes sense.  It was a long month of traveling.  Right after our last blog post, Rachel went to Israel for 10 days.  She traveled with Grandma and Papa to go to a wedding and see some family.

She was home for 5 days after returning before we drove to Tucson to visit Zayde.  There we got to spend time with Zayde as well as Uncle Ron and Aunt Kelly.  We had a nice time seeing everyone.  Our hosts made paella for us again.  Evan and Noah really enjoyed it.

Six days after returning, we flew to Denver, CO where we then went to the Winter Park ski resort.  We were there for two full days and parts of two others.  We had a nice time skiing and tubing.  Rachel's cousin Gila, her husband Joel, and daughter Alma drove in from Denver one day to visit with us.

After one working day at home, I flew to Richmond, VA for work.  I hadn't been in a while and it was important that I get in the office for a week.  It was a good set of days where I think we accomplished quite a lot.

I flew home yesterday.  I took Evan to TRPD for a meeting about his team's trip to Omaha in June for a tournament.  Then Evan had a coach's meeting.  He'll be coaching the younger teams again this season.

Today, Evan went over to Reid's to draw up plays for his flag football team.  He got a ride with Reid and his family.

Rachel and I went out and watched Evan's game.  Evan is quarterback half the time.  He led the team on one touchdown drive.  The defense was good and before Evan could really get back out to quarterback, the mercy rule had come into effect and the other team played on offense the rest of the game since Evan's team was winning by more than 30.  Evan seemed to have fun despite the game not being competitive.

For dinner, we went with Grandma and Papa to Maudie's.  We had tried to go to Via 313 but it was really crowded.

Rachel is now making lunches for the week, Evan is doing homework and Noah is on the Playstation.

Until next time...

Long Time No Post

Hell everyone, this is Morry.

It's been a long time since last posted.  It looks like it has been 12 days.  In that time, the family took a trip to Tucson, and the boys also went to Fredericksburg with Grandma and Papa.

We spent 5 days in Tucson seeing Aunt Fran and Uncle Scott, Uncle Ron and Aunt Kelly, as well as Aunt Rachel, Uncle Dax, Quin and Lennon.  But the real reason we were in town was to celebrate Zayde's 85th birthday.  We had a nice dinner on Saturday night.  On Sunday night, our host family cooked paella for everyone and we ate out in the backyard.  The boys enjoyed seeing everyone.

On Friday, Grandma and Papa took the boys to Fredericksburg, TX.  It's a small town about an hour west of us.  They have a Pacific World War II museum there that the boys wanted to see.  They really enjoyed it.  Apparently, they spent about 3 hours there and could have spent more.  Some of the museum was being remodeled.

This morning, Rachel and I took Chewie to Emma Long Park which has a 3-mile leashless trail.  Chewie had a great time.  He was really good about staying with us and any time he got hot, he'd run into the creek that the trail followed.  The hike was nice as it's in the woods and fully shaded, so the temperature was not uncomfortable.

Evan was home shortly before going to Reid's house where he'll stay the night.  Rachel, Noah and I had dinner at Chuy's. 

We're home now and Noah is upstairs.

Until next time...

Tucson

On December 21 we drove to Tucson and came back home on December 26.

Morry's brother Ronald also came to Tuscon to visit with their dad and sister.

Here are some pictures from our trip.

We had a nice time, but it was a lot of driving.  It took about 13.5 hours each way.

Tucson Trip

We just got back from Tucson.  We left around 5am on Friday morning.  It took us about 14 hours to drive there with stops.

We had a nice time.

We left Tucson today at 5:20am (MT) and got home around 7:45pm (CT). We are pretty exhausted.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

The Last Week

It has been a busy week.

Morry went to Tucson from Tuesday to Friday last week.

On Saturday, we took it easy.  We went for a short hike with Chewie.

On Sunday, we did the Dog Jog.

Michael, Jen, Maya, and Artie got in around 6:30pm last night and we all had dinner together at Grandma and Papa's house.

This morning, I went to Camp Gladiator.

Later, the boys and I met Grandma, Maya, and Artie at the school playground.

Then, I went back home and Evan and Noah hung out with everyone the rest of the day.    They ate at Torchy's Tacos, played mini golf at Peter Pan, and got Amy's Ice Cream.

For dinner, Michael and Jen cooked for everyone.

Now the boys are getting ready for bed.

Another 2000 miles

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

We got home last night from our trip to Tucson to see Zayde.  We drove another 2000+ miles this summer.  We have one more trip to Dallas to finish off the summer on the road.

We had a nice time in Tucson with Zayde.  The boys really enjoyed their time with him.  We ate quite a bit.  While not in Bradenton, we got to watch the Pirates on tv with him.  Evan and Zayde even got quite into the extra inning game where the Pirates won in walk-off fashion.

Today, we went to Wholy Bagel for lunch.  Rachel ran there.

I worked all day and Rachel took care of some phone calls that needed to be made.

We ate at home for dinner but then got snow cones for dessert.

The boys are getting ready for bed.

Until next time...

4146 Miles!

We got home from our road trip last night.  We left on June 11.  We spent a few days in Tucson, Monterey, San Francisco, Escondido, Solana Beach / Carlsbad (San Diego area).

In Tucson we spent time with Morry's side of the family. Fran, Scott, Ronald, and Kelly came in town to visit Jack and Rachel's family.  One of the afternoons we went to the University of Arizona campus.

From Tucson, we went to Monterey for a few days.  We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

In San Francisco, we met up with Dmitriy and my cousin Jake. We went to Alcatraz, Fisherman's Warf, Downtown, and Muir Woods.

Then, we stayed in a ranch outside of Escondido, CA.  While we were there, we spent one of the days at Legoland.

After that, we drove to Solana Beach for Niki's Bat Mitzvah weekend.

On the way back home, we spent one night in Tucson and went out to dinner with Jack/Zayde.

Today, I ran errands and did a lot of unpacking and laundry.  Evan went to Wade's house for a little bit.

For dinner we had grilled chicken and salad.

Here are pictures from our road trip.  More can be found on Facebook.