Swim Season

 Austin completed his final swim season at Discovery Middle School. He improved so much this season! He had great self-motivation and drive that led to him getting noticeably stronger. I think part of it was getting the muscle back in his arm after his bad break. Another part was probably due to the fact that he's close friends with some of the best swimmers on the team. He moved up quickly to be just below those top swimmers and he hasn't been on a swim club like they have. He started waking up at 6:00 a.m. a couple of months ago and doing a strength training workout and then making himself an egg sandwich. I have been so impressed with his determination and self-regulation and it has paid off!

On his first meet, he shaved off 7 seconds from his 50 butterfly. He improved with each meet, looking better and stronger. In the final meet, yesterday, he shaved off 12 seconds from his 200 freestyle and came in first in his heat! For most of the meets throughout the season, he was coming in 3rd place for either his individual swims or the relays as well. It was pretty funny that I could count on that, though there were a couple of 4th places.  Discovery came in 3rd out of the 5 middle schools yesterday for the league meet. Another 3rd! 

Austin's thinking about swimming at the high school next year, along with joining the cross country and track teams. If he doesn't swim, then he'll definitely dive!

Here's his 200 where he came in 1st. 

Easter

 It's kind of weird to not have spring break connected with Easter like we used to, but we still were on our spring break high, so that's good. The kids don't have off on Good Friday,  but Jason and I do, so we finally got to work on our apple tree that was uprooted during the ice and heavy storms immediately following. We also cleaned part of the church since we couldn't go for our commitment the next morning due to the temple trip we had planned months before.  

The little piles of sticks we made look like big nests!

I wanted to have a time when all 4 of my kids could do baptisms together before life gets even busier and then Victoria goes off to BYU I. It was the perfect way to spend the morning before Easter. Jason baptized while I watched. I didn't need to do anything because of the youth group that was there. 

Our eyes aren't used to the sun!

Afterward,  we grabbed lunch from Chick-fil-A,  as promised.  Then Jason, Victoria, Austin, and I went to the church for choir practice.  With our travels and General Conference,  we weren't able to practice much together and since our ward is shrinking,  which also greatly affects the ward choir, they planned the practice around us.  I actually had to sing first soprano, which had some high F sharps in it, so you know they were desperate!

We managed to dye Easter eggs in the afternoon.

I love Kai's Spidey egg!

Sunday morning quickly came and we had to attend church early to warm up our voices. The service was amazing and we sang beautifully if I must say so myself. The best part was after our very vibrant and enthusiastic version of He is Risen, Victoria's good friend Max, who played the accompaniment, let out an audible burst of relief. He is an amazing pianist, but I think it was definitely challenging for him.

We had a relaxing time at home reading some scriptures and watching some videos about Easter. We did an Easter egg hunt in the yard and there were more places for eggs to hide with all the stick piles from our tree project. The best part about the hunt was that I hired an 8th grader who I met at the Spring Craft fair and who is in the orchestra with Austin, to crochet these adorable little stuffed gifts for my kids. Being Victoria's "last " Easter at home as a kid, I wanted to make it special. They loved their little "stuffies" and this girl has some incredible talent!

I suggested she make Korok (Child of the Forest), for Austin, though I needed help figuring out something from Zelda for this. I'm totally clueless about video games!

"Baby Yoda" or Grogo for Erik was easy enough to decide. 

Victoria is like a ray of sunshine and needed something for her apartment. 

A black cat for Kai was also easy for me to decide.

We got to eat dinner at a friend's house that evening. Jason was released from the Bishopric when a new Bishopric was called a couple of weeks ago. We ate at the new second counselor's home. They're the main family holding up our primary and they have a foreign exchange student from Switzerland who's super good friends with Victoria, so it was fun to eat and visit with them. We had ham, funeral potatoes, Swiss bread, and I brought raw carrots and cucumbers, along with roasted carrots and green beans. The dessert was a carrot cake. We gotta honor those bunnies with carrots!

I was so happy to be able to spend a memorable weekend with my family for Easter!

Happy Easter!

Spring Break Adventure

Spring Break seemed to pop out of nowhere for us. Since we had such mild weather here in January and most of February, we were thrown off by our crazy weather in March and were ready for some warm and sunny weather. Not long before the break, we finally decided to go to Texas. It was time to make the vacation happen that was supposed to occur sometime before covid changed a lot of things. 

This was Victoria's last Spring Break with us during high school, so we wanted to enjoy a relaxing vacation together. We drove 10 hours and then 8 hours the next day to make it to my Aunt Terry's house in Allen, TX to see Terry, Doug, and my cousin Danielle. Before leaving the area the next morning, we saw my Uncle Mark and his wife, Phyllis, who don't live far from Terry and Doug. It was nice to reminisce with both couples and the kids enjoyed getting to know them after a long time without seeing them.

First hotel gym on the way out!

Victoria giving tips

We made it!

They loved the attic in the guest room at Terry's!

These bouncy balls were also a huge hit!

Terry and I

We missed Danielle in the pic, but so glad we got to see her for dinner!

Mark and Phyllis! 

We drove 5 more hours (a couple hours more than we had thought it was) to San Antonio. The kids are great car travelers and enjoyed to Texas scenery, though Jason and I were surprised at how busy it's gotten there. There's a lot more traffic than there used to be. We heard that about 60,000 people move there a day! Mostly from CA, but from other states as well, and Mexico too. 

After arriving at our hotel in downtown San Antonio, we settled into our suite and walked to the Riverwalk where we found a delicious Mexican restaurant to eat at with excellent chips and salsa to munch on while we waited for our food. We did some souvenir shopping and explored the Alamo before starting on the ghost tour that we had booked. The nice thing about traveling with older kids is that we can all go to bed later and have a much longer day of our travels. We got a lot in that first day that even included a long drive! Though the weather was cooler and windier than we would have liked, the kids really enjoyed driving in the car and chilling there and our first night in San Antonio was so fun! We really learned a lot about the Alamo, and San Antonio itself, as well as some of the fun and slightly scary ghost stories that were told during our 1.5-hour tour. We even saw the rock that marks the midway point between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans! We were beat by the time we walked back to our hotel, but well-rested for the next day's adventure when we woke up.

The haunted hotel where our tour started. I have a few pics of other haunted buildings, but this was my favorite. 

This shop isn't haunted, but we thought it was cool!

This was haunted either, but as I said, we got to see more than just the ghost tour on this walking adventure!

Old haunted church. I think it's the oldest in the country. 

The midway point between the Pacific and Atlantic!

Our ghost tour guide was fabulous!

The Riverwalk at night was peaceful, but walking back to the hotel at 10pm sure gave us another look at downtown San Antonio, if you know what I mean!

After a nice hotel breakfast that Erik really loved each day, we went to tour some missions. It was colder and windier than the day before, but still nicer than the weather everywhere else! It was fun to see the missions around Easter time since both of the ones we saw had churches that still function and had a few extra reminders of the sacred Easter season. Plus, as we anticipated reading about the Easter story in Come Follow Me this week, the crosses and depictions of Christ on the cross seemed more meaningful. 

Mission Concepcion 

They weren't very tall!

Mission San Jose. This one was much bigger, though I'm only including a few pics. It was so fun to learn more about these. It reminded me of the missions we used to study in CA when I was a kid and not interested in them one bit!

This was about 3/4 into the mission grounds. It was huge!

An oven 

Inside one of the living quarters.

The church

Doesn't it remind you of Easter?

We had free use of the laundry facilities at our hotel and so while the clothes were washed, we worked out in the gym and the kids tried to swim. We learned, however, that Texans aren't ready for swimming in late March, though I wasn't either, my kids thought the 50-degree weather was perfect swimming weather! Since the pools are all outside and aren't heated, they weren't very warm and needed some cleaning, but the younger 3 swam for a bit anyway. Victoria was hoping to get some rays in for tanning, but that didn't happen for a few more days.

That evening we went to New Braunfels to go to the oldest dance hall in the US! It's where George Strait and many other country singers became big and famous. It was the only country music "hangout" we could go to that wasn't 21 and up. Victoria really wanted to go line dancing somewhere and this was the only place we could go. It turned out to be super fun and quaint. There wasn't line dancing, but some couples were dancing in the back and there was a little stage in the back for kids to play around on while their parents relaxed at the tables at the front with their beers. It was family-friendly, as no one was drunk and the music was clean and fun. There were cute little antique shops outside that added to the quaint feel of this little area. I give it a big thumbs up!

Cute hotel by Gruene Hall.

Little shops

Incredible musicians!

Playing pool in the back.

We even got to dance to a couple songs ourselves!

Wednesday morning we packed up and then walked on the River Walk one more time to go a different way. San Antonio was one of our favorite spots on this vacation! Our next destination was our other favorite of the trip and the real purpose to go to Texas in the spring- the Blue Bonnets!

We drove out to the Texas Hill Country near Marble Falls to see the famous old Bluebonnet House. It just sits in the right place amongst so many beautiful flowers, so it became famous. On our way to Burnet to do some hiking through the Bluebonnets fields, we happened upon the Longhorn Cavern State Park which was a fun place to explore and take pictures. The hike didn't disappoint and we walked for a couple of hours amid glorious views and breathtaking scents of the flowers. This was the day we finally got some sun and I actually could take off my jacket!

Indian blanket flower

Indian Paintbrushes amongst the Bluebonnets.

That evening we ate dinner with our friends who just moved from Michigan to Austin last summer. We had a blast reminiscing with them and the boys played with their kids. The next day we hiked Mount Bonnell, which had a gorgeous view of the Colorado River and downtown Austin, as well as some fun rocky areas to explore. It wasn't a long hike by any means and certainly not a "mount" to people from Utah, but for us Michiganders, it was great! Afterward, we ate lunch at a food truck, which is a big thing in Austin, and it was probably the best Tex-Mex I have ever had! It's a combo truck between Tex-Mex and bbq, which is why it's so good because the meat is so tender and flavorful since it marinates and slowly cooks all day long. We walked around Lady Bird Lake near downtown Austin for bit before trying to swim again and then going back to the Coburns for dinner again. We were supposed to see some other good friends on Thursday, but they were sick, so we got bonus time with the Coburns and the boys got to sleep with them Thursday night. After picking up the boys on Friday morning and one last little visit with Shannon (it wasn't their spring break, so their kids were in school), we went for our last big adventure- kayaking on the river to Lady Bird Lake. The sun was playing peek-a-boo, so we got some sun, saw the most turtles I've ever seen at one time, and the kids swung off the ropes into the river. 

The Coburns!

Colorado River

Austin in front of the city of Austin!

So tender and flavorful!

I took so many pictures of turtles but only included a few. There were so many of them!

We again had another little-bit-too-long-in-traffic drive up to Argyle, just past Dallas, to see our good friends the Johnsons. Jason took the discussions in their home many years ago. Their oldest son who's Jason's age and whose wife is from Westland, MI, just down the road from us, weren't in town so we didn't get to see them and their family, but we had a lovely dinner and visit with Jerry and Lavonda. They walked up to the car to greet us and waved to us as we drove away a few hours later. Such a nice couple and so happy we would drive over to see them. We had a hiccup with our hotel that night, the only hiccup in the whole trip, so we had to drive a couple hours, later than we wanted, to just inside Oklahoma because our other hotel was canceled last minute. It was fine, though Jason was tired, he continued driving and we were able to knock 2 hours off our drive on the way back the next day.

The Johnsons!

That was General Conference Saturday. I learned when we went to Utah one year for Spring Break that if there's ever a better time to make a long drive, it's on General Conference weekend. Everyone is able to listen without any distractions and we get so much more out of it those first days of listening. The only bit we didn't hear much of was the second session on Sunday because we actually arrived home just after the first talk. We listened as we unpacked, but we definitely didn't sit, so I couldn't take good notes, though I plan on going back to study them as I usually do. 

The vacation was everything we needed- relaxing, full of delicious food, excellent company, fun entertainment, and spiritual uplift at the end. We felt ready to start school again on Monday and jump into the last bit of the school year. 

Everything is bigger in Texas!