Cade's band teachers stopped by our house today (with permission) to give him his band award. I really appreciate that they did this, because normally there would be a special segment during their last concert to recognize and award these kids for their hard work.
I'll let this video tell do all the talking.
Congratulations Cade on earning Driscoll's top award! You really are an outstanding musician and I'm proud of all of your hard work, and it's wonderful watching you grow as a musician.
(Permission was asked and granted for last pictures with his awesome middle school band teachers!)
This week brought the end of 9 weeks of distance learning. There really are no good words to capture the loss all students are feeling this year. Whether you're a graduate or not, there are events missed and a lack of closure. Both of my boys had drive-through visits at their school to retrieve items from PE, band and their lockers/teachers. What an awful way to end the school year. Instead of last concerts and awards ceremonies, a manilla envelope and a plastic bag full of stuff. And while it's great to see the teachers again, they have masks, you have masks, and a sign for air hugs. It's just not the same. I pray my kids will have some semblance of normalcy next year, which means I'll ignore the news about school next year for a little bit.
The medal around his neck is awarded for those who do between 15-29 hours of community service!
I can't believe he will be in High School next year! I really hope the sign behind him was meant to say 8th graders, not 6th graders, lol
Every week things start to feel a little more normal as things reopen. I think we're just in the phase where we slowly add everything back in, and whether the casualties continue, we will all just move on.
I got a much needed haircut!
As a family we've pretty much decided to keep our outings to an outdoor type to provide some natural social distancing.
One day we did some floating down the Guadalupe. We found a spot to park each car, and we found out that to float that section of river takes approximately 4 hours! We weren't totally prepared for that much time on the water, but we will be next time. Gotta figure out a way to float a cooler along with us!
Dragonflies! They were everywhere!
Cade is the adventurous one, trying out lots of rope swings and boulder jumps along the river. The water can get surprisingly deep at times!
Our next outdoor adventure was at Enchanted Rock state park. We've been there once before, but we reserved a day pass on the State Park website because i needed a little more outside time. We arrived early to beat the heat and the crowds. It was really nice!
And the same picture from another angle. Amazing how much can change with view from another perspective!
Loved these purple flowers
Quartz strewn about the trail
That's Enchanted Rock behind us- one big pile of granite
This was a HUGE spider along the side of the trail. His body quarter sized or more
Speaking of bugs...
Cactus blossoms
Dogs are allowed on the main Loop Trail, so Carson got to have an outdoor adventure too!
A boy and his pup
Picnic lunch after a 5 mile hike!
Alex and I stayed with the dog while Dan and Cade did the summit trail to the top of the Enchanted Rock. Puppies aren't allowed, probably to protect their cute puppy paws.
View from the top!
Sometimes these boys are so silly!
And then the hour and a half drive home. It's fair to say they were all a bit worn out!
Well to finish this blog post, and symbolically these COVID-19 times, Dan and I wanted to throw an end of the school year, beginning of summer celebration for the boys at home. Home is where we've spent a lot of 2020, and that will continue. If we can't make memories at home, it's all for nothing.
Pizza, s'mores, decorations, water balloons, bubbles, cornhole and laughs. Love my family!
Bubble within a bubble!
Why didn't I ever think of this??
And for those still concerned about my health, I am stuck in a pattern of my fever appearing every few days. This week was 4 out of the 7 days, and one was after a day of adventuring. Only one of those 4 fever days kept me down in spirits and energy, so even though they're still happening, they aren't affecting me as much as they did before. I'm mostly just used to feeling chills A LOT. 7 weeks and 3 days of symptoms. One day they'll be gone, right? :)
Even without the kids going to school every day, you can kind of just get the feeling that summer is coming. Online assignments are coming to a close, items are being picked up from the school, and the weather is getting warm. High of 100 today! Not sure what we'll do in the San Antonio heat if we can't hit our regular swimming spots!
Health update: Since I last posted I still have not had 72 hours consecutively fever free, but the improvement to mark is that the other symptoms have subsided. I don't have all of my stamina back, but I am able to do much more around the house and have even started adding some exercise back into my day. I'm not able to do much for very long or very high intensity, but I'll get there. Tightness in my chest and aches and pains have gone away. The chills only visit me when my fever does. It's been so strange! So in past week I had fever Wednesday, Saturday and Monday. Today is day 47 of dealing with this!
Things around Texas are starting to feel a little more normal. Almost all businesses are able to reopen by next Monday the 25th in some capacity or another. It's been two weeks since restaurants and other places opened, and even though there's been one huge cluster of cases in Amarillo, San Antonio itself seems to have things well under control. It's still nerve-wracking to open back up, but so far things seem to be going okay virus-wise.
As a family we are finding ourselves bored and easily irritated. I'm sure we're not the only ones. We've been spending so much time in the house and doing things together that even the fun stuff isn't as fun anymore. We're gonna need to get creative this summer, that's for sure, or we'll all go crazy!
Here's the past week in pictures!
I took Cade driving! He needed a break from the house, and lots of parking lots are empty. Why not? He actually did a really good job.
The Thunderbirds did a flyover to thank the medical professionals for all they've done during COVID-19. That means we got to see them too! Unfortunately their first pass was beyond where we could see and the second pass happened sooner than expected so I didn't get my camera out in time. It was either snap a video and potentially miss it altogether, or watch with my own eyes. It was neat, and over in a jiffy.
Waiting for the Jets near our house
Home project! My piano bench needed recovering, and the hobby stores are open again, so I picked out some clearance fabric and got to work. I'm glad Dan helped though, or it would've taken me a lot longer!
Cade got some really good news this week. He auditioned for and made it into the top performing group as an incoming freshman! It was nice to see a big smile on his face, and I really look forward to him getting some good Texas Band experience in before we move. Now COVID, don't you ruin this for him!
Trying to be creative and not just sit around every evening, we drove down to the Pearl (an outdoor market) and walked along the riverwalk in hopes to catch the bats underneath the Camden street bridge. It worked this time!
Loved this mam and her ducklings
Video of the bats
Carson finally got a hair cut!
Saturday the weather had cooled down a bit after some storms passed through, so Dan and I took a ride on the motorcycle out to Luckenbach. It's a fun little spot, I recommend all my Texan friends to go, especially when they're more open for music and dancing and shopping in their general store! :)
We packed a picnic lunch!
That's one big tree!
There's a rooster on the premises that is sharing its lovely sound with everyone, all day long!
This coming week we mark the end of the school year and the beginning of our summer adventures. Here's to making memories and doing our best to stay sane and healthy!
