I can't believe it's been a month since my last post, AND that November is half way through. What a trip 2020 has been so far, sheesh!
Since I last blogged we've had some notable moments in our family. First was Halloween. As with any other holiday this year, Halloween was a little different. My boys are pretty much past trick or treating age and would much rather have a fun party with their friends. With Covid, all ward parties and trunk-or-treat type activities were cancelled. To add to that, I went out of town Halloween weekend, so it left Dan to figure out how to celebrate Halloween this year.
Before I left town we carved pumpkins, while eating homemade pizza and watching scary movies. This year we watched The Village and The Ring. (can I just add that it is so much fun to have older kids who can do their own pumpkins from beginning to end!)
Cade's pumpkin won a popularity contest on Facebook. Good job Cade!
This is my pumpkin. It was a very oddly shaped pumpkin and I actually carved it upside down so it would have that droopy feel that a blobfish does. :)
This is Alex's pumpkin. This is a character he first met in Super Smash Bros.- Lucas. He has since dressed up as Lucas in costume twice and played his original game on his Gameboy Advance-Mother 3.
This is Dan's pumpkin. The pumpkin had that big crease across the bottom already, and he took advantage of it and turned it into a creepy sewn-shut mouth.
While I was out of town, Dan decided to take the boys to a haunted house called 13th floor, and then he dropped Cade off at a small friend gathering while he took Alex to get some rolled ice cream at Farenheit 32. I'd say that's a good Halloween!
Like I mentioned above, I was in Chicago over the Halloween weekend. My Dad's birthday is November 1st, and a perfect marriage of events allowed all three of his children to be there to celebrate. Kevin had planned a week in Chicago that just happened to coincide with when Valerie would be coming back from her family's Disney trip, flying into Chicago. I figured since both my brother and sister would be there that I should use my previously twice postponed Chicago travel funds to come and join in the fun.
I flew into Chicago on the 30th, and arranged my flight to land near the same time as Kevin's so we could save my Dad a trip to the airport.
I was just trying to get a selfie, but the way the sun was shining through the window gave an awesome effect!
View of Chicago skyline as I flew in
Kevin and I at Midway Int'l Airport
After flying all morning we were hungry, and my Dad knows my affinity for Korean food. This Seoul Taco restaurant opened in downtown Naperville and was delicious. Go try it!
On Halloween Day Corrie made us some delicious sugar cookies with these eyeball sugar dots. Fun!
On Halloween afternoon, Valerie and her family had flown in from Florida and we met up at Cantigny Park to try and avoid sharing too many germs indoors. We had a nice fall walk through the park and then decided we were cold (and I was tired!). We did a drive through of Portillo's and were able to hang out in the lobby of Valerie's hotel. It was nice and relaxed and a good time to celebrate my Dad's birthday and catch up.
Sunday we really just spent the day with an in-person sacrament meeting, sunday school at home, and then some chatting and watching football. I'm not gonna complain about a day of rest. Traveling took a lot out of me!
Monday, my last day, we decided to visit Millenium Park, home of 'the bean'. It's actually supposed to be a cloud, lol, but I had never been there. It's free, except for parking, and outdoors, so it was a good option to spend our morning before dropping me off at the airport.
Usually you can go right up to the bean, but it was blocked off. Not sure how that makes it safer, but whatever! They also only had one or two entrances in and out of the park instead of all around. That actually made people pass each other a whole lot more than usual. Go figure.
Also part of the park is a large field/ampitheatre. It would be so fun to hear a concert here!
The fall colors were so vibrant and beautiful. Definitely not like that in San Antonio!
Chicago architecture is pretty unique
I had a really good visit. My Dad has stage 4 prostate cancer and though his health is pretty good right now, you just never know. Especially as a military family who is planning to move next summer, you have to make time to see family, even in Covid times.
I was definitely worn out when I got back from Chicago. I even noticed that I was sniffly, had a sore throat and coughing, etc. If Covid weren't a thing I would've told you I was just coming down with a cold. I promptly got a Covid test since I had just traveled and been around family. Thankfully it was negative. So guess what? Not every illness is Covid! You can still just get regular sick!
Having a cold on top of my Chronic Fatigue has taken me quite a bit of time to recover. I've really been pretty out of it for a full two weeks. I was even out of it when Dan's birthday rolled around and I had planned for his sister Kristina and her husband Brett to fly in from Boise! (Don't worry, I warned them I was ill and they were still all a-go for the surprise!)
They flew in late Thursday night the 5th, and on the morning of the 6th I took Dan out to breakfast at Magnolia Pancake Haus and they were there to surprise him.
After that they had all of friday, Saturday and half of Sunday to just be together. Just like I felt the need to get out and be with my siblings and Dad, Dan too has been missing his family. Covid has definitely made this military family feel a little more isolated from family than usual.
Visiting the Deer at McCallister Park
Brett and Kristina are foodies like us, so we had fun taking them around to our favorite spots in San Antonio. Here we are at Duck Donuts. Brett said they were some of the best he's ever had!
Alex made a Texas sheet cake (family recipe) for Dan's birthday treat! It was sooo good!
Happy 40th birthday Dan! I hope it was a memorable one for you!
And just a few random other pictures and videos to share. First, Alex has continued expanding his cooking repetoire. Here's a few dishes!
Salmon and veggies!
Monte Cristo Sandwiches
He really is a good cook! Yesterday he made a banana pudding for the missionaries, but i forgot to take a picture. It was devoured and he did a great job!
Dan still rides his bike a lot, and I joined him for a short ride out to Lake Medina and back.
I did a sleep study in a continued effort to find any underlying issues that might be causing my fatigue. Still waiting on the results...
Cade had to take off all of his bracelets for Marching Band and he put them on the dog.
When we were out at Duck Donuts we saw this on the window. I'll never understand those who think this is a hoax, but it amused me to see this.
Also when we were at Duck Donuts I got a notification on my phone that Joe Biden had received enough electoral votes to be the projected winner of this presidential race. There are still some recounts to be done before it is official, but it is looking as though Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be our leaders come January.
Lastly, a little bit of marching band fun! Just this week the kids were fitted for the uniforms finally and started adding drill to their marching show. It's not much, but it's something. The kids are all a little more excited now that it feels more official. Better late than never, and there are plenty of marching bands around the country that either never got to start this year, or had to stop. We'll take it!
The mask has an opening for them to play their instrument and he has a bell cover. Cade says the mask is super obnoxious to play with because it easily gets in the way of making a good sound.
Oh, and have I mentioned how Covid is ravaging the country and the world again? San Antonio had our "second wave" over the summer, but now most of the country is seeing huge spikes in cases as the weather gets colder and we all have Covid fatigue. I know of quite a few schools that are going back to virtual because between all the illness and quarantines, there just aren't enough teachers and substitutes to keep the schools running. That hasn't happened here in San Antonio yet, but it just kind of seems like an inevitability. Back in the spring and summer when we were all locked down and Covid was big and scary, the country was getting 120-130,000 cases a day. We've smashed those records with 185,000 cases a day this past week. Texas was the first state to reach 1 million cases. Deaths are soaring. There is hope for a vaccine in the near future, which I think is the only light at the end of the tunnel. Even with a vaccine the effects of this virus will be with us on the daily for years to come, and ripple effects felt for the rest of our lives I 'm sure.
This year we celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary! Our actual anniversary was on a Tuesday so we made some plans for the following weekend. I'll try to spare you the boring details of what a nightmare it suddenly became when there actually wasn't a holiday for Columbus day like there always has been in our school district, and when Alex unexpectedly got a spot to return to in-person learning on that same day that was supposed to be a day off of school. But with friends and awesome kids Dan and I were still able to do our overnight in Austin.
We only actually spent about 24 hours on our own, but it was still good to spend time together without the kids. Our house is pretty small and it's pretty hard to get away from each other!
When I got in the car as we were leaving for Austin, there was a gift bag on my seat! I had been admiring the Kendra Scott necklaces for sometime. Dan and I even went to their store at La Cantera, but I was too overwhelmed to pick a necklace since they're completely customizeable. You pick a chain and a stone and they're cute and affordable! Dan decided to brave the store on his own and found a new stone they had and took a chance that I would like it, he was right! It's perfect. And the chain is adjustable so you can set it just the way you like it!
What a fun start to our getaway! We ate our PB&J in the car and made our way through the traffic to Austin and an art exhibit called Wonderspaces. This place has a collection of varying 'interactive' art exhibits that are fun to experience. I say interactive because you can move through most of them and experience them, it's not paintings on a wall.
Dan's always good about taking the time to try and see things from a different perspective
This large array of lights was called Submergence by Squidsoup. It was a 12 minute intricately designed light display. Here are a few time lapses of them moving around. There was etherial music as well that went along with it.
This was one of those art installations that depending on the angle you either just see a bunch of black spheres hanging from the ceiling, or a face. The piece was titled "Immigrant"
These tubes had some sort of sensor in them that changed the airflow when you walked past.
Two of my favorite pieces would not have worked with any sort of pictures. The first was a real time video of two guys in a large parking lot, pushing trash with push brooms to match what time it was. It was called Sweepers Clock. I just can't imagine the work involved in putting that together!! The second was called Myrkvior and it was a dark space that had hundreds of sections of fishing line strung at various angles, and a light on a motorized loop/hoop hit the fishing line at various angles making it look like stars and spider webs! Pictures didn't capture it, and that's ok. Some things are best experienced and not shared.
Upstairs was a VR exhibit called the Dinner Party. It was my first VR experience and you were part of a dinner party that turns awkward when the host couple shares their story of being abducted by aliens. Apparently it's based on a real couple that has documented their alien abduction and told it hundreds of thousands of times to any who would listen. And now we all get to experience it with them! It was a bit bizarre, and made me a little motion sick (surprise surprise), but it was still cool.
There were a few others upstairs, like a wall that you could share your last words and read others. There was some 3D printed art that visually tricked your eyes by the design and the lights that shone on it. There waseven a mirror maze, but after all the pretty dark exhibits, the strobing lights hurt my head so i didn't stay there too long.
As we headed to our hotel we saw a little more art on the side of the road!
We found a really good deal at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Austin. Our rate included a $25 food credit and free parking, all for the price of a regular stay at a pretty basic hotel. This place was kinda fancy! We sent the boys some videos of the fancy lobbies and extreme art. We stayed on the 22nd floor and had a nice view of the pool that was on the rooftop of the 7th floor building attached to the hotel.
View of the hotel from the interstate
View of the pool from our room. That's only half the pool too, the other half would be at the bottom of the picture.
When in Texas, you do as the Texans do. They still swim in outdoor pools in October. You would've thought we were at some tropical getaway with everyone in the lounge chairs, tanning like it's July. But it was also 99 degrees that day, so swimming was a perfect activity.
I photobombed his selfie :)
There was some construction right by the pool, so Dan did a little time lapse of the crane working.
After swimming for awhile we tried to figure out where we were going to have dinner. Austin is known across the nation for it's booming food innovations and popularity with the foodies. However, much to our surprise, downtown Austin has taken a nosedive since all of the civil unrest in the country, and I'm sure Covid has contributed to it as well. The homeless population was massive, and after driving through downtown to get to our hotel and observing the behavior of the people on the streets, we decided not to do a few of the things we had planned downtown. It was the fine line between weird city life (we've lived in big cities before and can handle some drunkeness and odd behavior) and dangerous city life. We witnessed a group of college kids being harassed by a homeless gentleman, and he followed them aggressively down the street. No thanks.
We had dinner at Elizabeth Street Cafe, which was urban vietnamese food- good but not worth the cost! And we found a yummy dessert food truck with cookies and ice cream combinations.
Oh, and we got some VooDoo Doughnuts the next day to share with the boys. Very good!
Even though we were away, I texted with alex early on Monday morning to make sure he had everything ready to go for his first day of in-person school since March! Thanks Jacqui for snapping this picture of him! He was so nervous, but admitted to me later that in-person school is so much more fun than virtual! I just hope and pray that we can stay that way- my kids are so much happier.
Cade also had a big first this past weekend- first High School football game! They've had limited time and days to practice, so it wasn't a full fledged show or anything, but it was nice to sit under the lights, hear the band and watch the game. I know Cade had a good time playing music and hanging with friends. Yay!
And just a few fun 'other' pics from the weekend. Boys finding creatures and shooting each other :)
Just some simple family happenings in this post! I dyed my hair :)
Alex found a recipe that involved using a cinderella pumpkin to cook a curry inside. After scooping it out I decided to double the amount of rice and liquid so we'd have a little more to eat, but then the rice didn't cook, even after two hours in the oven. It's too bad because the rest of it was tasting great, but uncooked rice is not fun to eat. Instead we had Whataburger for dinner and watched Remember the Titans.
I finished another puzzle.
The boys had fun holding it as long as possible :)
Dan and I did a Costco run and got their hotdog and soda deal, but they only carry pepsi and I was wearing a Coca-cola shirt!
I am very aware that if Covid hadn't happened, our fall would be very different. Dan has been home for nearly 7 months straight, the kids activities stopped and so did all of my work and musical pursuits. Even though school is in full swing, a lot of the activities aren't so we have still tried to do things together in our 'borrowed' time.
Cade picked our weekend activity, which was a place called Green Acres Golf and Games. His big draw was go-karts. We did some go-karts, mini-golf, water wars and a little arcade time.
I rode with them on the first time around. Dan told the boys that if anyone passed him, he'd buy them another round on the go-karts. That gave them some racing momentum! Here's a time-lapse of their second time.
We were in a different area of San Antonio which turned out to be close to a restaurant Dan had heard was really good. It's called Pollos Asados Los Nortenos- basically a really yummy chicken place! The boys wanted nothing to do with it so we got them some Whataburger and we took a chance on a new place. We also drove to a park to eat it since most places you still can't eat inside.
It did NOT disappoint. That chicken may look bold and scary, but it was some of the best chicken I've ever had! We split a whole chicken with sides and had plenty left over for another lunch.
By the way- we made both boys try the chicken and they admitted that it was really good!
It was General Conference this weekend as well, so Alex put his baking skills to good use with these delicious M&M/chocolate chip cookies. He even made enough to deliver to his deacons quorum :)
Guess what? Live music is slowly making its return! My friend played flute with the Heart of Texas Band this weekend. Despite being drained from our other adventures, I really wanted to hear live music and support her. Some things are just good for the soul. I don't know the next chance I'll have to perform again, but it was great to see one group setting the precedence!
We got dinner at Tycoon Flats afterwards- yummy burger selections in a nice spacious outdoor environment.
Last bit of an update is that Cade found out on Friday that he'd be returning to in-person school on the following Monday, Oct 5th. 7 months since his last in-person school day! Crazy! We had to kind of rush out the door this morning due to some miscommunication, so here's our impromptu picture session, lol. I thought the first was a classic Cade look of, Mom what are you doing? And the second was a little better.
Cade admitted that he normally doesn't get nervous on first days of school, but this time was totally different. Even though he's been online for about 6 weeks, he's never actually been inside the school. As a freshman having no idea where anything is, I'd be nervous too. Hope you have a great first day of in-person school Cade! Slowly but surely, getting back to familiar things, right?
Alex attends a different school than Cade and did not get a seat in Phase 3, so he'll be home at least another 2 weeks. If I'd had my choice and only one kid could return, it would've been Alex first. He's really really struggling with virtual learning. He's not best left to his own devices to get the job done, he needs some accountability and in-person follow up. We all learn in different ways. I just hope he can recover his grades a bit through the rest of the semester. :)
