We got together with friends for the first time in months. We met at the park for some fresh air and easy social distancing. Sandra, Arthur, and Ryan brought their new puppy Theo. Tyler and Daphne had already been begging us for a dog, but this really renewed their interest.
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| Daphne and Jocelyn |
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| Doug wore the boys out with some football |
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| Carter, Ryan, and Tyler |
My cousin Michelle came through town this week. She is on Day 60+ of a trek around the US and has hit about 30 states in that time. She was staying with friends on a ranch in Dripping Springs and so we got together at our house along with Brad, Megan, and the girls. It was fun catching up and hearing about Michelle's adventures.
We spent a nice afternoon at the Oasis yesterday in celebration of Abuelita's birthday. The weather finally cooled down and we enjoyed the views of Lake Travis. We had not seen Michael's parents in a while due to the pandemic, so we got together outdoors to minimize risk.
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| Daphne wanted to know why the banana wasn't wearing a mask |
Cooler weather rolled in this past week and we are excited for fall! The high temps yesterday were in the mid-80s, which was a relief after the record-breaking August we had with many days of 100+-degree days. We headed out to Lady Bird Lake yesterday morning for some kayaking. We started out near Barton Springs Pool, kayaked along Barton Creek and the west to Mopac along Lady Bird Lake
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| View north of Barton Creek from pedestrian bridge |
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| View south of Barton Creek from pedestrian bridge |
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| I have been calling dibs on Tyler in my kayak since Daphne doesn't do much paddling |
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| Daphne and Michael on Lady Bird Lake |
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| Tyler and Renee on Lady Bird Lake after we turned around at the Mopac bridge |
In these remote school times, sometimes the kids have to record part of their homework for a mini-clip (about a minute or two) for their teachers. We helped film Tyler testing out a paper glider for one of his assignments and then chuckled while he measured the distance traveled with his hands. We were laughing so hard he had trouble measuring.
Tyler is learning to play the French horn in beginner band at school this year. So far they have still been learning to get the hang of the mouthpiece. To quote Daphne, "It sounds like he's farting really loud!" There was a Zoom with the band instructors before school started and they warned that everyone will sound terrible starting out and it will get better. We were quite amused that they quoted a past parent that asked, "Should my child's playing sound like a dying animal?"
The kids went "back to school" this past week- Tyler started middle school (what!?! 6th grade) and Daphne started 3rd grade. Since at least the first 8 weeks will be virtual I couldn't take our normal photo of the kids at the front door with their backpacks on and ready to head out. Instead I took photos of the kids at their desks with their Chromebooks. The first week went well except for one of Tyler's classes got hacked. It was probably a tween or teen that made some inappropriate remarks so the teacher immediately ended the Zoom session. My favorite moment of the week was when Tyler had his first Spanish class- he laughed and said he only understood about 3 minutes and that's the 3 minutes his teacher spoke English.
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| You never know how Daphne will make her bed. Made me laugh to see her bananas resting comfortably in bed all day! |
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