Houston Half Marathon

Last weekend we ran the Aramco Houston Half Marathon. It was Lynn's first half marathon, which was why I signed up too. She actually signed up to do it in 2021 (pushing her to pursue it after doing my own marathon in 2020) but COVID canceled everything so this was nearly two years in the making.

To be honest, I barely trained for this race. The most mileage I put in for a week was only 12 miles, with the longest run being 6 miles. A half marathon is 13.1 miles. As a result, my right knee was wrecked afterwards.

Lynn's training tapered off with our week long winter break vacation and then the holidays... but she fared much better than me. In fact, she did really well. Proud of her.

It was fun but I think I'm done with endurance races. ✌

My studious (exhausted) son

This picture pretty much sums it up... school is killing Jacob. He's so exhausted that he fell asleep while still holding onto his notes. That's incredible. 

He works really hard. He's already up by 5:30 am everyday for high school soccer practice. And the minute he gets home, he's already doing homework. He'll work all through the day until it's time for bed. He has no time to play video games or waste time on YouTube like his siblings. Oh, and he still has his house chores to do too.

Hard work pays off.

I'm looking forward to see where this takes him.

Disney World (Orlando, FL)

For this year, Disney World was having their 50th anniversary celebration. And since Elliot is at that prime age of 6 years old, we figured it was a good time to go. So for the kids' winter break, we headed out to Orlando to check out Disney World (3 days) and Universal Studios (1 day). 

It would be everyone's first time to visit The Most Magical Place on Earth.

But flying six people to Orlando was not really an option. I'm already paying for four days of Disney World and Universal tickets (times six each day 😬) on top of lodging, food, souvenirs... it would add up fast. So yeah, driving it was.

Happy birthday to Andrew

Traditional birthday donut in the morning.

Christmas 2021

Christmas Eve at grandma's house.

“The Most Magical Place on Earth”

More random pics

Lynn's birthday cake pie.

Random weekend pics

Beautiful day for kick ball.

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving Day. Lunch (and dinner) at grandma's.

Campus tour (Austin, TX)

My friend John wanted to take his nephew (high school student) to the University of Texas for a campus tour and invited Jacob and I to come along. We've been on campus a few times when the kids were smaller (they don't remember much) so it was good exposure now that he's only a few years away from college. The timing of our visit was good since class was still in session so the high school boys got a glimpse of life on campus.

But man, the campus has changed so much since the time I attended classes there... 20+ years ago. New buildings. Old buildings newly renovated. Walking around UT made me want to go back to school. Well... hmmm... nevermind... I don't like school, studying, exams, and sleepless nights... but the atmosphere is really nice.

Nutcracker Market

Holiday shopping madness.

Random pictures from the week

On Andrew's final game, we finally got a picture with him.

Halloween 2021

Karasuno High volleyball team (from the manga and anime Haikyu!!)

School pictures 2021

Elliot (K), Tyson (5), Andrew (8), Jacob (10)

Pumpkin patch