4v4 soccer champs

Houston Dynamo Cascarita 4v4 Tournament Champions ('07 boys)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving lunch with the in-laws.

Stuffed animals and plush toys

I think we have enough...

Family of killers

I'm slowly building a family of killers (on the mat). First, cousin Peter started BJJ a month ago and now brother-in-law Chris joined the fun. Who's next??

Weekend wedding (Arlington, TX)

What was supposed to be a nice weekend trip to Dallas (Arlington to be specific) for a wedding of Lynn's old family friend turned out to be much more than we had expected. The plan was to bring the two little ones, leaving behind the two big boys since they had soccer games scheduled. The day before leaving, Tyson got the dreaded pink eye at school and was sent home early. Then later Elliot spikes a fever and is quickly not feeling well. Uh oh... but we can't not go. But we also can't leave all the kids behind, especially two sick kids. There was nothing left to do but power through.

Avengers assemble (again)!

Houston Half Marathon ✔

On Sunday, I popped my (racing) cherry when I completed the Houston Half Marathon. This was all to prepare for the upcoming Houston Marathon in January 2020. I've never participated a road race before... 5K, 10K, anything... so it wouldn't have been smart to have the full marathon be my first one.

For me, the Houston Half was to experience the process of a race... to see if there are any issues that might arise... to see what works. Here's what I did and the lessons I learned.

Random pics of the week

Halloween activities and decorating.

State Fair of Texas (Dallas, TX)

The temperature finally dropped to feel like fall weather and the kids had a 4-day weekend for Columbus Day so we made a quick trip up north to the State Fair of Texas. It's been nine years since we last went together as a family. Since then, we added two more kids and the ones that did go have no memory of their prior visit. All things considered, it was a good time to visit the biggest state fair in the country once again.

Who am I?

Elliot turns 4

Rainbows galore!

When it rains, it pours (literally)

When it rains in Houston, there's always a chance of local flooding. So when a hurricane or tropical storm comes, flooding is guaranteed. It began on Wednesday when Tropical Storm Imelda made landfall. The school district canceled all classes so everyone got to stay home. The day was pretty uneventful, raining on and off, nothing too heavy. On Thursday, schools were open and we're back to our regular schedule... or so we all thought.

Elliot's first school pictures

Just ignore the watermark.

Family Fantasy Football

Football season officially begins and our whole family is playing fantasy football for the first time this year. Why? Because now we'll have a reason to watch any random NFL game that's currently on. It'll also help us learn the current players in the league. Like who's Saquon Barkley or Nick Chubb? *shrug* Apparently the top running backs. But what I really like is that sports bring us together, whether it's watching it or talking about it. And playing fantasy adds an element of friendly competition and trash talking.

Labor Day soccer tourney

Our Labor Day weekend was spent outside... literally all day long... in the heat... both Saturday and Sunday... for soccer. Now that Jacob's playing in a competitive league, we now have to travel for both big boys. Luckily they played in the same tournament. But that also meant we had to stay for twice as many games. It's gonna be a long season...