Christmas 2022

All my children.

Braces

Guess who got braces?

Birthday and more

Birthday lunch for Lynn without the kids (North Italia)

Thanksgiving-ish

Thanksgiving lunch with Elliot at school.

This year's Thanksgiving was one to forget...

Daddy daughter day

Catching a show with my big girl.

Another getaway

A night away from the kiddos.

get·a·way (ˈɡedəˌwā) an escape or quick departure, especially after committing a crime.

Elliot starts BJJ

The last kid in the family to start BJJ.

My favorite children's book authors

Jon Klassen and Mac Burnett (Blue Willow Bookstore).

Halloween 2022

Our treat-or-trick group (the ones that dressed up).

Random pictures

Walking home after eating greasy burgers and fries (Spirit Night for Tyson's orchestra).

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Who likes spicy chips?

Weekend pictures

Tyson's first orchestra concert.

Letterman jacket

Jacob earned his letterman jacket when he joined the varsity soccer team during his sophomore year.

Elliot's 7th birthday

A big cake for my big girl.

New soccer season

New season. New team. All girls U8 division.

Family Sunday Funday

Sunday afternoon Astros game.

Labor Day weekend

Jacob made another 5 on his AP test! Maybe I'll get him a car as a reward instead of having him ride his bike to school... Maybe. 🤔

Weekend pictures

Friday evening birthday party for Elliot's friend.

First day of school

Andrew (9th grade) and Jacob (11th grade) leave first in the morning, biking to high school.

August birthdays

Here's to another year...

Colorado (Silverthorne, CO)

This was our 10th road trip to Colorado. We've made this long drive ten times. I told the family that this would be the last trip to Colorado, that it's time to explore other destinations. Time will tell if I hold true to my word.

This trip was longer than usual, nearly two weeks. I wanted to give everyone time to get acclimated to the high altitude (Silverthorne elevation >9,000 ft) before we did any outdoor activities.

Mt. Evans 14,265′ (Colorado)

Proud of my big boys for completing their first 14er. This brutal hike took us just over 7 hours to complete.

Family vacation III (Seguin, TX)

3rd annual family trip.

As seen on TV (Waco, TX)

You might have seen this boathouse on HGTV Fixer Upper. I haven't seen it myself (because we don't have cable) but an old beat-up boathouse was given a more contemporary update. 

Well, Anh Vien now owns it and invited our family over. So it was off to Lake Waco for more fun in the sun. And since we were already in Waco, we spent the following day at the Magnolia Silos.

Fun in the sun

Our annual trip to Surfside Beach.

July 4th weekend

July 4, 2022

Weekend pictures

For my mom's birthday, we took her to eat sushi since she's never tried it. And being served water by a robot was another first.

Father's Day weekend

For Father's Day, I did some of my favorite things.

Ate my favorite food, pizza.

Ate my favorite sweet treat, donuts.

Ate my second favorite food, burgers.

Ate my second favorite sweet treat, ice cream.

Drank alcohol.

Played arcade games.

Hung out with my family.

Quick getaway (Austin, TX)

No kids. Just us. One day. A quick getaway.

Ice skating (for the first time)

Celebrating Jax's birthday at the ice skating rink.

Graduations 2022

Elliot graduated from Kindergarten.

Tyson graduated from elementary school.

Andrew graduated from junior high school.

And Lynn's cousin graduated from high school.

End of the soccer season

We've finally come to the end of the spring season for soccer. 

Elliot finished her first season playing in the U6 recreational league. She didn't stand out like her two older brothers when they started but that doesn't matter... she really had fun playing.

Andrew ended the season with a hat trick (3 goals) on his final game. He finished his junior high career undefeated... well, only the games he played in. He got injured (probably due to overtraining) and sat out for a couple of games (which the team lost). I really enjoyed watching him play for school since he was so dominant.

Jacob's club team had an end of the season party... which is probably the last time he's together with his team. After playing with the club for several years, he chose not to continue with club soccer.

The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza

Ugh, forgot to take my mask off.

Mother's Day weekend

Happy Mother's Day to the mother of my children.

Garage sale (first ever)

Everything must go!

Random weekend pics

International Festival. Friday night at their elementary school.

Easter 2022

My vampire bunny.

Houston BBQ Festival

We attended the 9th Annual Houston Barbecue Festival, where the best BBQ joints from the Houston area (and beyond) were in one spot. Each booth provided samples... which was unlimited. 

It was essentially all-you-can-eat BBQ!

Many of the BBQ places got creative with their BBQ from making brisket tacos to egg rolls. My favorite was the brisket boudin from Roegels Barbecue.

Sadly, my body couldn't handle all the food I stuffed in my face. I felt sick afterwards... nauseous... just ugh... 

But I would do it all again... it was delicious.

Training with my BJJ idols

The Mendes brothers 😍

Elliot's first soccer game

Let's go, Elliot!

Two miles up (Leadville, CO)

We've been coming to Leadville every year during Spring Break since 2018 (with a break in 2021 due to COVID). This trip also made it our ninth road trip to Colorado... and counting. And now that I'm a little more experienced, I took my Nissan Pathfinder since it had 4WD. It was a nightmare driving the minivan in snow and ice. The major drawback was the loss of space but we made it work.

Anh Vien and his family also met up with us in the two mile high town. Good times.

Elliot and Kindergarten

Elliot's drawings

Presidents' Day weekend

Friday night lights. Jacob's varsity soccer games are so late.

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day with my love.

Jacob is officially 16

My eldest son is now 16 years old. Oh how he's grown since the first birthday post about him (my second ever blog post 11 years ago). Jacob is currently in the 10th grade, taking the most ridiculously hard classes. He's currently on the high school varsity soccer team. No, he doesn't have his driver's license yet. In fact, I'm the one pushing him to drive (so much would be taken off of our plates if we added another chauffer to the family) but it doesn't seem like he even cares to get one. Maybe he knows... he is the brains of the family.

Andrew is taller than me!

Year of the tiger

Our family with grandma.

13 year anniversary

Our anniversary was on a Monday. The kids would all be at school and we could have the day to ourselves. I made sure I didn't have to go in for work. I would skip my usual lunchtime jiu jitsu training. And we purposely didn't go out to eat the prior weekend just so we could splurge a little more than usual. 

But no, the kids put a halt on that. The two little ones were "sick" and stayed home from school. Instead of going on a lunch date, I went to the local emergency center to get Tyson tested for COVID.

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. ✌