Hot chicken getaway (Nashville, TN)

Instead of a long trip to celebrate our 15 year anniversary, we plan on taking multiple short getaways  (without any kids) throughout the month. 

We can finally travel further and longer since our kids are older, one of which can now play the role of chauffer. And we had additional support with my mom playing school chauffer for the two little ones and Lynn's sister Julie took them in for a weekend sleepover.

So for our first getaway, we were off to Nashville. 

Why Nashville? Because it's the home of hot chicken. Because it's the bachelorette capital of the world. But mainly because of hot chicken.

My super students

Elliot got Student of the Month and Tyson the Citizenship Award.

15 year anniversary

Our wedding party.

Today marks our 15 year anniversary. Let's look back at that day, 15 years ago when we got married (before this blog ever existed).

Houston Half Marathon III

We completed our third half marathon in as many years. At this rate, we're going for the legacy status, i.e. at least 10 completed races. Hopefully my body will be able to maintain some semblance of health.

Speaking of which, my right knee (once again) at about the 7-8 mile mark was hurting bad. It was my friend, iliotibial band syndrome. 

But it's not surprise. I trained even less than I did last year. First, I sustained a calf injury during Thanksgiving, which kept me out for two weeks. Then just recently I got COVID, which had me breathing hard with any activity so running was out of the question. Oh well, what can you do?

First college acceptance letter

Texas State University.

Winter break

Top Golf.

Christmas 2023

Christmas Eve

Santa letters

Look who got a letter from The North Pole.

Lynn's birthday

Traditional morning birthday donuts.

Dear Elfie

Thanksgiving 2023

Last minute change in "venue" since our original host got sick. Sounds like us last year.

Tennis, pickleball, and glamping

Another busy weekend. Friday night, Andrew and I met up with Anh Vien's family to play pickleball (and to celebrate his birthday). It's such a fun and easy game to play. I can see why it's growing in popularity.

On Saturday, Tyson's first tennis season came to an end at the district tournament. He won his first match 6-2 to advance to the next round. On his second match, it was tied 5-5 and Tyson had triple match point (first player to win 6 games). Subsequently, he lost five points in a row to lose the game and match. What a heartbreaker. For the third place match, he beat the kid 6-0? or 6-1? Basically, it wasn't close and he medaled for the team.

Sunday, we were back at Anh Vien's place but this time with the whole family. I did a little bit of BJJ with the cousins while the kids swam. Afterwards, it was more pickleball action.

Later in the evening, I took Lynn and Elliot on a Getaway, i.e. glamping trip. We got to do all the fun stuff associated with camping (sitting by the fire, making smores) without the misery (sleeping outside on the hard ground).

Thanksgiving lunch with Elliot

Not her usual smile since she had a mouth full of food.

Dad of four kids

That's me. And I'm not talking about my Fortnite profile. While Lynn was gone for a few days on a girls trip, I played the role of the single parent. It wasn't anything I couldn't handle but it just meant that the kids had to "step it up". For example, the big boys had to pack their own school lunch. I resorted to Chef Boyardee for the little ones' lunch. Tyson made it even easier by bringing the whole can and eating straight from it. Haha. And with my work from home situation, it was no problem to take and pick up the kids from school. Everything was doable but just more busy.

Into the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man ready for action candy.