Texas - 2024 - Day 8 - Austin and traveling home - Oct 6, 2024

 Our last day is always bitter sweet, but T and B were excited when Lola got our of her room at 8:45 to spend some time with them.  They really wanted to finish their sewing projects.  

Lola helped T finish his Sloth and B her Fox. Once T finished he played video games, but B was determined to finish her fox.  MBMell got up eventually and worked on Lego at the table with us.

DD and AA went and got lunch with the kids, Lola getting McDonalds and the rest getting koloches.

We enjoyed our last meal together :)

After lunch it was time to head to the pool for the kids first Swim meet. On the way B got a phone call and wasn't sure how to talk, but with some help she eventually could hear what the boy on the other line.  It was from a boy who had left the school and never got to say goodbye, it was very cute.

At the swimming, they did 4 different strokes, and competed against the other kids at their pool.  It was new for all of them, so it was quite drawn out and slow, but the kids did very well.  We had to leave a little early before the IM, but the kids got their ribbons, and we said our good byes.

B and MBMell had to go to Girl Scouts, so we hugged in the parking lot and DD and T took us to the airport.  T was happy to spend this last 30 minutes in the car with us, talking all about a card game that his teacher introduced him too.

They dropped us off at the airport and we all hugged goodbye.  We had an awesome trip, and was sad to be leaving the nice weather and the company. At the airport we got some food before boarding our flight just before 5 pm.

We boarded our flight to be surprised that Lola didn't get a window again in her window seat.  We made our connection through Calgary, to board the next flight where Lola didn't get a window again.... No problems getting home just after midnight.

Till next time. Lola.

Texas - 2024 - Day 7 - Austin - Oct 5, 2024

 It was Volleyball day!  Time to put on our jerseys and cheer on B and T with their school team!  The game was at 9 o'clock, so it was an early morning, of breakfast and getting ready to head to the local YMCA.  We got our seats, and watched the intense 3 sets of beginner volleyball. It was just exciting when they got it over the net, and sometime even bumped the ball to the other side once.  They were very close games and came down to the last set to decide who was going to win.

Lola and AA were very excited to watch, and there were even cheerleaders from the school.

Once Volleyball was done we headed back to an indoor physical activity as we were tired from sitting in the car the day before.  DD had found indoor glow in the dark mini golf.  It felt very Halloween in there.  Max on a group was 5, so DD and AA were in one group following the rest of us.  It was fun, and the kids enjoyed the purple people eater and the challenges of some of the holes.

After we finished there we headed to Kerby Lane Cafe for lunch.  We had a little of a wait so we walked around a famers market that was in the corner of the parking lot just to kill some time.  It was hot outside, so back inside to wait after we did 1 loop.

Not much after we got inside our table was ready and off we went.  The food was very good, with MBMell getting the seasonal pumpkin french toast. We enjoyed watching a guy walking around creating balloon characters, such as Pokemon characters, an alligator and a flowers.

Back at the house MBMell and DD had a short nap, while the rest of us played some Mario Kart.  T picked really fast cars, so it was challenging, and we all just were trying to finish. We couldn't decide which game to play so we split our time between Mario Kart and TowerFall.

Once the parents were awake, we headed to a friends to pick up a sewing machine on our way to the community pool.  Lola had never been there, even though she has been to Texas a few times.  She was very excited to try it out. We had an amazing afternoon at the pool, and MBMell and Lola even got in the water for 30 minutes.  The temperature was just perfect!  The kids had so much fun playing in the water with the adults, and showing us their swimming skills.

MBMell had the idea to "race" to see who could shower the fastest, as there were 3 showers, and 3 pairs of participants.  T and B almost beat AA and Lola, but not quite.  We all know DD took the longest.  While we waited to go for supper, Lola and B worked on a sewing project she had started and T played video games with AA and DD.

We went to our traditional last supper to Yard House for dinner.  The boys had their half yard of beer and enjoyed it.  They also had a Oktoberfest sausage sliders for dinner and they said they were so good.  Lola had her normal Ahi, but the serving of rice was very disappointing.  The kids shared a pizza and enjoyed it throughly.  MBMell had salmon and ate it all!  Once supper was completed DD really wanted to go out with AA, so Lola drove the rest home, and we worked on altering their Halloween costumes and B continued to work on her sewing project.

Lola got the costumes fitting a little better, and the kids headed to bed.  Shortly after the boys got back and we played yet another game of Monopoly Deal.  Not just 1 but 4 rounds, to see if it mattered who started.  There was no clear determination if it mattered, but we really enjoyed this impulse buy of DD's this trip.

We headed to bed, as Lola promised the kids she would get up in the morning as they were sad we were leaving.