2016 Summer Road Trip - Atlanta

Turner and me in an airplane cockpit at the Tellus museum

We spent four days in Atlanta this summer. We had a great time as always. Bubbe always plans a lot of fun things for us to do.

We went to the Tellus museum and saw dinosaurs, airplanes, gemstones, and panned for gold. The highlight was a planetarium exhibit. Instead of the normal stars and planets, there was a thrill ride. We looked up and it looked like we were on crazy roller coasters. Hazel and Dad loved it; I wound up closing my eyes during most of it.

Tellus wasn't the only fun thing we did in Atlanta. We also had dinner with my cousin Lizzie, who is getting bigger each time we see her, and my Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan. Lizzie is a very messy eater!

Hazel, Turner, and I helped Bubbe bake a delicious dirt cake, which turned out to be for my birthday party in Atlanta. Our favorite part was when Bubbe turned on her mixer too high and splattered the ingredients all over herself and her kitchen. We laughed and laughed. Even Bubbe had to admit it was pretty funny.

Waffle House

We went to see a great puppet show at the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts. It was called "The Little Pirate Mermaid"  The show was great - it had lots of fish and the characters were really funny. We all liked it a lot. Before the show, we were able to walk through a puppet museum, and afterwards, we even made our own fish puppets!

We ate at some fun restaurants while we were in Atlanta. We went to the Varsity, Provino's, and even Waffle House. It was Mom's first time at Waffle House. Papa would've enjoyed all of the food we ate - Varsity and Provino's were especially his favorites.

The weather was very warm while we were there so Bubbe put out a small pool, sprinkler, and 100 water balloons for us to play with in her yard. Even Lizzie came out to swim with us. Hazel grabbed a small slide and turned it into a water slide. Bubbe and Dad found a cute video from a few years ago when she did the same thing. Hazel is very creative.

Sitting on Papa's bench

As long as we were in Atlanta, Bubbe made sure we got our teeth cleaned. We all had very clean teeth, and behaved very well at the dentist office. Mom and Dad were very proud.

The days went by pretty fast in Atlanta, and we were all very sad when it was time to leave, but Bubbe had to get back to work, and we were off to our next stop - Panama City Beach to visit Aunt Jen, Uncle Ben, and Annabelle.

On the way there we stopped at the Chattahoochee Riverwalk for a picnic lunch. We had stopped there last year, but my stomach wasn't feeling very well last time, so we didn't really get to do much. This time, we watched people fly over the river on a zip line, raft down the rapids, and swim in the river with their kayaks and dogs. It was a good stop, and it was nice to have a relatively short drive day.

We arrived in Panama City while it was still afternoon.

2016 Summer Road Trip - Pennsylvania

Our next stop was a week in Pennsylvania with Grandma and Grandpa. We left Kentucky very early, and despite a long stop to get Mom's sore throat checked out, we made great time. We even got to Grandma and Grandpa's in time to have dinner with them! We ate outside, where it was nice and cool, and Aunt Lauren, Sadie and Uncle Daniel joined us for some great Rocco's food. After that we even had time to jump in a wading pool with Bruiser and then catch some fireflies.

The next day, we met up with our great-grandparents, Mom Mom and Pop at the Famous Hot Wiener. It was really nice seeing them for a nice lunch.

Our next big thing was Saturday, when we went to Pinchot Park and camped on Grandma and Grandpa's RV. It was a really great time. We hiked around, launched jump rockets in a nearby field, caught more fireflies, kayaked, played lots of cards, and played with our new friend Lana and Sadie. We also had the chance to go swimming on a lake beach and make banana boats and s'mores over a campfire. I had a big moment when I enthusiastically washed everyone's dishes one night.

On Sunday, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's to do laundry and meet up with Mom Mom and Pop and Uncle Ryan's dad for chicken and waffles at a really nice restaurant, the Altland House. Mom was excited to eat one of her old favorites, and to see Pop and Mom Mom again.

For Fourth of July, we went to a party at Aunt Lauren and Uncle Ryan's. We went to Uncle Ryan's cool media room and watched the entire Harry Potter movie. After listening to the story in the car, it was fun to see how they portrayed the characters and compare the differences between the book and the movie.

For dinner, Uncle Ryan made burgers, Aunt Lauren cooked corn on the cob, and Grandma brought watermelon and other yummy side dishes. After dinner, they had a birthday party for me and Sadie with cake, pie and presents! I got a metal detector which was super fun at our beach stop later in our trip. I also got some great books, games and a sling shot. Since it was raining we didn't watch any fireworks, but we did play with sparklers. Uncle Daniel lit a whole pack of sparklers at once, which was very cool and scary at the same time.

Tuesday, we had a fun breakfast with Aunt Lauren, Sadie and Mianna at the York Market. After breakfast and shopping, Mom and Hazel headed to see Aunt Chris and Uncle Larry. They had a nice visit; Mom was very glad to spend some time with them. That evening we went to Tropical Treat with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Lauren, Uncle Ryan, Sadie, Amy and Mianna, and Uncle Daniel. We ate tons of yummy food and ice cream and Turner got to feed a goat.

Our last day in Pennsylvania we visited Gettysburg. It was a blast. When we first arrived, a Park Ranger asked if we wanted to join the kids' army. We signed up and were told to meet outside at 11 a.m. That gave us enough time to go watch the movie and see the cyclorama. Both told the story of the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg. We all asked a lot of very good questions about why they were fighting, and tried to understand why people would fight wars. After the movies were over, we went outside to join the Army. Mom and Dad had to assure us that we wouldn't really be fighting in a real war.

There was an excellent park ranger who brought all of the kids up front, gave us a quick physical and inducted us into the army. He then explained what it would be like to be in the Army during the Civil War. He showed us the uniforms, the food and how to load a rifle. Then we put on our foraging hats, grabbed our rifles and started training. We practiced marching, learning how to turn, about face, and march in line. We practiced loading our rifles and firing, which took nine steps. Finally, we were ready to go to battle. We marched into position and the park ranger asked me to be the lookout scout. I went ahead of the group and called back that the enemy troops were approaching. After that we marched into position behind fence, and used our rifles the way that we had trained. We won the battle and came back to cheers from our adoring families. Finally, the park ranger called up each of us one by one to congratulate us and give us our discharge papers. It was loads of fun.

Turner and Hazel were pretty tired after all of that, so they headed back to the car. Dad and I did a quick run through the museum; I wish we could've spent more time in there - maybe next time. We also never made it to the actual battle field, so that will give us something else to do next time we visit.

That afternoon, we went swimming at Gigi and Uncle Darrell's pool. Aunt Lauren, Sadie and Grandma joined us, and it was a lot of fun. Hazel went down the slide about a million times, and eventually talked Turner into doing it a few times too. It was a blast!

We were sad to leave Pennsylvania, but we left very early the next morning for the very long drive to Atlanta. Listening to the second Harry Potter audiobook, we made very good time. We even had time to drive a bit along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We saw some beautiful scenery, stopped at an Alpaca farm, and had lunch at a Blue Ridge Music Center. We managed to get in to Atlanta in time to have dinner with Bubbe.

2016 Summer Road Trip - Kentucky

We had a great couple of days in Kentucky. We were all careful to wear blue (and especially not red) while were there.

The best part of the trip was Whispering Woods Riding Stable, where we all went horse back riding.  Turner and Hazel hopped on Huckleberry and King and were led by the awesome stable hands. Mom and Dad were surprised when they put me on Apache, showed me how to control the horse using the reins, and just let me go with no one holding the horse. But I did really great, and really liked it. Dad's horse was Papi and was a pretty good horse. Mom got a rambunctious horse; Dad was surprised to find out it was Mom's first time riding a horse. Once all of us were on our horses, we rode them on a trail. It was really fun.

After the horseback ride, we played on a fun playscape they had there and went back to the house for lunch. Later that day, we went to the old James Pepper Distillery that Dad's friend is renovating. We got a tour of the building, which is still being finished out, and grabbed a flight of ice cream while we were there. Dad got a growler of sour brown ale to take with him too.

We started our second day in Kentucky at the Kentucky Arboretum where we walked along the really pretty flowers, trees, and vegetables. Everything smelled very pretty and we found lots of vegetable gardens and spices. There were also some really, really old tree trunks we could climb on. Dad and I counted the rings on one of them and it was over 100 years old!

After the arboretum, we went on a tour of the Old Kentucky Chocolates factory. It was neat seeing how they mixed the chocolate. Mom got especially nervous when Turner and I got really close to one delicious looking chocolate mixer. They were making all kinds of delicious treats like chocolate covered cherries, and chocolate shaped pictures. After the tour, we got to try samples of chocolate covered potato chips and pulled cream. Then we each got to pick out a treat from the store. Dad and I got chocolate covered bananas, while Mom picked out some chocolate pecans. Hazel got chocolate mints and Turner got chocolate candies. We saw an awesome chocolate tooth that we thought Bubbe would love, but didn't think we could get it to Atlanta without it melting.


After a fun two days, we left Kentucky and drove to Pennsylvania through West Virginia. We were all very impressed with how pretty West Virginia was; Dad even liked driving on the road there.  We stopped in Morgantown for lunch at the Core Arboretum, and got into Pennsylvania in time for dinner.

2016 Summer Road Trip - On the Road

As much fun as we've been having this summer, it started to get pretty hot in Austin. So we decided to pack up the car and head out on a summer road trip.

Our first days' drive was through Dallas up to Arkansas. Mom and Dad had a special treat for the car - we listed to a Harry Potter audiobook. Dad was careful to stop after each chapter to ask us what happened and make sure we were able to follow it. Hazel was really into it right away. I took a while to warm up to it, but really started enjoying it in the later chapters. It was harder for Turner to follow the audiobooks, though he really likes the storylines.

Our first stop (except for fairly frequent bathroom breaks) was at Buc-ee's. Mom and Dad got some breakfast burritos while we picked out a few treats from the famous Wall of Candy. Turner and I each picked out chocolate covered pretzels while Hazel went with her old standby of saltwater taffy.

After another couple of hours, we stopped at the Perot Museum in Dallas for lunch and a quick run of the awesome science museum. My favorite part was racing a tyrannosaurus rex; the T-rex was on a screen next to a track and we raced to a finish line. The T-rex beat me every time.

After getting to run off some energy, we hopped back in the car and drove to Arkansas. The hotel we stayed at had an indoor pool, and mom brought pool toys for us to play with. We swam until we were all very tired, had a nice dinner, and went to bed excited about our next day.

We got up early the next morning and drove to Memphis. The Memphis JCC has an unbelievable outdoor water park that we got to swim in thanks to Mom's connections at the Austin JCC. Dad, Mom, and Hazel went down the giant water slide, and we all rode on the lazy river. Turner and I played on the various water playscapes. We had a nice lunch, showered and hit the road again.

Our next stop was dinner in Nashville at the intersection that has a White Castle and a Krystal. We picked up food from both and did a taste test of burgers, fries, and milk shakes. The decision was unanimous that Krystal is better, and Mom declared that we can skip this stop in the future and just go to a more convenient Krystal.

We arrived in Lexington Kentucky pretty late at night, staying in an absolutely wonderful apartment that Dad's friend owns. She was super nice to let us stay there. After unpacking the car, we took a well deserved nights' sleep.

Cub Scout Camp

Hazel had her annual well visit today. She is 46 inches and 46 pounds, both in the 25th percentile. She was happy not to have to get any shots. You can see my latest growth chart on the right side of the blog or here.

We had a super fun time at Cub Scout camp this week. Turner, Hazel, and Mom got to come along too. We got to do archery, b.b. shooting, slingshots, water slides, swimming, and all kinds of crafts. I even got to do forensics, put up a tent, and touch a python! It was a really fun week.

On the way home, I told mom I know what the "S word" is. Then Hazel told mom she knows what the "D word" is. Mom was pretty freaked out and asked where we learn these things. Hazel said, "Kids! Inappropriate kids!" Mom asked which kids, and Hazel said they say these words a lot on Charlie Brown. So Mom asked Hazel what the D word is, and Hazel spelled, "D-U-M-B." Then mom asked me what the S word is, and I spelled, "S-T-U-P-I-D."  Mom cracked up laughing and said she is glad we don't use words like that.

Turner graduated!

We've been having so many great adventures this spring, like camping, hiking, partying, I made it to the top of the rock wall in my rock climbing class, we've forgotten about our blog. We'll try to improve this summer.

Today, Turner graduated from preschool! He'll still go a little bit this summer, but we're proud of him and he's excited to start kindergarten this fall. He had fun at his graduation. He wore a fun hat, walked in a procession, sang "Down by the Bay," and ate cake and ice cream.

There were two things he didn't like though. He said Mom took too many pictures, and he didn't like the outfit he wore. He told Mom, "I look like an old man!"

Congratulations, Turner!

Turner is 5

Turner has finally turned five years old. He thought this would never come.

He went to the doctor today. He has really grown. He is up to the 50th percentile in height now (42.5 inches) and 50th percentile in weight (41 lbs). Guess all those veggies are paying off.

You can his growth chart here or on the right side of the blog.

A week full of excitement

This has been an exciting week. Some of the excitement has been good. Some has not been so great. 

Tuesday, Mom's friend picked us up from school. We were expecting Mom, but she was at the emergency room with Turner. He was outside trying to make a car out of his scooter and a chair when they were getting ready to come pick us up. He stood on the chair to put his shoes on, and fell backwards. When he fell, he knocked his noggin on the cement/stone wall around our patio. Blood was dripping from his head, and he really screamed. Mom was scared and called our doctor, who told her to take him to the ER. By the time they got there, Turner was calm. They took great care of him, and he was brave. He didn't even mind when they stapled his wound shut! At the end of his visit, they let him keep the squirter they used to clean out his wound, and gave him a popsicle. Turner told mom he liked it there.

The good exciting news this week was Hazel and I won our school science fair! Hazel's project involved putting dirty, dull pennies in lemon juice and salt. She took some out after a few minutes and left the rest in for eight hours, then took them out and rinsed them. Every few hours she recorded what they looked like. Some turned green and the ones that were in the whole time that were rinsed turned shiny.

My experiment measured how quickly temperature changed when we put a 1/2 cup of sand and 1/2 cup of water (they were contained in measuring cups) in hot water. I had a good attitude about doing the work. Dad showed me how to make graphs with the results, which I really liked.

When they announced our names this morning on the school news, we were really happy! Mom, Dad and Turner came to watch us get our medals from the school principal. We are all really proud of our double win! Turner asked Mom if he can do one next year so he can get a medal too. So next year, we're going to see if we can bring home three medals! Hopefully we won't give Turner a complex by setting the bar so high.

One other good exciting thing that happened this week was a very cool Cub Scout overnight that Dad and I did. We drove to Dallas and got to spend the night in the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

Our pack had rented out the entire museum, so right after dinner, we all had the museum to ourselves. First, we watched a really cool 3D movie about Sea Dinosaurs. We all kept reaching out in front of us trying to grab the things that came out of the screen! Then we watched a live science show. I was called up to be a volunteer and got to demonstrate how objects contract under heat. I held a rod with a metal ball over a butane torch and showed how the ball could fit inside a ring that it was bigger than just moments before. Dad was nervous seeing me so close to fire, but I did great. The show had lots of other neat things too, like freezing things in liquid nitrogen and then smashing them. Dad got mad when the woman running the show put her hand in the liquid nitrogen and then pulled it out quickly - he thought she was going to freeze her hand!

The room that Dad and I slept in

After the show, we had three whole hours to just explore the entire museum - all to ourselves! All of the exhibits that were usually full of people (10,000 visitors a day) were open to just us 130 scouts and parents. It was really cool.

My favorite things were controlling robots, riding an earthquake, racing a dinosaur, watching myself shoot a basketball in slow motion, challenging dad to a Predator vs Prey game, and looking at all of the dinosaurs. Finally, at 11:30pm, it was time to go to sleep. We got to sleep in the room with all of the dinosaurs. We were so tired from all that exploring that everyone went right to sleep.

In the morning, we had some snacks and headed back to Austin. It was a really exciting overnight.

Sufganiyot

Chanukah is coming up tomorrow night, so we thought we'd get in the spirit by making decorations and cooking some traditional Chanukah foods.

Turner and Dad made a chain about out of construction paper that was so long it stretched almost the entire length of the house.

Then we made Sufganiyot - which are basically jelly doughnuts. While they didn't come out looking exactly like the pictures I've seen, but they were delicious. Here are some pictures from today.

Sports!

Handstand Hazel

So you've heard all about my run club and rock climbing class. While I've been busy with that, Hazel has been taking gymnastics and Turner has been taking a class at the gym called Sports Sampler, which is a class about a different sport each week.

Hazel really loves gymnastics and is great at it. She does all kinds of things; she jumps on giant trampolines, does hand stands, walks on a balance beam, climbs, and swings around on ropes and bars. She practices cartwheels at home all the time. She started taking it in the summer after we returned from our road trip and recently signed up to take it again in the spring. Special thanks to Bubbe for helping pay for her classes as Hazel's birthday present.

Gymnastics day at Sports Sampler

Turner is so excited about Sports Sampler too. Every day he asks what day it is so he can figure out whether he has his class. At the end of each class he tells Mom he wishes he could take it every day.

So far he has done soccer, basketball, gymnastics, tee ball and a bunch of other things. He is the only kid besides the teacher's two daughters. One of the girls is named Hazel, which he thinks is really funny. His teacher uses lots of songs in the class and tons of imagination. They do lots of funny, imaginative things with scarves, scooters, hula hoops and other PE class-type items. 

Fantastic Fall Weekend

We just had a really great weekend to start the fall (yeah, fall starts a little late in Austin).

Friday morning I went to school early for my run club. Run club is an activity sponsored by our PE coach at my school on Friday mornings to encourage kids to run. They play fun music while we run laps and get lots of encouragement. Then at the end we get to record how far we've  gone each week. Each week I've been increasing the number of laps I've run by one. I did six last week, so my goal was seven this week. To help encourage me, Dad came with me and we ran together. We beat our goal and did eight laps! That's two miles! I wasn't too tired when we were done, by Dad looked a little sweaty. He was happy to be able to get a workout in before going to work. Plus, we both had a great time spending time together in the morning.

Friday night, we watched Kentucky's first basketball game of the year.  It was fun to watch again, and we got to stay up late. Kentucky won. Yay!

Saturday morning was a really special occasion. It was Hazel's consecration ceremony, which marks the formal beginning of her Jewish education (even though she was in kindergarten Sunday school last year). Here's the post about mine last year. We all went to cheer her on. They called her up, mentioned her Hebrew name, Chasya Bina (protected and wise), and gave her her own little Torah. We were very proud of her.

After the consecration ceremony, we went to Fiesta Texas to celebrate. We had gotten free tickets from Dad's company picnic there last month. We were excited to go on all the rides again. When we first got there, Mom, Hazel, and Turner went on the kids' swings. Since there were three of them, Mom sat with Turner, and Hazel sat with a bigger girl. She talked the girl's ear off on the ride.

Then Dad took all us kids on the Ferris wheel where we got a great view of the whole park. Then Mom took Turner and Hazel on some dizzy rides - the Wave Runner and the Hustler. I got to pick the next ride, so I picked some rides in the kids section - the Kiddee Koaster, ZoomJets, and Buckarooz. After that, we split up for a bit. Hazel and Dad went on some more grown-up rides, like the 200 foot tall Sky Screamer and the 35mph Road Runner Express. Dad liked that. Mom, me, and Turner stuck with more kids rides. It was a long day, and we were all pretty tired heading home.

Sunday my Cub Scout Den went on a hike. Dad was leading the hike for the den, and Mom, Hazel, and Turner came along. All of us had a lot of fun, splashing through water and mud, finding fossils and little stone, and climbing up big rocks.

I can't wait to see what we do next weekend!

Rock climbing and videographer

Hazel is practicing film-making. She made this video of me in my rock climbing class:

Six Flags!

We got to a do a pretty fun thing this weekend. Dad's company rented out the Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio for a whole day, so we drove down there to spend the day in the amusement park.

All of us were very excited. This was Turner's first trip to Six Flags, and it had been several years since Hazel and I had been. We were excited about all of the rides.

When we first got to the park, we saw HUGE roller coasters that were loud and went really fast and upside down. We weren't so sure about that, but Mom assured us that those weren't the rides we were going on.

The first small ride we encountered was the Tea Cups. Dad rode with Hazel Turner rode with Mom, and I decided to watch. Turner, Mom, and Hazel had a great time. Dad didn't feel so great afterwards. I guess he doesn't like being dizzy.

After that, we headed further into the park and went on a few more rides. We went on some swings (see picture above) and a school bus that went into the air. Dad took us kids on the ferris wheel, which Mom skipped because it went up pretty high. Them Mom took Hazel and Turner on another dizzy ride while Dad and I watched. They laughed the whole time. Mom said that was her favorite ride of the day, and she was surprised Hazel and Turner liked such a wild ride.

We did a few more kids rides before going to a lunch picnic. The food was pretty good but we were ready to get back to the rides.

After lunch, we went on the Bugs Bunny water log ride. Hazel was a little scared but in the end she decided to ride with us. She really didn't like the drop at the end. I wasn't crazy about it either. Turner thought it was pretty fun, and he loved getting wet. Mom screamed her head off during the drop.

After that we all wanted to go on the bumper cars, but Turner wasn't tall enough to do it. He was really mad. Dad took me and Turner on a bunch more kids rides, including airplanes and a kid-size roller coaster, while Mom and Hazel rode on the bumper cars. Mom let Hazel drive, which apparently she wasn't allowed to do. They stopped the whole ride to tell Mom to cut it out. Way to go Hazel!

We did another water ride in which all of us boys got really wet, while Hazel and Mom stayed relatively dry. Dad pretended to be annoyed that he was wet, and Hazel was annoyed that she stayed dry.

Hazel got pretty excited to realize that she was tall enough to go on some of the adult rides. Dad was super excited to take her on the SkyScreamer and the Roadrunner Express. (Clicking on the links will let you see videos of what it feels like to be on the rides). Hazel loved them, and even rode on the RoadRunner Express twice, once with Dad, then with Mom. Mom wasn't so crazy about the roller coaster. She said she's never trusting Hazel about rides again, and roller coasters are Dad's job from now on.

We finished the day at the park by riding on the train around the park. Turner was practically asleep at that point, and all of us were pretty tired. It had been a really fun day.

We drove home, but on the way we stopped at Buc-ee's and picked up some dinner and a few treats. Mom really likes that place.

Splitting Up For the Weekend

A couple weeks ago, our family split up for the long Labor Day weekend. Dad took Hazel to Atlanta while Turner and I stayed in Austin with Mom.

In Atlanta, we went to a baby naming ceremony for my cousin Lizzie, Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan's daughter. Dad didn't think we could all go to Atlanta for the weekend, so he just took Hazel to help represent us there.

Dad and Hazel had a good time. They got to ride on an airplane to Atlanta. Hazel did great on the plane, even after her unicorn got Coke spilled on it and the plane was stuck on the runway for almost an hour after landing. Hazel especially liked riding on the "plane train" that took them to get their luggage. Bubbe and Aunt Laurie greeted them at the airport and whisked them away to Bubbe's house.

Over the weekend, they had lots of fun at Bubbe's house. They went to lots of yummy restaurants, played games at Bubbe's house (Hazel taught Bubbe how to play Battleship), ran through sprinklers in Bubbe's yard, and watched lots of animals through the window of Bubbe's house. Hazel also tried teaching Bubbe to do cartwheels.

But the main event was the baby naming ceremony. Dad got to say a speech while Lizzie got her name. She was named after Papa and Grandmas Millie, Mary, and Frieda. After the ceremony, there was a party and Hazel met a friend and played with her a lot. Dad thought it was funny that Hazel was playing with the daughter of one of his old friends.

It was a pretty quick weekend, but Dad and Hazel weren't too sad to leave since Bubbe was coming to visit them in Austin later in the week.

Cones in a cave!

Meanwhile, back in Austin, we stayed pretty busy and had a lot of fun with Mom. After we took Dad and Hazel to the airport Friday, we came home and had dinner, then Turner and Mom had a sleepover in her room. I opted out of the party, thinking I'd get a better night's sleep in my own room.

Saturday we headed to the gym. Mom worked out while Turner and I played together in the child center. After a nice lunch together in the cafe, we headed outside for a swim. Later in the day, we met up with Eli's family for a concert and gelato at Central Market. Eli was so sad when he realized Hazel wasn't with us! Even without Hazel, we managed to have a good time. Turner enjoyed dancing to the band and we had a good time playing on the playground. It was a pretty late night, and Turner camped out with Mom again.

Turner really knows how to party

Sunday was another very fun day. We headed to Boerne, Texas, to the Cave Without a Name. Mom and I really liked it. I thought the best things we saw were little ponds in the cave. The tour guide asked us to guess how deep one of the ponds was. It looked very shallow, and we were surprised when she said it was four feet deep. She said it created an illusion because the water is so clear.

After the tour, we drove home, where we hung out for a few hours, then ate dinner at Phil's Ice House and played on their playground. It was such a fun day, we didn't even mind when Mom told us we were skipping Amy's Ice Cream, which is right next to Phil's, because it was another late night and she knew she had another sleepover with Turner coming her way.

Monday we took it easy at home until it was time to go to the airport to get Dad and Hazel. We were very excited to see them after the long weekend, and it was nice hearing about their trip when they got back.

S-E-C! S-E-C!

This weekend, Dad took all of us to a really fun picnic. It was a picnic for all of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) alumni groups in Austin.

While technically none of us are alums of an SEC school, Dad is on the board of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association in Austin, thanks to our fandom passed on through Papa. Plus, Bubbe is a University of Florida alumna, and Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan are University of Georgia alumni. So we have a lot of SEC family connections.

Hi Bubbe!

We got to the picnic nice and early, which was great since it wasn't quite as hot. The Kentucky tent was the first one set up, and they had delicious breakfast tacos. We also had the bounce house all to ourselves. Before too long, the other schools starting showing up as well, which meant lots of other kids to play with. We saw our friend Allison, who we watch basketball games with, and Turner made a new friend, Reid.

We also ate lots of food from the other tents. At first, Turner was afraid to ask for anything, because he thought he would then "be on the other team." But in the end, we remained Kentucky fans even though we got cookies from Alabama, donuts from Tennessee, and even got some cheese popcorn. But the best thing was Kona Ice, a snow-cone place, which is owned by a Kentucky alumnus. They were giving out free snow-cones!

Besides eating, we played a few games while we were there. Dad taught us how to play cornhole. We also played a game with some of our friends where dad would yell out a school name, and we had to run around to find their tents. It was pretty fun.

After about 3 hours, it started to get a lot more hot and crowded, so we decided to head home. But we all agreed that it was really fun and we can't wait to go back again next year.

Welcome to the new school year!

Swimming at Deep Eddy on our last day of summer break

Since our road trip, we had a fun-filled summer at home. We went to lots of birthday parties, Mom took us to the Austin Zoo (where we saw lots of animals, watched a guy feed an alligator, and rode a train), swam a LOT, had many squirt gun battles, and ate lots of fun summer treats (frozen bananas, anyone?).

Also, Hazel found a new love -- gymnastics. She went to a three-week camp in August, and signed up to continue classes in the fall. She and Turner say what they both want for Hanukkah are gymnastics classes.

Handstand Hazel

It's hard to believe it, but summer has come to an end and we already finished our first week of the new school year.

I started second grade. We all got a bit of a surprise when we found out the my teacher changed a few days before classes started. Fortunately, the new teacher seems to be great. She came from a nearby school, where she had tons of experience, lives in the neighborhood, and has a couple of kids at our school. So far, I'm really enjoying second grade.

Hazel started first grade and has the same teacher I had last year. She has been having a good time at school as well, though she did cry a little bit on the first couple of days because she missed Mom so much.

Turner's first day of his last year of preschool

Speaking of Mom, while she misses having us around all day, she has been enjoying getting more quality time with just Turner. And he seems to be enjoying having a bit more time to himself.

Meanwhile, Turner is now in his very last year at Nicholson. He moved up to the Woodpeckers class and is really enjoying his new teacher and all of the new things in his classroom.

Mitch's first day of second grade, Hazel's first day of first grade

We are excited about the start of the new school year!

Eight is Great!

By the time my 8^th birthday rolled around, I was pretty good at celebrating, thanks to all the fun parties my relatives threw for me on our road trip. Between that and my request not to have a huge party, Mom and Dad had some thinking to do when it came to figuring out a way to keep it small while still making the day special.

We kicked my birthday off by opening a present the night before. Then we started my big day with a surprise – a huge Wild Kratts sign that said, “Have a Wild Birthday Mitch!” -- and more presents. Next, we headed to story time at the park. The librarian from our school read some books and we played with some friends. Then our friends Eli, Alex, Tessa and their mom came over for lunch, cupcakes and a water blaster battle. We chilled out in the afternoon, watching some of my favorite show, Wild Kratts.

Once dad came home, we headed to Rudy’s for dinner. Then we went home for apple crisp, ice cream, and more presents.

Saturday was my last celebration. We invited three of my friends over: Brody, Jacob and Hannah. We played with sidewalk chalk, water blasters, three big empty washing machine boxes we scored from Lowes, and our bounce house. Brody and I drew food chains – mine was a list with arrows pointing to the creatures that eat each other, and Brody’s was a picture of creatures eating the other creatures that prey on each other in real life.

We ate breakfast tacos and watermelon, then decorated big pieces of dirt cake with lots and lots of sprinkles.

It was a great way to celebrate. It was just enough fun, without being overwhelming.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Friday night Dad and I went with to the Round Rock Express baseball game.

It was a Cub Scout event, so we saw lots of my friends there as well. Dad and I had a good time watching the game. I was right on the left field railing when a ball came sailing toward me. Dad yelled "Watch out Mitch!" and then everyone else in our section yelled "Watch out Mitch!" Fortunately, it missed me by a few inches.

There was a teacher sitting in front of me, and she kept telling Dad how interesting I was. She kept asking me questions about roads, math, and other things that I like. It was a nice way to keep the game interesting.

After the game was over we watched a really great fireworks show. They had some different kinds of fireworks that even Dad had never seen before.

Then came the really interesting part. Once the fireworks were over, everyone started to leave. But the Cub Scouts got to stay! That's because we got to do an overnight campout inside the stadium!

First we brought down sleeping bags, blankets, and our stuff onto the field, and set up our camping areas. I ran all around the outfield, back and forth between the outfield walls. It was really fun to have such a large area to run around.

Then we all had pizza to eat. After eating a giant pretzel during the game, I wasn't even that hungry.

After pizza, we walked around the Fun Zone, looking at all the games, rides, and other activities. I told Dad I was too tired to do anything (after all, it was already after 11pm), but when I walked by the pool and saw all the kids swimming, I couldn't resist! I took off my shoes and shirt and jumped in. I swam around for about an hour, playing in the fountains, running between the pool and the hot tub, and floating on my back. Finally, after midnight, I was too tired to swim and we headed back down to the field.

They were showing a movie on the giant screen above the field - "The Sandlot" - which is about kids playing baseball. Dad and I watched the movie on the screen until we both fell asleep around 1am. 

We woke up around 6am and all got donuts and juice. Then we packed up and headed home. It was great fun, and a really neat baseball experience.