Ryan's Folk Song Fun

Today the 1st grade class performed a variety of folk songs for family and friends. The songs were great! As usual, the real entertainment was just watching the kids on stage. Ryan tried extra hard to catch attention this year, making faces, crossing his eyes, and moving in erratic ways. There were a few times he WASNT trying to be a goofball though, and a few other times he was being goofy ... without even trying ;)

Lots of non-singing took place, including a height-check

And a verification of that height-check

And some yawning

And a little bit of waiting and standing around

He said

Luke: I drew a fire picture and your face.

Me: Great!

Luke: That's not great. You got burned up and died

Dallas T&T Cup - Day 2 - Competition Day

Ready for competition!

Heading out from the hotel to the Allen Center

Awaiting Her Turn On Trampoline

Brooke Nailed her Rountine

And Placed 1st out of 12 Competitors!

1st Place Finish

Double-Mini was a little bit more challenging. She had a fault on pass 1 and didnt stick her landing on pass 2.

6th Place Finish - which was amazing! But not for a girl who expects gold ;)

Ice Cream Fixed It

We thought we were heading home. Boy were we wrong! After dinner and waiting around at the airport, we found out our flight was cancelled. This was partially my fault for not picking up some cues earlier that indicated this might be the case. It was quite the drama. The airport was chaos and there were no flights out. Luckily Jeff got us on a flight tomorrow afternoon. Brooke would have to miss school, and I would have to miss work. MY FIRST DAY of a new class. However, it was not the crisis it appeared. Friends picked us up at the airport and we went back to the hotel for a late night swim. We went out to breakfast the next day and also for another swim. We definitely made the best of a pretty crazy situation.

Dalls T&T Cup Day 1

Brooke and I headed to Allen, TX (close to Dallas!) for her first Trampoline meet!

 

The plane ride was great. Partly because it was short, and partly because it was just the two of us. She kept herself busy playing games on the tablet and before we knew it, we were in Texas.

After we picked up the rental car we knew we had a little time until we could check into the hotel. So we decided to explore Dallas a bit on our way. We stopped in a neighborhood called Deep Ellum, known for food and street art. We had a great lunch and found some treats too.

This was definitely my favorite street art

Even though we had a big lunch, we couldnt NOT stop for donuts.
The girl at the shop torched the marshmallow for us while we waited. I think we both drooled a little.

We finally made it to the hotel and found that the door said "howdy y'all"!

We knew we just had to take a picture for Ryan, who currently is a big fan of all things Country.

After check-in we went to watch the meet for a while. It was great to get some perspective before going for the competition tomorrow. We also met friends for dinner. Brooke had a blast playing with her current team friends, and also getting to know some of the girls from the rest of the team as well.

Luke Class Work

Quarterly Project

Today Ryan had to submit his quarterly project. This one was science-themed. He had to determine and test a hypothesis. He looked at colored water and the impact adding bleach had to that colored water. He guessed lighter colors would disappear faster ... and he was correct ;)

Flu!

Luke is on day 5 of the flu. Definitely not ready to go back to school yet, he's spending his morning cuddled in his BB8 sleeping bag and watching a Barbie movie.

Internal Trampoline Meet

Brooke had her first trampoline competition - an internal meet between IK members. She competed, with the routine she's currently using for competition, on both the trampoline and double mini. This was a great opportunity for her to start feeling out the competitive system and gain understanding how meets will work this season. She was both excited and extremely nervous. Despite that, she really handled her events like a pro. I think she will come out of this season a pretty experienced competitor!

The only hiccup was a snafu with the leotards, so the 1st year girls were without the IK gear. They'll have them for Dallas next weekend though ;)

Luke Class Work: Return from Break

The Trip Home

The journey home deserves its own post, because it was a total nightmare.

First, the airline screwed up our seats, AGAIN. Each child was placed all over the airline. It was a total mess, but there was one perk to the whole fiasco. We were sent down to the woman at desk 1 for assistance. She said she would help us, and actually did not. However, while we were waiting in line we had a celebrity sighting ;)

Jeff's amazing eye spotted Nick Lachey in front of us
at the airport. It was one of MY trip highlights.

We were sent to the gate to figure out the seat fiasco. When we got to the gate, they were not informed of our issue at all. They also told us to go on the airplane and try to fight for seats, on our own. Luckily Jeff lost his cool (which he rarely does) and we got a little more support. The guy at the desk radioed the airplane to let them know a family was coming that had 3 kids that were displaced. When we arrived at the plane, we needed to stand outside until the entire plane was loaded, so that they could ask if anyone would move. The one guy helping us, both to probably humor us and calm us down, offered to take a picture of us waiting in front of the plane.

Things got worse from there. Nobody wanted to move. They suggested we maybe get on a later flight so we can all sit together. WHAT? We are all just standing there, now inside at the front of the plane, and everyone is staring at us. Finally a member of the flight crew notices a whole row is empty (how was this not noticed before) and tells us its great news because that empty row is just behind the two seats we were assigned together (out of all 5). We head back to the seats, thrilled and exhausted, to find the three empty but the row in front DOES NOT have two empty seats. Because 2 of the people from the empty row were sitting in the wrong row, of course. Luckily two women (a mother and daughter I think) offer to move on the other side of the aisle and we have 5 seats across.

I believe this was the best choice they've ever made in their lives. Why? Because 1/2 way through the flight Ryan projectile-vomited all over the place. He narrowly missed Brooke (thanks to her speedy agility) but managed to cover his entire seat and body. The flight attendants we were so angry with just shortly before swooped in to save the day. They covered Ryan with a blanket so I could go change him in the bathroom (which was quite the feat) and cleaned and covered his entire seat with blankets. The rest of the trip kept us on edge, as Ryan sat with a garbage bag on his lap ready for the next attack. He actually made it the rest of the flight, but puked again after we had landed. We were so desperate to get off, and of course we had to stand and wait for 30 minutes in order to pull up to our gate. We then had to wait to get off last - because our luggage was all over the plane and because we needed Ryan's sandals (because his were in a plastic bag covered in puke) from Jeff's bag which was several rows back.

Despite all this, everyone was in decent spirits when we got off the plane. It was a miracle we didnt have 5 tantrums right there clearing customs. We cleared without issue, and fairly fast.

Luke took a ride through customs

He Said

Mom: Luke, put on your fleece
Luke: Fleece Navidad!

Last Golf Cart Ride

And here we go. The bags are packed, the room has been cleared, and we are on the golf cart headed back to the Lobby.

Last morning

Hit up the beach for a little boomerang and shell collecting, then took a quick dip in the pool.

Luke just cannot say no to rolling around in sand

One last family photo on the beautiful beach!

Goodbye Beach!

The boys took one last dip in the pool before it was time to
go. Hope they got it out of their systems. It will be a long time
till we are swimming in Chicago ;)

He Said

Luke: Never kiss a baby on the mouth because then you will get sick.

Sunset

Another photographer capturing the amazing sunsets

Main Pool

They may have kicked us out of the skypool, but we were not done with our day. We went down to the main pool, expecting no seats because of the crowd and time of day. However, Jeff snagged a few, that eventually turned into more. Turned out to be a fantastic day.

Skypool

Didn't do skypool a whole lot this week. We went on the first day and again on our last (full) day. They're closing at 2:00 for a wedding, so our time was short.


Brooke finished her 4th and 5th book, the boys were up to the usual tricks and we found a nice guy to take a quick family photo.

She finished Charlotte's Web, and then another one after that!

The boys with their last swim in Skypool

Goodbye Skypool!

Beach Day

Brooke beat Dad several times at Connect4

Traveled by bus to the Rose hotel that had beach access. Spent some time in the waves, some time reading and playing games, and took a few dips in the pool.

The beach and ocean at the Rose are just so breathtaking, its hard not to take a billion photos.