School Starts and Trip to NYC

I can't believe these kids started school and are in 3rd and 1st Grade. I get those facebook flashbascks from when they were babies and think wow, time is flying! I can't remember them being so little!

Evan's first day of school

Caitlin's first day of school

Picture of all the kids at the bus stop

The same week they started school, my mom and I flew to NYC to spend a long weekend. Again, best husband in the world for taking on the challenge of the 3 kids while I got to go have fun!

We met up with one of my high school friends Lauren for dinner! She gave us lots of good  NYC advice and hooked us up with a backstage tour of School of Rock!

Spent the morning at the MET. Love that museum

Mom and her Monets

Then, we took the long ride up to the Cloisters, another MET museum

Beautiful gardens/cloisters

They have these famous tapestries there if you recognize them

That night we went to our first broadway show, School of Rock! It was great and afterwards, a friend of Lauren's gave us a backstage tour. So interesting!

The next day we went to the Guggenheim.

And that night we went to see Book of Mormom... hilarious!

Sunday we had to fly back to Austin but first we took in a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. I love these huge Gothic churches like in Europe. So beautiful for a mass.

It was a great trip to just enjoy some time with my mom! Maybe we will make it an annual girls trip and take my sister with us next time when she isn't pregnant!

August birthday trip and getting ready for School

This year, we took a trip to Galveston to celebrate the August birthdays.  We took the whole family (Hammels and Stacers) and rented a big house on the beach. We spent two days enjoying the sun and sand and family. It was a great way to wind up the summer!

The kids loved all of the time on the beach, and I loved finally being able to relax a little while they played. I didn't have to chase a toddler 24/7. The older kids had a great time on the boogie boards. It was fun to slow down and just be.

The last night, we went out to a birthday dinner in Galveston to celebrate mostly my brother who turned 40 later in the month!!

And then it was time to go after one last walk on the beach.

When we got back from the beach, it was time to get ready for school to start!

Caitlin got a new cute haircut.

We did one last playdate at the park with our friends.

We met our teachers at Welcome Walk. Evan got Ms. Moeller for Third Grade.

Caitlin got Ms. Johnson for First Grade.

And we went bowling one last time with friends. Goodbye summer!

August and Evan's 8th Birthday

August was a BUSY month! Here are some of the highlights:

Gymnastics! Ryan started taking gymnastics with Caitlin in their preschool class and in August, they each performed a little showcase. 

Both of the older kids saved up enough money to open their very own savings account!

Caitlin did a week of music camp again, complete with a musical performance on the last night.

Lots of outings with friends. We spent an annual play date at Mt. Playmore with some old school friends.

And we went roller skating with some other friends - kids really started to pick it up once they both tried roller blades!

And Evan turned 8 years old. EIGHT!!  I can't believe he is eight already.  For his birthday, he decided to have a video game party. 

He invited some friends and this game truck showed up where all of the boys get to go in the nice air conditioned truck and play video games. Pretty sweet!

We of course celebrated his actual birthday with special birthday pancakes.

And then I took the older two kids to Six Flags in San Antonio for the day!

We had a lot of fun riding all the rides. Evan loved the water rides and Caitlin liked the roller coasters!

And one last birthday cake and family dinner. Lucky boy!

Evan - we love you so much. It's hard to be the oldest sometimes, but you handle it well. You are such a sweet boy. Always nice to everyone. There's a reason that babies and little kids just love you and are drawn to you! You are really maturing and figuring out things on your own. You are making such great strides in soccer and swimming. We love to watch you compete, and I especially love how you are the first one to cheer on your teammates when they perform well. I wish I had your selflessness! We are so proud of you and love you so much. Happy 8th Birthday

More July 2016

The rest of July was kind of a whirlwind.  After 16 years at Motorola/Freescale/NXP, our company decided to go in a different direction so our division was pretty much cut. It was kind of a surprise and was definitely a sad time. I'd really enjoyed working with the same basic group of people for those 16 years and would miss all of them the most. It was a tough decision of what to do... stay home, go back to work full-time... I was kind of torn. 

Fortunately, having worked with so many great people over the years, I had a lot of contacts. A few of my friends at the Samsung Austin Research Center (SARC) encouraged me to look there as they have quite a few contractors. After talking with some people and interviewing, I found a contracting job there that would continue to allow me to work about 32 hours a week and be flexible! It was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. I also kind of switched jobs and went from a design oriented job to a performance validation job. I started just after Labor Day and have really enjoyed it so far.

Now, back to other news from July!

Evan did a soccer camp with his best buds.

I went on our annual ladies beach trip to Galveston!

We took the kids on a Duck Tour of Austin! Actually fun and interesting, even for me who has lived here for 16 years!

And then Mel and I flew to Chicago to surprise Nikki for her 40th Birthday! We had a wonderful weekend. Andrew really outdid himself with setting up all sorts of fun things for us.

We got pedicures and took the train downtown.

We went on an Architectural Boat tour of the city. Awesome!

We ate dinner at a swanky restaurant called RPM.

And we checked out a bar overlooking the river.

It was so great to relax and catch up. Bryce was also a great husband for watching the kids TWO weekends in a row so I could go enjoy myself. How lucky am I?? And that was the end of July!