Austin - Day 4 - Last lunch and heading home

Aug 27,

After checking out of the hotel we grabbed lunch at one of the restaurants Lionel carefully selected. The lunch was pretty good, and afterward we just drove around for a little bit before we headed back to the airport. We drove around downtown and went to see the University of Texas - which actually has a pretty old and uninteresting looking campus. After that we went to the airport, returned the rental car, and took the shuttle to the strangely-far-away terminal from where our flight [very luckily] left and brought us home on time.

Austin - Day 4 - Last day

Aug 27,

Today we get to enjoy Austin for a few more hours, pack our bags, and get back home ... hopefully anyway. The weather is rainy but not bad, an our evening flight is currently on time, but if there are delays or the flight gets canceled last minute we are going to be stuck for another day. Let's just hope that is not the case.

Austin - Day 3 - 19th Anniversary

Aug 26,

Before we are done with the day, it is probably worth mentioning that today is my 19th anniversary in Cincinnati. Diecinueve. Nineteen. Dix-neuf. Aka a really long time. 

Austin - Day 3 - Movies and food

Aug 26,

Since today was definitely a more rainy day, we settled for indoor activities. After our run and taking showers we went out for lunch, watched not one but two movies, and went out for dinner. That is clearly not something we regularly get to do and, in fact, we don't think we had ever done two movies in one single day. Doing this all the time would probably get boring, but it was a good change of pace for one day. It was nice not to have to be somewhere, or do something back to back, at a predefined and not negotiable time. Dinner was great too. We loved the food and the service. In fact, we both agree that we have had great and friendly service at every single restaurant. 

Austin - Day 3 - Morning run

Aug 26,

Per the half-marathon training schedule, today we were supposed to run 8 miles. We obviously missed the group run since we are away, but got our run in at the hotel gym. Lionel wasn't feeling it, and was bored running on the treadmill (like most people do), but I actually have a pretty high tolerance for running on the treadmill, just listening to music and my own thoughts. So I had a good run. And I actually kept a pretty good pace, faster than my regular runs. I also did a lot of thinking, especially about work and the future, which come to think of it probably helped my run because all my thoughts were about how to keep moving forward. 

Austin - Day 2 - Driving around

Aug 25,

Today we got lucky and didn't get any rain most of the day. That was a good thing given that we spent the day driving around, checking out the town. It is no secret that Lionel loves looking at houses, so it was fun looking at different neighborhoods and asking ourselves "Would we ever like to live here?". We saw a neighborhood that I particularly liked, where all the houses had the terracotta roofs I absolutely love. That was my happy place for sure.

After driving around we went back to the hotel to rest, change, and go back out for dinner. We went to a sushi placed called Uchi, which was different from the previous night but also very good. 

To end the day we also Facetimed with the girls, and exchanged loving texts with Sofia who is having a good time with grandpa and grandpa but also misses us very much when we are away.

Austin - Day 1 - Before the rain

Aug 24,

Today we flew to Austin for our weekend getaway. Of course we planned this trip months ago, because we knew a hurricane would happen nearby, which is kind of bad luck. But we knew we wouldn't be in danger, and the only downside would be rainy weather, so we decided to go ahead with it. Even though it was a short work week I had been working crazy hours, and was kind of sleep deprived, so I completely fell asleep on the flight. I probably didn't move one bit, which is how my left forearm ended up with the designs of the bracelet I was wearing on the right.

When we got to Austin the weather was fine. It wasn't raining just yet. We got the rental car, drove to the hotel, and rested for a few minutes before heading out for dinner. We went to a place called Lenoir, which had a cute outside patio that I am sure serves them well when there is good weather - especially given how tiny it is inside. Tiny or not though, it was a good meal and a good start to our trip. 

Kona Ice

We definitely have been going to Kona ice for a while. 

Old work photo

Aug 24,

One of my co-workers sent me this photo this week. It is from a work event 6 years ago. I still remember it well. I just hadn't thought about it in a really long time. The funny thing is that we are both in the picture, and we now work closely together, but back then we barely knew that each other existed.

Memories

Aug 24,

I love it when the Facebook memories come up, especially those with my girls since kids change so much throughout the years. And I can't help but notice how genuinely happy I look whenever I am holding them or giving them a hug.

Parent night

Aug 23,

Tonight was parent night at Bella's classroom and I got to meet her new teacher. After work I picked up Sofia and the two of us went to parent night while Lionel picked Bella up and took her to her soccer practice.  

As soon as Sofia and I walked into the school she said to me  - in a tone that a really big kid would use - that it was really weird being back there and that the school felt "so small". To that I answered: "It hasn't been that long. You just left this school like 3 months ago". But I guess to her it has been long enough. 

The teacher went over some general things like the overall classroom schedule and rules, some field trips she was hoping to take the kids on, and answered any questions we had. There were several other parents there, but I was surprised that the room wasn't full given that both the teacher and the assistant teachers are new. After that we were free to roam around and check out some of the work our kids had done during the first week of school. We saw the goals they set for themselves (for Bella it was to be nice to others), a self portrait they made, and a drawing of them doing something they like. For Bella, her drawing was of her watching the iPad in her room. Sofia and I laughed at this, because her drawing looked more like her playing a dead fly. The teacher also encouraged us to write them a note on one of their notebooks, so Sofia and I did just that. We wrote that we wished she had a great 3rd grade, and that we love her very much.

Solar eclipse

Aug 21,

After much anticipation by many people - some of whom even traveled south to see it - today was the solar eclipse. I was looking forward to it as well, but definitely didn't spend a lot of time making any sort of special plans. With work being non-stop, and getting ready to the new school routine, life has simply been too busy for that. Luckily Gabi had reminded me where we could go online and buy reputable eclipse sunglasses, so at least I did that much and they got here on time. The girls had a regular school day, and they ended up getting eclipse glasses there, so from the ones I bought I gave one to Lionel, kept one for me, and gave the rest to my coworkers. I was a bit petrified to hurt our eyes, so we reminded the girls a million times to only look for a few seconds and follow the instructions their teachers gave them.

I was at work, and in back to back meetings, but I did block a few minutes on my calendar to go outside and look at the eclipse. I only looked for a few seconds, but that was enough. I didn't ask anybody to take my picture looking at the eclipse as apparently most people did. Lionel and the girls saw it as well, although Sofia reported that when it was all said and done, she was actually underwhelmed by it. I guess all the anticipation made her have really high expectations.

Lego Master Builders

Aug 20,

My girls are master Lego builders. They create some pretty neat houses with plenty of details that would never even occur to me. They have cool showers, kitchens with food and everything, living rooms with televisions, pools, vegetable gardens, a piano room, and so much more.

Bowling!

Aug 20,

Today's fun family activity, brought to us by Sofia's planning, was bowling. We went out for lunch, went bowling, and then went to yagoot. Lionel didn't want any today, because he wanted to go get his new phone instead. But we shared a couple of bites with him anyway.

Eye Doctor

Aug 19,

Earlier this week Bella said to me that sometimes she can't read well the letters in chapter books, so of course I got worried and made an appointment to get her eyes checked. Luckily the doctor said she is Ok, her eyes are healthy for her age, and there is absolutely no need for glasses. That was good news. I am glad we checked and now we know - and so does she - that she has absolutely no excuse to try to stay away from chapter books. 

16th Anniversary

Aug 18,

Today was our 16th wedding anniversary and we celebrated it by going to the tennis tournament. We didn't need anything fancy. All we needed was to spend time together.

First day of school!

Aug 16,

And off they go! First day of school. Bella did not have to get up at the crack of dawn like Sofia, but she choose to do it so they could take their picture together like every single year.