Dude Perfect

At the start of the week, I finally got the kids outside for their "first day of school" pictures.  I had them write what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Caroline had a hard time deciding, but settled on 'mom.'  She typically states that she wants three kids as well.  The boys chose different career paths.  Josiah stayed firm in his decision to be an artist.  Henry went with U.S. Marshal.  He has always leaned toward the military/law enforcement path, so this was right up his alley.  I think it was influenced even more since we have been watching Turner & Hooch on Disney+.  Turner's a U.S. Marshal.  Todd was a little disappointed that no one wrote IR Director.  It is a solid career path.  

Todd came home this week with an early birthday cake from his boss.  She made him a three layer cheesecake - peanut butter, Nutella, and cookie butter layers.  It was an incredibly rich, smooth, creamy cheesecake.  Caroline ate a slice and declared, "She's the best baker ever.  She's like Costco."  The gold standard of baked goods.  It was good that Todd got one cake, because we have yet to make him a cake at home.  Instead, on his birthday, we set out for San Antonio.  After we checked into the hotel, we headed down to the Riverwalk.  We walked a bit and ate a late lunch.  After eating, Josiah and Todd walked to the Lego Store where he had his heart set on buying another three-pack of Lego figurines.  Last time we were at the store (pre-covid) they had huge bins where you could pick your head, body, legs, hair, accessories, etc.  This time, they had pictures and you could point to what you wanted while they got it for you.  While they shopped, I headed to the playground with Henry and Caroline.  These two were having fun.  I was starting to take a video of Henry doing the playground obstacle course, when I look from my camera to him and see him literally walking on the piping 12 feet above the ground.  Henry!  Do you want to go to the show tonight or the ER?!!  Please hold onto something.  

Caroline tried her hand at the ropes course, but got a little fearful towards the end.  She figured it out.  Todd and Josiah joined us after a while and we tried to recreate the pictures that we took in March of 2020.  Back then, we were in San Antonio for Todd's conference.  It was the very start of covid and the city had three cases of it.  Three.  (I remember because I hoped we didn't run into those three on the Riverwalk.)  Within a few weeks the country was locking down.  

2020

That evening, we went to see Dude Perfect at the AT&T Center.  Dude Perfect is a group of five Christian guys who started out doing trick shot videos on YouTube (15 years ago).  They have grown and amassed millions of followers, three of whom are our young ones.  When we bought the tickets, we tried really hard to make sure they were good seats.  If we were going to do it, let's at least enjoy it!  We were on the front row right above the floor line.  We had their track in front of us.  We could see it all.  They did their usual trick shots and competitions.  They had their Cool, Not Cool segment where the kids got to vote on whether each item was cool or not.  They had a good time.  Todd snuck out during the second half to get in the souvenir line.  They had ONE table inside with merchandise.  One.  Caroline chose a shirt, Henry a hat, and Josiah picked out their book because, as he said, it was the gift that kept on giving.  The best part of the evening, though, was the testimony that Tyler gave at the end.  They meet a lot of kids through the Make a Wish program and he told about a child he spoke with last year named Phoenix.  He shared about the child, but then went into a testimony time.  He said it was great that they were able to entertain and have fun and do all these great things for a living.  But it could all go away tomorrow and it means nothing compared to their relationship with Jesus.  It was an awesome testimony and the energy in the crowd cheering him on was even better.  That was also Todd's birthday.  The kids thought he was so lucky to be able to see Dude Perfect on his birthday.  Best gift ever.  

Happy Birthday

Our second day in San Antonio, we took advantage of the free hotel breakfast at 6:30 a.m.  We hung out at the hotel until our favorite spot, Schilo's, opened.  Then it was time for second breakfast.  Josiah and Caroline ordered hot chocolate and it came overflowing with whipped cream and a cherry.  (Henry made sure to order one the next day.)  All three kids ordered the giant pancake platters.  We walked out of there half comatose.  The best part of being in San Antonio is that we at least walk a lot.  We headed to the DoSeum on Day 2.  We walked all through the museum, playing with all their exhibits.  They have a great outdoor playground and a music room.  Josiah bore holes in wood.  Henry tried his hand at a digger truck.  However, it was the spy area that, again, maintained all their attention.  Shockingly, they still had Josiah's progress in their system from 2020.  (Which is why his face on the screen is without braces.)  Henry and Caroline got much more into it this time.  They created their own characters and actually completed all 20 assignments to make it to the Hall of Fame for spies.  They did learn how to work the system, though.  While they made attempts to figure out all the puzzles and questions, if they did not know the answer they learned they could guess.  Many of the answers were numbers.  There was no penalty for wrong answers, so if Caroline couldn't figure it out, she'd start at '1' and guess each number til the screen said Correct!  Todd stood under the "Hall of Fame" screen for a good 20 minutes waiting to get a picture of each of our kids.  There were a lot of kids to go through.  

For dinner that night, we thought we'd try a homemade pizza place.  We took the Riverwalk, but overshot our destination and had to figure out where it was at street-level.  By the time we found it we were quite hot and a bit more tired than expected.  And, we discovered, there was no seating (it was a walk-up joint).  We ordered our pizza and let the kids eat some gelato while it cooked.  Then we walked back to the hotel to eat.  The street we took was only 1-2 blocks from the main street we had been on, but it was a world of difference in terms of the number of homeless hanging out.  Most of the homeless were just sitting around.  However, there was one or two that were yelling at nothing in particular.  When we got back to the hotel, Henry was crying over them.  He said he didn't want any bad in the world.  He doesn't want there to be any homeless people.  He has always been very tender-hearted towards the homeless. He had a tough night.  We prayed for them a lot that night.  But we told him that we also support several homeless shelters.  Todd and I cooked breakfast once a month at a homeless shelter in Virginia.  We loved it, and thought we'd bring the kids there to help some day.  Yet, the homeless men there told us never to give cash to guys on the street, so we just don't do that.  We offer support in different ways.   

Day three, we made it down to first-breakfast in the lobby.  Second breakfast was at Shilo's again where Todd got his birthday gifts - a t-shirt and a case of root beer.  He asked if I thought it would be too heavy to carry back to the hotel.  Of course I said, no.  It was heavy.  He carried it for most of the way, but I was able to hold it for a few blocks.  24 bottles of root beer have some weight to them.  We packed up and headed home.

When we made it home, Caroline was told to shower - pronto.  When we told her to take a shower at the hotel, she emphatically said, "I despise taking showers in hotels."  We do not know where this came from, but it will be taken into account when we take trips in the future.  

Josiah says everyone needs a vacation every now and then. 

Now it's time to get back to work.  And make a cake...