Ironman Aunt

After our travels, the kids were still tired Monday evening.  They did not want to do jiu-jitsu even though they had had a week off.  We made them go because there were few opportunities for other days this week.  Two out of three fussed and complained.  The little lady was the only willing participant.  Towards the beginning of class, they had a sprawl battle.  A sprawl is when they fall down on their belly (hips) and jump right back up again.  They are so fast, they make it look easy.  Henry competed and beat the other kids within his heat.  After all the heats had gone, they had a battle with the winners and he ended up winning that as well.  It was about this time that his surliness disappeared.  Then, at the end of class, he unexpectedly earned a stripe.  It was a good evening to go after all.  

The next day we headed into downtown to see the Houston Ballet.  This performance was put on by a group of students who want to be professional dancers.  They were ages 15-19 and they were phenomenal.  They dance eight hours a day, six days a week.  Caroline watched the dancers with a lot of interest.  She commented on them throughout the performance.  She was amazed that they could keep their arms up for so long.  At one point a ballerina gracefully ran, jumped, and turned 180° to land in the arms of a young man.  Caroline said, a little loudly, "Daddy couldn't pick you up like that!"  That would be true.

Whenever we drive in to see the ballet, we walk by a park a few blocks from the theater and take our photo on this bench. 

The following day, Josiah made it to the orthodontist.  He has been in braces for a year now, so he has his eyes set on 2022.  This time he chose white and silver rubber bands to go with his grey jiu-jitsu gi which has Silver Fox written on it.  The orthodontist also put a new wire on the top teeth.  He bent and twisted it all around so that it has tension loops that will pull his four front teeth back.  Josiah felt the tension almost as soon as the wire was in place.  His teeth hurt for a few days.  

The orthodontist office also has video games in their waiting room.  They had been turned off because of covid, but they are back on now.  As Josiah was playing Donkey Kong, he asked me if he could jump the barrels.  Uh, yes.  He said, "That's a game changer."  I imagine so. 

We finally made a cake for Todd.  Or at least we attempted.  It was a recipe a friend had made a few months back called, "Best Apple Cake Ever."  That's the official google title.  The Bundt pan I had seemed a little thin and it wasn't metal so I was hesitant to bake it directly on the oven rack.  I put it on a cookie sheet and it was in the oven for over an hour.  We took it out and it was clearly not baked.  We put it back in the oven, this time directly on the oven rack, but we didn't have a ton of time before we had to leave that afternoon.  So, later, when we sliced into it, it was definitely not cooked.  But did we eat it?  Yes, we did.  Every last bite.  Over the course of the week, the kids kept saying how good it was.  I kept saying, it is raw!  We'll try a redo this week.    

Josiah reported on toucans this week and illustrated his report with his favorite Toucan Sam.  He has a few more weeks of reports left before they start their science fair project.  I have been told from those who have done this before, this is not the favorite unit for the parents.  Here's hoping Josiah picks something interesting.

This weekend was pretty special.  We got to see Aunt Meghan compete in an Ironman Race.  While the kids were eating breakfast Saturday morning, they asked me if the race had started.  At that point she had already done an hour swim and was working her way through the bike course.  She biked for 5.5 hours!  It was almost hard to comprehend how much energy the athletes were expending throughout the day.  We caught up with Will and made sure to be there for the running portion.  Josiah made signs for us to hold up.  He's our family cheerleader.  Every family needs a Josiah.  

We were able to see Meghan at the 8 mile marker:  

We waved to her across the water a mile or two later:  

For the run, they had to do three loops, so we were able to see her at the 16 mile marker:  

And again at the 24 miles:  

Then we made our way to the finish line.  It was amazing.  She did so well.  She said the wind made the bike portion very difficult, the heat and humidity were tough with the run.  We were just in awe of her at the end.  She was spent and exhausted and happy to finish.    

At the very end of the race as we were about to leave, Josiah got stung by a bee on his neck.  As we were walking back to the car, he kept saying his neck was swelling up.  He said it was his first bee sting.  I kept telling him, let me know if you cannot breathe.  If that happens, we'll get help.  If not, we'll get ice.  The ice helped him a lot so thankfully he's not allergic to bees!

The next day, we were able to see Will and Meghan again and Josiah made another shirt to commemorate Meghan's accomplishment.  She got third place among the women in her age group and got invited to the World Championships.  She is awesome!