Sweet pulled pork tacos, Café Rio style, were on the menu for Zac and Jessie's Happy Birthday dinner. I made the lime cilantro dressing to go along with it and picked up fresh tortillas from Kroger. They are delicious! Dinner was topped off with homemade strawberry cheesecake. I think everyone appreciated Zac’s selection for his birthday dinner and dessert. Jessie was more concerned and excited to open her gifts that she was completely thrilled with.
The boys had basketball training in the morning and Allie and I exercised together doing Hitt routines we found on the internet. Good times. I was happy to get my hair refreshed with a highlight and cut in the early afternoon. Later that evening we went to a BBQ hosted by a cute new family in the ward. It was a great little together to get to know some new people in the ward. While there I learn a lot about the wild pigs/boars that come out at night which is very common in the neighborhoods. One of the couples’ dog had been gored by a pig’s tusk the week earlier resulting in a cone of shame while he heals. Afterwards we headed to Topgolf as a birthday activity for Zac that we enjoyed doing together as a family. Some of us were more talented than others but we had fun.
We had a great day enjoying the sun and the pool together on Tuesday. After getting plenty of sun, we went shopping for school shoes. A couple of pairs we needed in a different size we at another location. As we were driving there, Zac felt he got shortchanged on the dinner out on Saturday. I suggested Double Daves for pizza rolls which was welcomed readily. Mostly I think the kids wanted food sooner rather than later. Any way we got sidelined from our original destination but everybody was happy. ;)
All Allie wanted to do for her birthday was going shopping. At first, she wanted to go to thrift shops but as the rain came falling down we changed our plans and headed to the Galleria instead. The Galleria is very large mall that completely overwhelms me when I go. We had success though. Allie and Zac found a few things that made the trip worth it. The day was topped off with Torchy’s, Allie’s birthday request, and watching the movie La La Land! Poor Jessie and Bode lost interest not too far into it. Zac was actually enjoying it until the end but hated how it ended! :{ I agree but still enjoy watching for the second time. ;)
We drove to New Braunfels (about 2.5 hours outside of Sugar Land) on Thursday morning to the Comal River and spent a day and a half running the rivers on tubes. It is a great place to get out of the humidity, be together and have fun. It’s a beautiful part of Texas. We bought some river rafting tubes and ran a short section of the Comal and on Friday went to the Guadalupe River to run the Horseshoe bend. Very slow meandering rivers so no rapids or anything too adventurous, but we did run the river chute on the Comal about 1000 times; a small 50 yard channel of concrete that pushes the water through at a very fast pace. Aaron and the boys swim it without the tubes and try to keep from drowning. As part of our adventures, Bode & Zac put goggles on to look for all the items that fly out of people’s tubes when they come flying out the chute. Bode found a set of car and house keys and assorted sun glasses. Scuba divers have jumped in that same section and found wedding rings and all kinds of interesting artifacts. Allie attracted the attention of several of the lifeguards but she wasn’t too impressed because in her words "they are all just high school boys." This little get away was fun and so needed right now. Aaron brought his road bike just to get a chance to ride some hills. He climbed the most elevation in three years, a whopping 721 feet. He was pretty stoked about it. Good times.
On Saturday, we said our goodbyes to Allie girl. I love having her around. When she is with us it is like she has never been away. The good news is she will be coming back at the end of the month for the BYU LSU game so YEAH for me!