Currently / 4.26.22

Miscellaneous life things from the last two months!

We went to Disney World for spring break back in March. This was our second trip and we had a great time. Last time the girls were 6 and 3; now they’re 9 and 6 and there were definitely some advantages to that. We did more rides, they have more stamina, Jose and I didn’t have to push a stroller around the parks — all good things! Another huge factor was that last time we went in June, and March was SO much nicer. This is obvious, but wow. I don’t think we will ever go in summer again.

We went to all four of the parks. Favorite rides included Avatar: Flight of Passage, Rise of the Resistance, and Seven Dwarves Mine Train. One of our favorite days was the second one, when we went to Animal Kingdom. A front blew through around 10:30-11 a.m. with a ton of rain; we knew it was coming, so we waited it out at the resort and didn’t go to the park until it had passed. The post-cold front weather was marvelous and the rain had chased a lot of people away, so the park was less crowded than any other day of the trip.

p.s. Not sure if I’ll ever write a longer blog post about our trip, but if you are considering a Disney trip soon, my biggest piece of advice is make sure you’re aware of the Genie+ system and how it works. I am NOT a fan of Genie+ (and from what I can tell, most people share my opinion), but it is what it is and it behooves you to learn how it works.

I celebrated my birthday at the end of March. We celebrated with two family outings — one to see Hamilton and one to the Bayou City Art Festival in Memorial Park. Xfinity sponsors the event and their booth had a caricature artist doing free portraits! I loved the drawing he did of the girls.

After cancelling the event in 2020 and 2021, our neighborhood did another Easter egg hunt this year — complete with balloon decorations, a face painter, and the Easter bunny! (I love our neighborhood so much.) The face painter was really good; Charlotte asked for a butterfly on her face and literally gasped in delight when she saw herself in the mirror. It was a fun afternoon.

We got a new tree in our backyard and I guess I’m officially middle aged now because I was ridiculously excited about it and watched the whole process with great interest. We previously had two large maple trees in the back, but one of them hasn’t looked very healthy for a couple years now. We finally had a tree service come out and ended up having to remove it — which turned out to be a very good decision, as the whole center of the trunk was rotted. Who knows how much longer the tree would have lasted before a storm or hurricane blew it onto our house?? Whew!

We replaced it with a 200 gallon red oak — aka the largest tree they could reasonably get into our backyard. It was planted two weeks ago and we have been diligently watering it ever since. It brings shade back to that portion of the yard, and I’m excited about the possibility of having leaves that actually change color in the fall.

We took a quick one-night trip to Corpus Christi for Easter to see Jose’s mom and brother. Jose’s brother and his wife just had a new baby — their 3rd boy — in early March so it was super fun to see and cuddle him!

Welp, I think that pretty much hits the highlights. Spring is always a busy and fun season and this year was no different. It’s been especially nice to enjoy a lot of things we haven’t done in since 2020, and take advantage of the lull in covid cases (and our lingering immunity from having it in January).

One more month of school and we’ll be smack into summer! We have two trips planned so it should be a good one.