It’s been 3 months but let’s start at the end — or at least the most recent.
The Eclipse!
Back in October, we booked a VRBO on Lake Travis, just west of Austin in the zone of totality. It was ridiculously expensive, but we missed the total eclipse in 2017 and I was NOT going to miss this one. We decided to make a weekend out of it — we shared our rental with another family of 4 that we’ve gotten close to over the last few years, and my longtime friend Becca and her husband. Our rental was also just a quarter mile down the road from another one where my friends Jen and Gavin and their kids and extended family were staying. All in all we had 22 people spread between the two houses for a 3-night stay.
The week before, the weather folks were reporting a pretty bleak forecast — cloudy skies, building to strong afternoon thunderstorms. I basically spent the days leading up to our trip mentally preparing myself to NOT see a total solar eclipse. “It’ll be ok,” I told myself. “We’ll still enjoy a nice long weekend with friends, and it’ll still get dark at least.”
But oh, did we get lucky! The clouds thinned out and we had a full view of totality!! I had never experienced anything like it. I’m not even entirely sure what I did for those 3 minutes and 30 seconds, but I’m pretty sure “oh my god” came out of my mouth at least a dozen times. It was just incredible.
And of course we did also enjoy our weekend with friends. Becca and Byron rented a boat on Sunday, the day before the big event, and we spent the day boating and tubing and swimming in the lake. My kids had never done anything like that before but they loved it, and Emma is now asking me when she will get to go tubing again.
Spring Break
Now rewinding back to mid-March and spring break. It has started to dawn on Jose and me that we have a limited number of spring breaks left for big family trips with the girls. We originally suggested several other options, but the girls lobbied hard for a Disney cruise — so after a bit of research, we got onboard (pun intended) with that plan. And we had SUCH a blast!
We sailed on the Disney Fantasy from Port Canaveral. We swam with dolphins in Cozumel, saw sharks and rays from a semi-submarine in Grand Cayman, climbed Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica, and ended with a perfect day on Castaway Cay (Disney’s private island in the Bahamas). On the boat, we rode the water slide, learned how to fold towel animals and draw Lightning McQueen, watched movies and live shows, met characters, and so much more.
The cruise sailed from Saturday-Saturday, and then we stayed an extra day in Florida to hit the KSC Visitor’s Center. I had never seen the Atlantis exhibit, and it did not disappoint. The way the shuttle is displayed is just fantastic, and the “big reveal” they do after you watch an intro movie literally made me tear up. I’ve had a perfectly good career since the space shuttle retired, but I’m not sure anything I work on again will ever truly compare to the shuttle. All the heart eyes for this one.
Other things from the last 3 months:
We went to the first Houston Dash game of the season with friends and had a great time. Somehow we had never been to a Dash game until this year, but definitely plan to go to more!
I celebrated my birthday with presents, a pedicure, conveyor belt sushi, and a cherry chocolate cake I baked for myself. Yum! Always good to celebrate another successful year around the sun.
We spent Easter Sunday at our first Astros game of the season. Unfortunately they lost — the team has gotten off to a truly dismal start this year thanks to lots of injuries to the starting pitchers and several poor performances by the relievers — but we still enjoyed our day at the ballpark and look forward to more games this season.
We all got very into March Madness this year, particularly the women’s tournament. We are all big Caitlin Clark fans now (who isn’t?) and even watched the WNBA draft earlier this week.
A movement update:
Back in January I mentioned my movement goal for this year — to close the exercise ring on my Apple watch at least 4 times each week. I’m excited to report that it’s going well! This is the 16th week of the year, so by Sunday I should have closed that green ring 64 times…and as of today, I’m at 58. Being just a few days off the pace is a huge success in my book!
My movement has consisted primarily of Peloton offerings (bike rides, strength, yoga, and stretching) and walks around the neighborhood. There have also been a few days where I’ve been able to close my exercise ring just via lots of activity — all the walking I did at QuiltCon, for instance, or the day we climbed Dunns River Falls while on our cruise. I love those days, and it also really makes me realize how sedentary I am the rest of the time. (Desk jobs, whew.)
Walks will get more challenging as the weather heats up, but I’ve been enjoying the variety of Peloton offerings quite a bit and recently tried their Bike Bootcamp classes for the first time which I liked a lot. And I’m hoping to include some swimming once the pool opens.
On deck:
Looking ahead, the end of the school year is RAPIDLY approaching. There will be end-of-year parties and band concerts and parent meetings for next year’s activities. The girls are about to start their third season of summer swim and I’ll be repeating as volunteer coordinator. And look past swim team season, we’re planning to spend some time in Seattle in July with my sister and her family.
