Birthday gathering

 We escaped to Lito and Lita's for a bit to celebrate all of the August and September birthdays. The kids had lots of fun with the cousins and enjoyed their gifts.

School Time

 We officially started back to homeschooling this week. It is still 2 more weeks until dual credit and One Day Academy classes start, so we are able to ease back in a bit. So far, so good. It can be tough to keep this little miss busy/happy but we found some activities in the school closet that are helping for now, and she loves her new handwriting book and reading lessons!

Happy Birthday!

 We had a great time celebrating Austin this weekend. We are very blessed to have such a great guy in our lives. Allia made these bright blue Macarons for him which were so delicious they were gone in under 10 minutes (the rest of us had some too)! Anastasia made Reese's Pieces cookies and I made a cherry pie in addition to some special meals.

Float the Frio!

Despite a few of the kids still being in quarantine, we escaped for our planned vacation to the Frio River. We figured we could avoid being near others, and boy were we right! We checked into our cabin, got unpacked and had a few hours before dinner and dark. So we went to the nearest public access and hopped in to float down to our resort. However, it was longer than we realized (we are newbie river goers), and our resort was one of the few that was not clearly marked for exit. So we floated and floated and watched some other nearby resorts pass by thinking ours was just around the next bend. The sun started to set and we still had not found our exit point. We started to panic especially since walking was tough because the rocks were super slippery. We sent scouts to try and find a place for us to get off with no luck. Finally right before the sun went down for good, we just bailed onto a path that was someone's private property. But we didn't care (and they didn't seem to be home) and found our way to the road. We recognized where we were and walked about 1/4 mile up the road in the dark to our place. The cabin never looked so good as it did when we arrived that night. We were all so relieved. We had missed dinner but didn't care. We just cleaned up and went to bed, happy to not be sleeping on the riverbank! What an adventure! 

The next day as we tubed, Cecilia kept asking if we would be home before dark (at noon!). I assured her we would. She explained to me, "If it starts to get dark, DON'T panic. Just say a prayer like this 'Dear Jesus and Mary please help us.' " So sweet. At least she learned something from the experience!

It turned out our resort had a beautiful section of the river, complete with a little dam that created some short rapids to ride. The younger crowd and Austin enjoyed tweaking the rocks/flow pattern to maximize the floating experience there. Then after teens were up and ready we went to a nearby place that offered a shuttle, kayak rental, and a swim hole at the end of the course with a clif for jumping. It was great fun.

Of course we had a cookout with s'mores

The next day we visited Garner State Park to do some hiking and chose the trail that went to a little cave. Water was seeping through the limestone, and a member of the group before us slipped and cut her leg on the way out. This really freaked Cecilia out, and she was quite scared to go in but braved it!

She hiked back down with renewed confidence. So cute!

We went to the tubing place with the shuttle again that afternoon and floated together instead of some doing kayaks. Then our last morning Austin, myself and the younger ones enjoyed the river for a bit longer before packing up.

It was such a nice getaway after being cooped up for a week. We are so thankful for our river adventure!

4H banquet

Gloria was still in quarantine, but Allia and Mariana made it to the 4H awards banquet. Allia placed 2nd, Mariana's record book placed 2nd and Gloria's placed 3rd in county.

Allia birthday celebration!

 Allia wanted to do a big celebration this year since it will probably be her last year to have a real party with friends. She did it early to catch her friends who are moving away to college. Thankfully it was after the 14 day mark from being exposed to covid, so she, Mariana and Austin were ok for public appearance. It was quite a bash with bowling, laser tag, mini golf and video games, and everyone had a great time. I can hardly believe she will officially be an adult in a few weeks.

Covid Quarrantine :/

I had started feeling iffy over the weekend, and we found out that we had been exposed to covid via the teen retreat the week before. So I was tested and came up positive as did several of the kids. Austin was vaccinated, and apparently Allia, Mariana and Stephen are either immune or already had it. But the rest of us were sick for a few days and quarantined to the house until 10 days after our symptoms started (they started the day of the cake show for several of the kids...hopefully nobody was exposed!). Some sweet neighbors sent us a game and some other things to entertain everyone. And once the kids were feeling better we brought out the water slide to burn some of that pent up energy!

* A little covid funny: Cecilia was the only one besides me with a cough. It was mild, but I think it hurt (mine did at first), so she would try her best not to cough. I kept telling her she needed to cough that stuff out. So she started saying, "I don't want to cough my stuffing out." It was so cute we didn't correct her, and she is still calling congestion "stuffing".

4H Cake Show

The girls all worked really hard on their creations. Allia took home 3rd place and Mariana 5th place in the decorated cakes!