Glenn Turns 6!

July ended, August began and Glenn turned 6!  

Kirsta and her family had just moved to Dallas in July so they were close enough to come for his birthday.  We were so excited and happy to have them!

The morning of his birthday we played with balloons and ate breakfast--Glenn had asked for Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.  

Misc. in July

July was a busy month for us.  

I managed to take a few random pictures throughout the month though.

I love Glenn's imagination!  One day I came into my room to see that he had made a throne out of pillows.  That looks a lot more comfortable than some other thrones I've seen...

Uncle Mark's Retirement Ceremony

Uncle Mark retired from the United States Air Force this summer.  

The ceremony was held on July 16 in San Antonio.

 We were fortunate enough to be able to attend the ceremony and the family gathering afterwards.  

Mu Sool Won in July

Glenn has been learning all kinds of new things in Mu Sool Won.  One of his favorite games was the Bomb Game.  The mats would be out and Master Kevin would choose which spots had 'bombs'.  If the kids jumped on a square with a bomb, they had to go back to the beginning.  The first one to the end, won.  

Short Visit from Mom and Dad in July

My sister and her family moved to the Dallas area over the July 4th weekend.  My brother in law, Morian got a new job there!  My parents drove out with them to help with the long drive and the two cars and kids.  They decided to come down to Austin for a short visit to see us!

Monday afternoon we went to Glenn's Mu Sool Won class, and then we went to dinner at The Salt Lick.  It's not the original one in downtown Austin, but it's just north of where we were living.  

Personal Mu Sool Won Class

Normally when we attended Mu Sool Won, we'd go Tuesday-Thursday and have other kids in the class.  Master Kevin also offered class on Monday but we usually didn't make it.  But my parents came into town the weekend of July 4th--they overlapped with Arik and Natasha for a day.  Glenn wanted to show Grandma and Grandpa the things he had been learning.

Well that day--Monday the 6th--no other kids showed up, so he got a personal lesson.

Independence Day

Paul's brother, Arik and his new wife, Natasha, were in Houston for a summer internship.  They came to Austin and San Antonio for the Fourth of July weekend.  

Mu Sool Won in June

Glenn continued to attend Mu Sool Won in June and continued to love it.  

The BEST video I took in June was Glenn learning this move.

SeaWorld: Last Time with Season Passes

June 27th we took one last trip to SeaWorld with our season passes.

We wore our 'Thing' shirts and got several compliments from people as they passed us.  It sure makes it easy to find each other if we get separated.  Glenn also wanted to wear his swim clothes because he knew he would get wet.

Glad to be Home

Despite all the realities of life that hit us when we returned home from Spain, we were happy to be home.  Glenn was so happy to be in his bed again with all of his books and ALL of his stuffed animals.  He definitely missed them while he was away.

National Donut Day

June 5th was National Donut Day!  So donuts we would have to consume!

Martial Arts Trial Week

The last week of May Glenn had a free trial week at a martial arts studio.  Some people from our church have been going there for a long time and they told our good friends, the Denson's about the free trial week.  Erin Denson knew I wanted to get Glenn involved in some things, so she told us about it.  After pulling up and getting out of the car, before we went inside, Glenn hesitated.  He was nervous about it and wasn't sure if he was going to like it.  I told him that it would be okay and to just give it a try.  If he didn't like it, then we wouldn't continue.  We had just finished listening to James and the Giant Peach on audio book.  I asked Glenn, "Do you think if James had been afraid to climb into the peach if he would've had his great adventure?"  He said no, grabbed my hand and walked into the studio.  I love my little boy!

He was excited to see his friends, Matthew and Seth, and that helped him get over his nerves.  Then during a warm-up run he kind of stepped funny and that made him kind of scared.  He sat with me until he was ready to go back out again.  The instructor, Master Kevin said he could join at any time.  After calming down, he decided to join.  And he had a BLAST!

Flooding in Texas

Memorial Day weekend in Texas wasn't very good.  We got A LOT of rain!  It caused a lot of  flooding throughout the state.  We went down to San Antonio on Saturday to spend the day with Mark and Bonnye.  We hadn't planned on spending the night, but the weather got so bad they closed down the freeway!  There were tornado warnings and flooding all over.  So we spent the night and left early Sunday morning.  Things were looking just fine on the freeway and then all of a sudden there were cones directing us to exit.  There wasn't any signs or detour arrows or anything, so I had to just follow the other cars that had gotten off.  We drove through San Marcos.  At first we wondered why because we hadn't seen any sign of flooding.  At one traffic light just before the freeway entrance, we looked to the left and then we saw it.

Back to Life, Back to Reality!

We were happy to be home, but coming back brought us back to reality...in kind of a hard way.
While we were gone, our freezer had warmed up--I can't remember now if I had turned up the temperature for the fridge.  I remember thinking about it because we didn't have much food in there and it wasn't going to be opened in 2.5 months.  But I may have accidentally turned up the freezer as well.  Or it may have just happened.  But our good friends were even better friends when they came the second week to check on the apartment.  The first week they thought there was a slight smell in the apartment.  They thought it was just that no one was living there and slightly stagnant air.  But by the second week, they knew something was wrong.  And wrong it was.  All the food in the freezer--all the frozen meat and the freezer meals and ice cream and such--ALL of it went bad.
And stinky.
Really, really stinky!
When they opened up the freezer, they knew they were in a bad way.  So they not only checked on our apartment each week while we were gone and brought in our mail, but they had to deal with the stinky, gross, rotting food from our freezer.

Souvenirs!

Wednesday morning after unpacking everything, I decided to take pictures of the souvenirs we bought.  

We're Home!

Tuesday May 19 around midnight--so I guess technically Wednesday--we arrived home!  Yay!  Our flight had gone well.  The movie screens and sound all worked well for us and we all enjoyed watching several movies on the way home.  

Last Meal in Spain

After our flight from Zurich to Madrid we rode the metro one final time.  

Adventures with Othmar and Esther Day 3

Monday May 18 we drove the short distance from Othmar and Esther's apartment to Rhine Falls, where there are some spectacular water falls on the Rhine River.  

Adventures with Othmar and Esther Day 2

Sunday May 17 we had breakfast at 'home' and then went to church.  I forgot to take a picture of it, but that's okay.  We LOVED attending this ward!  There was something about it that was just so amazing!  The people, so different from one another and some so different than us, were beautiful and incredible.  They were so kind and welcoming and we felt so loved as we worshiped with them.

After church we stopped at home to get something to eat.  Then it was back into Stein Am Rhein.  We entered through a different gate this time.

Adventures with Othmar and Esther Day 1

Saturday May 16 we said good-bye to Geri in the morning and got picked up by Othmar and Esther Weber.  They took us a scenic route through Switzerland, where we stopped at a few places to get out and see them.  Our first stop was at Alpschaukäserei Schwägalp.  It is a little cheese factory/shop in the mountains.  Othmar had been a cheese-maker by profession so he wanted to show us different places that make cheese.  He hadn't worked at this location, but we went anyway!