One joy of living in Texas, despite living on the extreme southern border and a full days drive from most major cities, is hearing our little Josephs comment on Texas as a whole entity, such as "Texas has so few grocery stores", "Texas has lots of palm trees", or "No one listens to me in Texas". It's fun to squeeze in a year living in a new part of the country, even while it sometimes feels like an entirely different country here on campus. It's only been two and a half months, but that's one-quarter of our time here! We're excited for the rest of the journey to Mexico, but here's a snapshot looking backward.
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| Day trip south of the border |
We enjoyed our holidays visiting PA family as is our custom. Our van made the perilous journey twice, with just a small hiccup in the form of a faulty tire that Dad fixed up, and we had lots of smoked meat and cute puppy time. We played 14 games of Cover Your Assets in a single day at Oma and Opas, and helped a good bit with cooking and eating and taking care of the Barbies and marble track. At Mimi and Grandpap's we colored and crafted all over the dining room table and played the Aladdin game and built a roller coaster out of K'nex and read lots of books with Mimi. It was a special treat (not that kind of special treat) to see Aunt Courtney and Uncle Kevin at Christmas!
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| Help from the Master |
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| 2 Christmases, 1 set of skin-tight year-old jammies |
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| Cuteness war! |
We even managed to squeeze in a visit to the Thomas family in Princeton, NJ and hear all about their new life there, which was very loud and fun!
In between the holidays we had a lot of final clean up and plenty of goodbyes. We had several last dinners with close friends in Ohio...it was hard to say goodbye to the Schumachers and Ramers and Horsfalls and many others. Mom and Dad said goodbye to their businesses and we said goodbye to dance, theater, soccer, AWANA and co-op. The hardest was a final farewell to the church on our last Sunday there after Christmas and before our trip. We are happy to get to visit each year and run around all the hallways again with old friends.
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| Goodbye Ultimate friends |
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| A final Sunday at Parkside |
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| Goodbye George & Shirley |
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| Goodbye empty house |
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| Goodbye Ramers house (we did get invited inside also) |
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| Final dance recital |
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| Vision Therapy graduation |
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| Goodbye Schumachers |
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| Goodbye shop |
Our south-bound trip lasted 3 days and was extra fun since we did it with Oma and Opa. It included outrunning a snowstorm, the world's most unremarkable barbeque restaurant, a comparatively much better Cracker Barrel experience, playing with Aunt Courtney and Uncle Kevin at their home (and local park), and listening to Harry Potter 4 on audiobook during the entire trip. We would love to go on another 25+ hour trip if it meant getting to hear the 5th book!
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| Our home for 3 days |
After a weekend to get settled, we started school right away and had some ups and downs. Right now it's good and we've made some friends but are happy to be on break for next week. Mom and Dad have classes almost all day during the week so we work hard at Harvest Christian Academy, but Dad is going to be done with Spanish classes and starting to homeschool us in the fall! Dimmy actually goes to the nursery on campus instead of school, but she loves the friends and teachers and play time there, and the chance to eat lunch with Mom and Dad every day in the cafeteria.
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| First day of not homeschool! |
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| Bonus time with Dim |
College life is the best. There are parties and activities on campus almost every weekend, and when there's not we have lots of friends right next door to shoot with nerf guns, kick a soccer ball, and play lots of games. We can bike all over campus and explore the playgrounds and dirt mounds, and the weather has been great so far this year--very windy but almost no rain.
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| Making friends |
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| Rio Grande student body |
This week Mom and Dad had their break from classes so Mimi came to visit! We got to skip some school and go to lots of cool places. We explored a bird sanctuary, hiked through a giant natural lake of salt, visited the library and skipped school to go to the beach, all in just 4 days. And that's not even counting the ice cream treat and and Elia's birthday ice cream cake! Even though we got sunburned, the water was nice and shallow for lots of fun in the waves.
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| This game was called "Beached Mermaids" @ South Padre Island |
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| Working the salt mines @ La Sal del Rey |
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| Shade time @ World Birding Center |
Elia has most enjoyed the biking freedom to explore campus, and has flourished in friendships at school. She isn't so sure about Spanish just yet but is trying hard. She is a prolific poet these days and is writing many stories, now with the added ease of Google Docs and Drive for maintaining her epic portfolio of works. For her Mimi birthday she got more Legos, Perler beads, and (for one of the few times ever in our family) a water bottle that wasn't a replacement for one that was lost. She turns 11 in just three days...#StillMyNugget
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| Blowing stuff up with Dad |
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| Pretentious painting |
Sophia also loves the freedom; we trust she and Elia to watch the kids when they bike to playgrounds. She has had a hard time adjusting to school, but has benefited greatly from counseling with another Spanish studies student on campus and from many loving gifts from friends back home. She reads a ton and has enjoyed crafting alongside Mom the Quilter whenever possible, and has really taken off in her Spanish abilities.
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| First time rock climbing! |
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| "How could anyone work here and not eat all the samples???" |
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| The Best Place on Earth @ Hobby Lobby |
Ezra is the only one who can properly execute a pushup, props to him. But also PE will be a gen ed requirement this fall with Coach Dad. He has so many neighbor friends, thanks to his friendly, outgoing personality and a fortuitous ratio of other boys on the street. What he lacks in conscientiousness he makes up for in math, where every number is a brother and every problem a playground. He's a ball of energy to rival the Texas sun.
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| Ezra Zone, designed for 7yo boys |
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| Maybe he's into superheroes? |
Summer has spent the most time with Mom and Dad this year, since she joins us for lunch and stays home in the afternoon. She missed her siblings a lot in the week when they went to school and before we started, and still does sometimes in the long afternoons, but is possibly the best of all our kids at playing on her own, with her Scribble Scrabbles and marker coloring projects and books/audiobooks. She polices the street on her training wheels and has won the hearts of everyone on campus.
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| Sacrificing the knees for the love of the postal system |
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| Crafts at the new Edinburg Library |
We are excited for the second half of the school semester and then to go to Mexico in May! We will be flying to Mazatlán and spending two months there so we'll get to see our friends from STS and go visit some of the churches and go to the pool and the beach, who knows what else? Maybe Summer will have one of those giant piñatas for her birthday there. Can't wait!
