Texas

And again starting at the pool (obviously a theme for us)!  This time in Mart, Texas where we rented an AirBNB with Abbie’s family for some more time together, but in the same house to maximize our quality time.  After cooling off in the pool, the boys were eager to play pool.  This turned out to be a favorite activity especially when it was too hot in the middle of the day.  Zac was happy to do some quick pool lessons and take consultations throughout the stay.  

 

The best form of entertainment though was most definitely little Miss Ada.  She has the sweetest way of greeting everyone by name.  She uses long, specific, descriptive sentences to converse and ask questions and it just makes you want to spend time with her.  She is a delight.

The first night was a Friday, so of course we had to figure out how to do family pizza night in the ok-equipped AirBNB kitchen.  It was a huge success thankfully and it felt good on this long trip to have one of our regular traditions from home.

Obviously another huge highlight was more time with Eli.  He is so chill and sweet.  Abbie can make him smile on cue and he is happy to be passed around and held by anyone available.

Saturday morning Ada asked Uncle Doug to have breakfast with her.  He happily obliged to have a date with this sweet girl.

And they did not waste the opportunity to be silly.  Apparently they both got something stuck in their teeth.  Ha, ha!

It’s always a balance with spending time with family trying to balance the boys’ needs with wanting to be with my siblings and getting to know their kids.  The days really did fly by, so grateful for all the little moments we got throughout the long weekend.

On Sunday, we had the opportunity to go into Waco nearby to attend church with friends of ours.  It has been an unexpected highlight of this trip to worship with friends and family in different styles and environments, all part of the body of Christ.  After church we had a cookout and pool time with our friends, Jon (one of Doug’s groomsmen, a friend of ours from college), Jenny (his lovely wife) and their three kids.  It was such a special time to catch up and get to know each other’s kids a bit.

We returned back to the AirBNB just in time for the boys to help wake Ada up from nap.  It is so wonderful having cousins together!  (I know I keep saying it, I’m just so grateful my kids know their cousins well and love them so!)

And I got to get Eli up.  Look how sweet he is!

I couldn’t resist giving pool a try.  I definitely remembered being better at it than I am.  Oh well!  It was fun to give it a try.  Ha!

Happy July 4th!  On Monday, Koen made a big breakfast for the whole family.  This AirBNB has a griddle and he LOVES to use the griddle.  But he also just really enjoys cooking for the family.  Happy to encourage it!  He made pancakes, bacon and eggs.

Ada was a little under the weather and our boys are pretty much at a constant state of slightly run-down, so we let the kids have some extra chill time together.  Ada has a lot of interest in Jansen, it’s so sweet.  In the morning they watched “Encanto” together and in the afternoon they watched some “Wild Kratts.”

Abbie did such a great job being intentional about getting pictures of the boys with Eli.  They were all happy to oblige (except Jansen was not in the right mood when she tried).

In the afternoon of the 4th we needed to run an errand in Waco and Koen has been curious about Baylor University.  So we took him on campus for a quick drive-around tour.  Doug and I had never been there, so it was great to see the impressive campus for ourselves, especially if Koen or any of the other boys do really want to apply some day.  But it was also fun getting a taste of this next season we are just on the cusp of…college searching for Koen!

We got out of the heat and back to the AirBNB.  There is one restaurant in Mart, Texas that is open on the 4th…Dairy Queen. Which just happened to be a block from the house and Koen happened to have a gift card, so it was like it was meant to be.  We walked there in the 100 degree weather (greeted by next to no AC in the DQ) and the boys got to have Blizzards!  Tav, Penn and Jansen had never had one of these iconic American treats.  Now they are fans for sure.

We took advantage of our last evening to take pictures and got some great family photos (again, thanks to Abbie being intentional about this!).

One unanticipated challenge on this journey is all the goodbyes. These are especially hard for poor Penn. he has such a sensitive heart. He loves so big. And that is a huge strength, but it also makes goodbyes the hardest on him. We are coming off of a spring of goodbyes with saying goodbye to our foster daughter of 16 months and Penn’s two best friends moving out of state in June. And now our trip has included goodbyes to many loved ones. The joy of being together is worth the temporary sadness of goodbye, but still I did not really think about this when setting out!

Until your fall visit to New Hampshire, Diltzs! And Texas, we will be back because we love the family and friends here!