June 2014 Updates

6/16 - Kasey had her first sleepover with Mattie Grace.  Kristina was helping out because I had early meeting.  She had fun playing, but said she didn't sleep much.  She had good breakfast, Kristina made her breakfast and lunch.  Overall fun, but she was really tired the next day

6/15 - 6:30am Kasey say Mommy should we let Patch out.   No Kasey we can sleep a little longer.   We got up, got Patch out, I got a shower and started to get both of us ready.   i never got make up on and Kasey had a few pretzels on the way out the door for breakfast.    Kasey didn't want to get dressed, didn't want to do her hair, didn't want to go to recital.  It was a fun intense morning.   i couldn't find bobby pins for a while.  finally got Kasey dressed, put just a little make up on her - she didn't want eye make up at all so we did a little blush and lipstick.   Kasey was crying, Patch kept eating klennexes, i was stressed in heals and sweating.  Needless to say we got out the door on time (barely) made it to performance hall, parked just right and got to dressing room.  I was able to get front row seat to video the practice performance.  of course the seat I picked one of the other girls blocked Kasey 1/2 the time I was filming and I couldn't move.  I think she did great in both ballet and tap.  

After practice we went to Grandma's met up with Grammy, Gramps, Landon, Cindy, Carlos, Grandma and Pops. Grandma made a great brunch for us to celebrate Fathers day before going to Kasey's recital.   Grammy brought meats and Cindy brought Cinnamon rolls from West, Texas.  Carlos was letting kids watch basketball videos and had them hiding and finding Easter eggs (with Christmas bag).  It was cute to watch.

We all headed to Kasey's performance.  Watching 4-5 year olds perform an hour of dances was pure torture to Landon.  He would rather be doing anything else.  they had a few older girls perform and he said those were better.  Kasey had a great performance.  She was very excited.  She got flowers from everyone.  She got a trophy from dance studio.   She had fun.  We decided to go celebrate.  We went to sonic for milk shakes - partly becuase Landon was pretty good and tortured and partly to celebrate Kasey doing a good job.   We headed home to let Patch out, cleaned up some.   I had been trying to get the kids to watch Neverending Story forever.  I loved the movie when I was younger and thought at least Landon would really like it.  I made (meaning I warmed up what Greg had cooked for us) dinner and we watched.   There is a part a little way in that the horse of one of the main characters dies.   Both kids started crying - great parenting moment (Landon later woke up with a nightmare about it).    In the end Kasey was scared in a few parts but Landon liked it as I thought he would.    Got Kasey bathed and ready for bed.   We did a little face time with Daddy and Kasey went to bed.
Landon and i had to get everything ready for Twilight camp and baseball camp the next day.  Everyone got to bed and I was back working for a while.

6/14 - i got up Saturday, went to Starbucks for iced chia latte and scone.  Went to get my hair cut then went to pick up kids.  we had lots to do. Had some fathers day shopping to do, needed to eat lunch and get the house cleaned up.   We went to Grammy's house for dinner for early Fathers day and to drop Landon off for the night.   We had tacos which are a family favorite for sure.   Kasey and I had to get up early the next day for Dance recital rehearsal.   On the way home Kasey brought up that since it was just the two of us it made sense for her to sleep in my bed.  Hmmm

6/13 - Landon didn't have camp on Friday.  He went to a friends to play for a while.  Grammy and Gramps got Landon from his friends and Kasey from camp, let Patch out, had lunch at McDonalds and then headed to their house for rest of afternoon.   They ordered in Pizza.  I went by after leaving work late for 30 minutes to get a bite and tell kids goodnight.  Kids were mostly to busy but glad they were having fun.   I had a very long week at work getting ready for my big launch on Monday working very late nights.  It was nice to have an evening to myself watching a cheesy movie from Amazon Prime and having some wine.

Patch generally goes to bed when Greg does between 11-12.  I usually am up later than he is.  Well when its just me I let her stay up later.  Of course she's asleep  calm then wakes up after 11:30, goes outside, doesn't want to come in, starts barking.  Silly dog.  I need to start putting her to bed earlier.

6/11 - Greg left for Brazil today.  He dropped kids off got everything ready and headed to the airport.   We had neighbor from down the street who just graduated from high school helping out pick up kids and play with them while I worked.

6/7 - Started off the day with baseball playoffs.  Boys were playing a team that had beat us before.  Unfortunately we lost the game.  Boys played hard, but couldn't hit and made some error fielding.  Landon had a pretty good game though.  He got an out playing 3rd, he caught a fly ball, he assisted getting an out at 2nd.  He got a double and a few singles and scored multiple times.  The boys were very sad they lost.  Coach decided to treat the team and siblings to ice cream at 10am.  It put a smile on their faces.

We went to lunch after that at Elke's.  Kasey had been eating all day - yogurt for breakfast, popcorn at baseball game, ice cream, then she ate all macaroni and cheese at lunch.
Then we went back to hang out a bit.  We went to neighbors graduation party for a little while - we ate some snacks again.   Then boys went shopping, I took Kasey to a birthday party and did some shopping of my own.  Of course Kasey had some dinner and cake there.

I picked up the boys from shopping, we went to get Kasey and headed to FC Dallas game.  We stopped at Jakes for dinner (Kasey was finally full and just wanted lemonade and gum) and to watch the USA soccer game.  Then we headed to FC Dallas game.  They actually won 3 to 2.  Doug was there so kids had fun bugging him.  Needless to say they fell asleep on the way home.


6/6 - Landon's last day of school.  He got some awards.  The school puts them in a white envelop and sends them home - I don't like that.  He got honor roll and something called Technology Titan (we don't know what that is).  He also got perfect attendance and an ART award (which not to many kids in grade get).  We are very proud of him.


6/4  - Landon's end of school party was today.   i worked from home and Greg and i went up there for the party and to help out.  It was pretty hot so most of the moms ended up in the shade fanning ourselved with plates.  

I went back home to work.  Kasey had a birthday party.  I was on a call when i went to pick her up, and I forgot to put patch in her crate.  luckily she didn't tear anything up.   After getting Kasey I went to get Landon from baseball practice.  Greg was pitching and needed to stay longer.

6/1 - we drove back home which was fun.  Kasey watched movies and played games, I worked most of the time, Grammy drove and we listened to a lot of Billy Joel on sirius XM.

We got home hugged grammy/gramps and headed home.   Kasey and I cleaned a little bit, put our bathing suits on and headed to the neighborhood pool where the cubscout pack was hanging out.  Landon and Kasey had fun in pool for a while.  then we got out and got ready to head to the baseball end of season party.  We grabbed some food.  The boys played a few games while parent chatted then they played Nuke between the boys and the dads.  The dads won a few times, but the kids won the last time before cake time.

the boys got nice gifts of Yankee baseball necklaces, and the coaches got bats with stands with their names on it.  Very cool.

World Cup Trip June 2014 Brazil

 Greg went to Brazil for longer than I did - he left June 11th.  He went with Juan, Marissa, Doug and Dave.  They started in Rio - had a great private one day tour with a lady that lived there.  They got to eat at great places and see some cool stuff.

They headed to Natal for the first US game against Ghana.  The US won which was great.  They were on the beach there and mainly hung out watching soccer and spent some time on the beach.

Then they headed to Manaus.  This is a city in the Amazon several hours from other locations.  They started out that the tour they had booked was not booked for them so they did a tour from the hotel.  On boat ride their boat ended up catching fire which ended up being a mess.   The game was crazy hot.  While it ended up being a good game (even though US tied with late goal from Portugal), they were ready to get out of Manaus.   To the point that if something didn't go right we now say that you have been Manaused.

After 2nd game they headed to Recife to meet Tracy and I.

Here is when my trip started

6/20-21  Day 1

Kids and I slept in til almost 7:45am.  We had to get Kasey to camp by 9am.   I made cheese eggs because I had promised Kasey I would.  I told Landon we could go get a donut after we dropped Kasey off at camp.  We dropped Kasey off, saw Kristina and Carter to say hi.  Landon and I got donuts at place near the house and took them home to eat so we could let Patch out.  Landon watched some of Fantastic 4 then we took Patch for a walk.   I had to shower and get ready and finish packing.   We left with Patch, crate, Landon and Patch's stuff for the week and headed to Grandma's.  Patch tried to eat one of the birds in the back yard when we got there.   Then we headed to get Landon to Maxum's house.   Boys were going to Twilight Camp and then Landon stayed the night with Maxum since they got back late.   Then headed home to close up the house and get ready to leave.   Packed Grammy and Gramps car, went to pick up Kasey from her last day at Enchanted Tea Party camp then we headed for the airport.    Grammy and I got to meet Miles Austin (he was very nice) - just got in from Cleveland and was waiting on his wife.    I was there early and decided to repack so that I could carry on my luggage instead of check.   Got through customs.   Grabbed a Chai Tea Latte and some water and headed to the admirals club.  Tracy and I met there.  We had champagne and the game was on, people were asking where we were going which is always fun.   

Almost the last people on the plane were 2 people in first.  They wanted me to switch  to window seat (not my favorite) so they could sit together.   I agreed.   Man sitting next to me was going to World Cup with his two older children.  They were staying in Recife and going to a few games there.  Flying to Miami was almost 3 hours.  I got dinner and a warm cookie :)  when we got to Miami Tracy and I  headed to the admirals club for a glass of wine.   i called and talked to Landon for a minute at Twilight camp.  He had found  a grasshopper friend and named him Copper.   He was having fun.  Courtney Neighbor sent me a picture which was nice.   After a drink and some research we walked to our gate.  I was in business and once again asked to switch seats so a couple could sit together.   At least I was still on aisle.   Guy next to me was with his parents - they seemed to not know how he got into business which seemed odd.    7 hour flight, left about 10:30pm Dallas time, had a late dinner of manchego chicken and of course ice cream sundae.    I watched about 2/3 of American Hustle.   They went to sleep.   Slept on and off til they started waking people for breakfast.   Got off the plane, through customs quickly then went to get our ride.   we had a private car with driver who took us to hotel.  almost 45 minutes.  We both fell asleep in the car after not sleeping much on the plane.   We got to hotel and had to wait  a bit to get our room.  Room was not great and not air conditioned.   the window only had shutters and no glass.  The hotel grounds were very nice and the beach was across the street.  we took quick showers and headed to the beach.  We had beach chairs and an umbrella with some good shade.  Very relaxing.  It was still morning because we arrived in airport like 8am or so.   We ordered a few caipirinhas and had lunch out there.  Took little naps read etc.  People coming up all the time on the beach trying to sell stuff.  Boy came up painted scenes on a tile with paint and his finger.  We bought one each and they were pretty amazing.   

Started getting cooler so we walked up and sat in area they were showing games - Germany/Ghana tie game was on.  After game we went upstairs to  change and go to Village for dinner.  $5 taxi ride.  We walked around and found a cool place playing music to have dinner.   They didn't speak English or have English menu but we tried it anyway.  Food and wine were really good and they turned on next game while we were there.  We had to use google translate to order water and wine.  After dinner we walked around more, several local stores and some restaurants.   Then we headed back to hotel.  We sat by the pool in great weather with 1/2 bottle of wine.  they had entertainment and dancers who came over to talk to us and ask questions - We couldn't understand each other because they didn't speak English and I don't speak Portuguese.   we then went to call kids and sleep in hot room.

6/22 Day 2

After going to bed about 11:15pm we woke up about 9:20am - figured we needed to get up for breakfast that went til 10.    Neither of us get to sleep that late :)  good breakfast.  We Facetimed with the boys and chatted over text with the kids.   We complained about the air, booked a Dune buggy tour and then showered.  We had time so we went to patio by the beach.   Ordered caipirinhas.  Tracy was reading and I was writing blog as we listened to the ocean.  Very relaxing

So about 1 we went to our Dune Buggy tour.  We started out going by few beach hotels which looked really nice.  The driver took us to a beach area where there were tables and chairs set up right on the beach by the water.  Area called Muro Alto Cupe.  We sat down ordered a few beers and some shrimp for lunch.   It was really good.  We didn't really feel like getting in the water but the people watching was very entertaining.  People there from all over.  

We left there and drove back the other direction past our hotel.  To get to the next area they had to let us through a manned gate.  It was like we were driving on someones property.  We drove right by a little house which several people were in.   We ended up a little area on the water where they were giving little boat rides.  Area was called Portal De Manacaipe.  It was 20R each for boat ride so we said OK.  We got on little boat with benches for 6.  2 Croatian gentleman with their sons were on the boat as well.   They live in Argentina and spoke Portuguese and English.  The area was pretty.  Almost as soon as we left the shore it started raining.   The driver who was pushing the boat with a big wooden pole, pulled us over to get under little shelter.  Rain came down pretty good but only lasted a few minutes.  The area we were in was a mix of salt and fresh water.  We could see the ocean from where we were but were in water ways surrounded by land with different trees and bushes.  We saw several crabs on the land which was cool.  It was peaceful and beautiful.  Near the end we stopped by side and the boat drivers caught 2 sea horses and a baby crab.  we all got pictures with the sea horses and I got to hold the baby crab.  I could tell that when he got older his claw ends would be sharp.  Then we headed back.  We went through the village some on the way back to the hotel and then along the beach in Porto de Galinhas.  It was really pretty and overall a great day.

We got back and decided to go for a swim before heading to village to watch the game.  So relaxing just being in calm pool and chatting.   Felt great.  After swimming we got ready and went down to complain for 3rd time about our AC not working.  They agreed to change our room.  So we got packed quickly and moved rooms.  We turned the air on left to head to the village to watch US Portugal game.  We got to a Pizza place just in time to get a table up front for the two of us.  Several other Americans were there.  We got a big group picture that one of the guys was supposed to text me, but I never got.  They had TV projected on wall so it was nice.  We got some beer and ordered an appetizer (which took us over an hour to get).    The atmosphere was great.  Portugal scored first and was only score in first half.  At half ESPN sent me an update on my phone that US has never won a game when they are down in the first half.   Great stat thanks ESPN.  In 2nd half (64 minute) Jermaine Jones (who was having a great game) scored and amazing goal.  It looked like the ball bent around players then back in to score.   Place where we were went nuts.  Chanting USA, USA. High Fives everywhere.  Then 81 minutes Clint Dempsey used his body to score to put the US in the lead.  The crowd went wild.  Awesome! Hugs, high 5s, chanting USA.  This was amazing until 5 seconds before the end of 5 minute injury time Portugal scored to tie it.    After all the emotion and huge game being a draw made it feel like a loss.   As we left I told the guys next to us we were going to walk off the loss (even thought technically it wasn't a loss).  We had a guy from Mexico who lives in LA who was in Brazil on his own sitting with us.  He was very nice and his name was Juan.   Tracy and I left and decided to get some chocolate crepes - Yum!   Amazing people watching.  Lots of people from US and Mexico walking around the streets.  One US guy was wearing gold shiny pants.  One Mexican guy was wearing full mariachi uniform and hat.  He had to keep putting his beer down to take pictures with people.

We headed back to the hotel.   Very excited our room was cool and we had multiple power outlets.   We went to the poolside for a drink to end the night.

6/23   Day 3

Alarm had to wake us up at 9:30am - Breakfast ended at 10.   Went for breakfast, took a shower, put bathing suits on and headed outside.   Meanwhile the rest of our crew is sitting in a plane in Manaus waiting for landing clearance in Recife.  I think they are ready to get here and Tracy and I are ready to see the guys after almost 2 weeks

Tracy and I relaxed, got some lunch, and decided to have massages.  1 hour full body massage hearing the ocean and having wind cool with calming Enya music.  It was just right.   Then we showered and got ready for the guys to get there. 

As the guys were arriving there were 3 big buses and a small one coming to our hotel.  Of course their bus was last.   Tracy and I got in check in line before they got there because it was getting long.  They got there, filled out forms, checked in, moved my luggage to new room with Greg and got settled in room.   Then we headed to the village for dinner.  We found a great place to eat Gotta De Rua.  Great food, good atmosphere.  Then we headed down the street to the water and found a place to have a few beers right on the water.  We could hear music, see boats and do some people watching.  On the way back to Taxi's we got a few fun pictures.   Then we called it a night.

6/24 Day 4

We slept in til 9:30 just in time to get up for breakfast.  We got bathing suits on and headed to the beach.  

We started walking on the beach down toward the village.   Of course it started to rain 1/2 way there so we tried to take cover under over hang for a few minutes but it didn't last long.  We headed back to the hotel.  When we left all the chairs and umbrellas at the hotel were being used, but with the rain when we got back it was pretty empty.  We decided to have a seat and have a few drinks.  Rough life - sitting on the beach, listening to the waves, having drinks brought to us.  Doug wasn't feeling well so he went to his room.

We decided to head to town for lunch and to watch games.  We found in village that most places showing games were packed because the game had already started.   We finally found a place to eat but didn't have the game showing.  We split a bunch of appetizers including rice and beans, shrimp &  fish clusters.   Yum.  After lunch we decided to walk down the beach.  Juan found a guy that got us chairs, few tables and served us beer.   Again back to rough life chilling on the beach with good friends.

We decided to catch the later game.   We found restaurant Villa Brasil that Tracy had dinner at the other night and got out of the rain to have a drink and watch.  It was raining so hard the satellite TV feed went out for a while.  We unfortunately had some really bad wine.  We decided to move on.

We searched for a while for somewhere to eat dinner and finally agreed on restaurant for dinner.   It was buffet and churrascaria.  The food was ok, and Greg decided he wasn't eating.  He was on a 2 meal a day kick.

We headed back to hotel and decided to have a few drinks.  They were playing live music which was great.  some of the staff and others were dancing along.  Dave, Tracy and I all got in the pool for a bit before we called it a night.

6/24  Day 5

This was the day to go to the ponds at low tide.  So we woke up early, had breakfast and headed to town before 8am - that was early for us on this trip.   Of course it was raining.  Greg, Marissa, Tracy and I got in a cab and realized we had all the money with us.  The other boys made it and we headed to the water.  They had little boats for 6 people - 20R per person to go out to reef, feed fish, use masks and get in the water.  Since low tide you are basically walking on coral reef.  Saw several sea urchins - even got to hold one.   Saw few crabs and several fish.   We got fish food for the ponds so they all come up to you.  you could see beyond the coral reef where the waves were breaking.    As we fed the fish Greg and Dave were trying to touch and catch the fish.  It was pretty cool.  We got back on the boat and the driver pulled us to another area.  Marissa, Juan, Greg, Dave and I got in the water with masks.  We were feeding fish right in front of us.  We had masks to see under water even though you couldn't see very far.  Greg was Trying to catch a fish in his shirt.  Dave and I would put food near his chest and he would try to catch fish that came up.  He caught one that got away before we could get a picture.  Then he caught another one that Tracy got a picture of.  The boat driver was shaking his head at us :)

After our boat ride we went to beach to our friend from the day before.  We had umbrellas, chairs, drinks and beach.    Of course on the beach everyone is selling all kinds of stuff - food, drinks, jewelry, clothes, kits, etc.  The guys there hung a USA flag for us (or so they said).  They knew exactly with tide when to serve us lunch - we had great shrimp and Juan/Marissa had fish.  then they moved us back as the tide came in.  

We came back to change and freshen up.  Tracy, Dave, Marissa, Greg and I went to same place for dinner since it was so good (Gotta De Rua).   I wasn't feeling great but was still good.

6/25  Day 6 Game Day

So 3am I got woken up by heavy rain coming down.  It started sometime in the night and kept raining.   We got up early, grabbed breakfast which was crazy then got ready for the game.  As it was pouring rain outside I opted to leave my hat in the room :( and bring rain gear.  We were supposed to be in lobby at 8am to catch the bus to the stadium.  Stadium was about 22 miles from the hotel and in normal traffic could take about an hour to get there.   Buses started arriving after 8am.  Our group had 4 buses.  2 got there before 9am and left.  Ours got there but didn't leave til about 9:30am.   We were supposed to have someone on the bus to tell the driver where to drop us off and where to go.  She wasn't there yet and we kept hearing traffic was really bad (on Twitter).  The bus driver only spoke Portuguese so our friend Juan had to translate with him.  We left with out the guide.  The driver had been told to take coastal road which helped for a while then we ran into few spots that were flooded (up to peoples waists).  Cars couldn't get through.  Of course traffic was really bad.  It took us 3 hours to get to the stadium.

It was still pouring rain and game was about to start.  We didn't want to run but were walking fast.  Greg and I had to walk around to the other side of the stadium.  We were soaked when we got to our seats, but we were up high so our seats were covered.  Some in our group had better tickets closer to field, but they were in the rain the whole game.  The US lost to Germany 1 to 0, but luckily Portugal beat Ghana so the US & Germany went on to the next round.  On our way out I exchanged my USA scarf with an older German gentleman that was very nice.  After the game rain had slowed some.  We had 1 1/2 to 2 hours before our bus got there.  We hung out, took some pictures, and had a few beers.

We finally got on our bus about 2 hours after the game was over.  There was major traffic and even with driver going on the side of the road some, it took us 4 hours to get to the hotel (just 22 miles).   After that day we went straight to the hotel restaurant for the buffet for dinner.  We had on more drink by the pool and headed to bed.

6/26 Day 7 Heading home

We got late check out at 5pm since we were leaving on bus for airport at 6pm.  We all slept in headed to breakfast about 9:30am.  We decided to go pack and go to the beach some.  Greg and I were first ones on the beach.  We got umbrella, chairs and ordered a few caipirinhas.  Dave, Tracy and Doug (he was finally starting to feel better) came down.  The boys started playing football then...  it started raining.  We went under cover.

Marissa came down ready to go to village shopping.  I went to change and Greg, Doug, Marissa and I headed to the village.   We did some shopping, and headed back to restaurant we'd had lunch at before.  Doug hadn't been out with us for few days because he wasn't feeling well and had sinus infection.   We got Gambus, fried shrimp, pastels, rice and black beans, and some beer.  While at lunch it rained a little more.  we did more shopping and headed back about 3 to shower and finish packing.

Ready to head downstairs for one more caipirinha and check out.   As I walked down stairs with my luggage the top handle broke.   Well the side handle on this luggage was already gone and it was packed to check.  As we ordered drinks we started unpacking  the suitcase to see if it was fixable.  It was.  I went to check out and Dave was helping ask for a screw driver.  It was getting close to time for the bus to leave and people were getting on the bus.  My clothes are all over the table by the pool waiting on the screw driver.   Greg was about to try and fix it with a spoon  when the screwdriver showed up.  Greg fixed the suitcase we repacked and headed to the bus.

The bus took about an hour to the airport - with a few times the driver went off road to get out of traffic.

We were quite early so we checked in, did a little shopping, and headed upstairs to grab a bite to eat.  Greg got some cheese rolls and I got a ham and cheese pastry.  They were both really good.  We decided to head through security to try and facetime with the kids - we all missed each other.  We got to talk with them a bit but still didn't have great connection.

Juan, Marissa, Doug, Greg and I got chair massages.  They were ok but did some deep tissue which Greg and I think just hurts.

Then it was time to get on the plane and go home.  We were in business so that helped with long travel.

When we got to Miami, some of the group took showers.  We just headed to the lounge.   Got a snack, morning drink, did facetime with kids, Greg watched season finally of Game of Thrones, and I read my book.  Then we headed to our final leg.

We got to Dallas and headed to luggage area.  Juan and Marissa's daughter was there, Doug's brother and nephew were there, my parents were outside with kids.  Greg and I walked out there and kids ran up to us.  That's always been one of my favorite things from long trip is seeing those faces and getting a big hug when we get home.  They helped us get luggage and headed home.