February Flashback

We started off February with a reunion of sorts. Tom and JoAnn live in Missoula and hosted us in their lovely mountaintop home when we did the Hiawatha Trail in 2017. They're the very active parents/grandparents of some good friends and had joined us on several other adventures, including hiking to Table Rock and skiing in Montana at Discovery. Anyway, they find themselves in Houston from time to time, so we met up with them for lunch. Sometimes pre-pandemic life feels like a dream, so it was wonderful to reminisce and hear what they are up to now.

Feeling inspired by a beautiful sunshine-y day, we broke out our bikes and ventured into George Bush park (aka the reservoir). No alligators seen this trip, but it was still a little soggy from a recent rain.

Which is how we determined when to turn around... end of the road, since we didn't bring our hydro-bikes.

And February is the month of some holiday..... can't quite put my finger on it. It passes pretty quietly now that we are between the days of mass school candy distribution and individual sweethearts. Hope you can feel the sibling love in this arm's length picture! Ha! At least they'll still humor me with a pose once in a while.

February is our month of service for the Texas Exes, so I organized our 5th annual Project Worldwide at the Ballard House. The Ballard House is a non-profit, much like a Ronald McDonald house, where patients (and their families) can come and stay free of charge when they have long-term medical care occurring in Houston. They get by 100% on donations and volunteers.

We had a crew outside weeding their extensive flowerbeds for 3 hours,

While a crew inside dispersed throughout the guest quarters, making sure a dozen rooms were ready for new residents. We had a checklist for each room: cleaning, making beds, stocking supplies, etc. It was hard work, but so worth it!

There's that other February holiday we observe, too - Dad's birthday! This year we got a school holiday for Presidents' Day on the same day, though no official work holiday. We celebrated with a sushi boat and toffee cake.

Later that week, we went to our first JH track meet. We did not know what to expect, so we were there from 5-9pm! It's a bit chaotic with both 7th and 8th grade boys all combined. Races around the track are happening at the same time that field events are occurring around the perimeter, and 8-9 junior highs are grouped by school in the middle of the football field, waiting for their events.

Turns out Owen runs events in the middle-end of the meet, so we could have gotten there a lot later. At this first meet, he ran the 4x200 relay, 300m hurdles, and the 1600m. He wasn't interested in the field events. The video is of his last couple of hurdles, where he finished 2nd in his heat (6th out of 24+ 7th grade boys overall) and earned a point for his team. His relay finished 4th, also earning points.

This was his 1600m, nearing the end. He was so exhausted by the time this race rolled around, his last event! I believe he got a personal best time (~6'), but there were some incredible runners with 5.5 minute miles! He quickly decided that he did not want to do that particular race anymore. 😅

Lastly, we participated in our 4th Graeme's Run for children's congenital heart defects research. It's a great cause, and it doesn't hurt that your run bib includes 2 free beers at the local craft brewery where the race starts and ends! The kids both ran the mile, and I ran-walked it. J surprised us all by spontaneously deciding to do the 5k!

 

Despite the free food and baby goats, the video game trailer is definitely the kids' favorite part of the post-run festivities.