Utah trip

The highlight of our summer was our trip to Utah for a Zalit family reunion the week of July 4th! Sunmer in Utah is just magical! It was so nice to get a break from Houston humidity and enjoy the beautiful mountains. We had so much fun celebrating 4th of July with all the Zalits. We went to a small town parade, had lots of good food, went swimming in Dave's pool and had a front seat to an incredible fireworks display in Grace's backyard. Her new house is right behind the park where they shoot off the fireworks. The rest of the week was a whirlwind of activities. We went to Bear Lake (so beautiful), Lagoon amusement park, and had a fun afternoon hike and picnic at Snow Basin ski resort. We also got to spend an afternoon with my brother Jeremy and his family at Tibble Fork and spent the evening at my brother Andy's house. We dont get to see all our Utah family very often so we try to squeeze in a little time with everyone. On the way home, we stopped in Moab to hike Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Despite the intense heat, the kids did awesome and the view of the arch at sunset was breathtaking! Can't wait for our next trip to Utah!

*Almost all of these photos were taken with my cell phone. It was just too dificult to lug my big camera around everywhere.

That's Dan and I standing under the arch!

We stopped at BYU so Elayna could give the kids a quick tour of her campus and bought way too much at the BYU bookstore!

Of course we had to grab some in-n-out before dropping Elayna off at her apartment! So glad we were able to spend some time with Elayna. We won't see her again until Christmas :(

here's a few group photos of all the Zalits. there are 20 grandkids!

Baseball!

This was Benny's first year to play baseball and he had so much fun! He lucked out with the best coaches ever and an amazing group of boys on his team. It was so much fun watching his team play. They were undefeated for the majority of the season. They only lost one game and came in 1st place. Each player on the team got a trophy at the closing ceremonies. During the season, each boy took a turn bringing snacks to pass out at the end of the game. Some of the parents went all out! One boy brought individual boxed cookie cakes for each boy! Benny always looked forward to snacks! So glad he wanted to play this year. He learned and grew so much. Can't wait for next year!

6 months

Hard to believe Nova is now 6 months old! She has grown so much! She is now 34 lbs and 19 inches tall (measured from the ground to her shoulders). Although we initially thought she was a "mini" Aussie, she defintely is measuring more as a standard Australian Shepherd. The vet thought she would get up to 50 lbs full grown! The past month has brought us to the vet 3 times! The first time, we thought she had a broken leg after she got tangled in Dan's legs during a walk. Luckily, it was just a bad sprain and healed in a week. The other two times were because of a nasty eye infection that just wouldn't clear up. The vet first prescrped eye drops, which didn't do a thing. Next, he prescribed the same antibiotic, but in ointment form. It worked! Her eye clear up two days after her fist dose of the ointment. One of the highlights of her first 6 months was her first trip to the beach! She was in heaven! It was the best day ever. She loved the water and was just full of non-stop energy the whole time there. We will definitely be taking lots more trips to the beach this summer!

Easter

It was so nice to gather together with family for Easter this year! We missed everyone last year bexause of the pandemic. We had a fun Easter egg hunt for the kids on saturday, along with a birthday party for my brother Philip's dog Gemini. Philip also brought his friend Jacie and her two puppies who are Nova's brothers. It was so fun to watch her play with them. She was really hesitant and reserved at first, but quickly warmed up to them. I wish they lived closer so she could play more with them!

The puppies loved chewing on our poor little tree that was killed by the recent frost

New puppy!

We got a puppy! After years and years of the kids begging and pleading for a puppy, I finally gave in. Nova is a mini Australian Shepherd and half sibling to my brother's dog (same mother, different father.) I will be completely honest and admit that I went through the "puppy blues" for the first two weeks and totally regretted getting her. I thought about rehoming her daily. Puppies are so much work!! It felt like having a newborn, but worse. Dan and I were up two or three times during the night and were so exhausted. I'm the primary care taker while everyone is at school and work, and I was feeling completely overwhelmed. I felt like I was spending my entire day chasing around a biting, chewing, destructive little monster that got into everything and was making messes everywhere. It was rough! We've had her now for almost two months, and I can now say that things are getting better. She is sleeping through the night and we've developed our little routine and training. She's very smart and has trained really fast. She's done excellent on potty training! The kids absolutely adore her. Here's just a few photos. She has changed so much. The first photo is 7 weeks old and the last two photos are 12 weeks old.

Texas freeze!

In February, we got hit with a blast of unusually cold weather. We had record breaking low temperatures along with ice and a little snow. School was cancelled all week becuase of power outages and no water. So thankful we never lost power and none of our pipes burst. We only lost internet for a day. The kids were disappointed there wasn't more snow, but it was still pretty exciting for them. It's not everyday you get ice and snow in southeast Texas!

Recent read

I absoultely loved this book! It is set in the 1600s during the Salem witch trials. It is a beautifully written story of loss and love. Best book I have read in a long time.

Dad

On January 14th, my dear dad passed away after a courageous 10 year battle with cancer. We miss him everyday! So grateful that my children lived close enough to have grandpa be a part of their lives. He was their biggest cheerleader at their sporting events. The photo of Kyla and him was taken in November. He was struggling to walk, but was otherwise doing so well and looked so good. It's still hard for me to believe he's gone, but he will never be forgotten. Just like with Dan's father who passed away before any of our childeren were born, we will continue to tell his stories so his spirit lives on in our family forever.

State bound!

Kyla individually qualified for the state cross country meet! She placed 9th at the big regional meet with a time of 19:50. It was a tough 3 mile course and she gave it her all! Her team came in 4th and narrowly missed qualifying for state. Normally, the top 4 teams advance to the state meet, but because of covid, only the top 3 advance. We are excited to cheer her on next week in Austin!

Halloween 2020

Halloween was different this year because of the pandemic. All the normal school and church Halloween parties were cancelled and fewer homes participated in trick-or-treating. We didn't buy any costumes this year. I told the kids to come up with costumes on their own. Benny and Lorelei dug through the old costume bin and Evan didn't even want to dress up, but threw something simple together at the last minute. Dan and I took the two youngest out trick-or-treating with their masks on and they had such a fun evening! Evan went trick-or-treating with his best friend that lives next door and the two oldest were out with friends. It sure will be nice when things are back to normal!

recent reads

At the beginning of October, I was searching for a creepy, gothic, historical fiction book for Halloween and stumbled upon the aurthor Laura Purcell. I read three of her books and really enjoyed them! If you enjoy spine-chilling historical fction that keeps you reading late into the night, these are for you!