Spring Break Trip Day 2-Space X

 On Saturday, we drove from San Antonio all the way to Boca Chica, TX. It was a long drive, but worth it to see Space X! 

We could get really close to Starship. 

Nathan's toy starship next to the real one! 

Part of Starship at Brownsville Airport. 

Space X is right on the beach so Elizabeth thought that was just great! 

How often do you go to the beach and see rockets behind you? 

Lucky for us, the Starships were right off the public road so we could drive down the road right up to the rockets! We just couldn't go onto the property. 

Spring Break Day 2-South Padre Island

After we visited the Space X facilities, we drove over to South Padre Island. We had a hotel right near the beach so the kids got to play in the sand a lot. 

the bridge to South Padre Island

The boardwalk between our hotel and the beach

hotel view from the beach

Elizabeth had great fun! 

 

Spring Break Trip Day 1-San Antonio

We took a Spring Break trip this year! It will probably be our last spring break trip as next year, Nathan will be in high school and will have sports during break. 

Here's our current map of the states we've visited. The only new state we got this trip was Texas! We did spend a LOT of time in Texas too! 

The day we were supposed to leave, Elizabeth woke up with a fever and sore throat. She had to miss school that day and had to miss her orchestra concert that night. It did mean we could leave earlier in the day to head to Seattle on Thursday night for our Friday morning flight. We did 2 covid tests on her and they were negative. I brought extra tests with us just to check. Here she was in the car on our way over to Seattle. Not feeling good that day.  We spent the night in Kent and then Friday morning, made our way to the car parking place and then took a shuttle to the airport. 

At the airport, there was a big ugly W! Luckily, we had the solution. 

We got very lucky that morning. The Alaska Air pilots were picketing and they had cancelled like 40 flights out of Seatac that morning alone. Ours was on time! We flew directly to San Antonio. It was a 4 hour flight but we got there in 3.5 hours due to a tailwind! 

Mount Rainier peeking through the clouds. 

When we stepped off the plane, it was 86 degrees and felt very nice. We got our rental car and drove straight to the Alamo. We got there a little after 5, so the tours were closed for inside. We got to walk around outside instead. 

We then headed down to walk around the Riverwalk. That was nice after a long flight! 

We then drove to our hotel on the south end of San Antonio. We had a view of the pool and the kids wanted to jump from there. They did not. It was a loud night as there was a team of sports kids there who did not know how to be quiet. 

 

Track Meet 3/30 Stevens Middle School

Nathan had his first track meet of the year! Even though this is 8th grade, it's kind of his first track season. Due to covid last year, they had track at his school, but didn't really have any meets. 

The kids are allowed to do 4 events. Here were his events and his results in each. 

1600: 6:25

Discuss: 66 feet

Long Jump:  12'8"

Medley relay: Don't know. In this relay 4 kids run. It's 100,100,200, 400. Nathan ran the first 100 in this relay. 

Start at the mile. 

Discuss

Discussing team strategy for the relay

Ready to start the first leg of the relay! 

Covid!

 Nearly 2 years into the pandemic, Covid finally hit our house. I thought I'd jot down what happened. Jeremy was on the only one who caught it and he must have gotten it at work. In our area, it seemed like every family and every house we knew was catching it. It was spreading like wildfire in the area. 

Tues Jan 25:  Jeremy had a slight sore throat in the evening. It was his day off and he had been woodworking so he thought it was from that. 

Wednesday Jan 26: The kids and I went to school while Jeremy was at home on his day off woodworking. When we got home from school, he said his throat was scratchy and he had a little cough from woodworking. Later that evening, he said he was getting a headache and drinking water wasn't making it go away. 

Since we knew Covid was going around like crazy (and I had been subbing nearly every day the last few weeks for people who had covid), I was extremely suspicious of his symptoms. Sure, the scratchy throat and cough COULD be from woodworking, but the headache was strange. I told him to sleep in the spare room that night as his symptoms really sounded like covid. 

Thursday, Jan 27: Jeremy woke up with all his symptoms of the night before PLUS a 102 fever and chills. Then I was positive he had covid. He took an at home test and sure enough, it popped positive right away. Since I am a health room para, I knew the kids and I were still allowed to go to school since none of us had symptoms. That was the current rule. I called the kids schools just to let them know the situation and the kids and I headed off to school. 

Jeremy hauled his recliner into the spare bedroom. For the next 5 days he was quarantined!  He either spent time in the spare room watching TV or out in his woodshop working on his projects. Every time he came into the house where the rest of us were, he wore a mask.  

Friday Jan 28: Jeremy still had a sore throat and cough. His fever hovered around 100. The kids and I went to school and he spent the day woodworking or hanging out in his recliner. 

Saturday Jan 29: Jeremy's fever broke that night. After that, he had a crazy runny nose. His throat still hurt and he had a cough. This was technically his work day but he took the day off. 

Sunday, Jan 30: Jeremy still had a scratchy throat and a cough. He took a second day off work. 

Monday Jan 31: Jeremy went back to work today as it was deemed he was no longer contagious after 7 days of symptoms. His throat clearing and cough went on another week after this.  We had inferred he caught covid at work as the rest of us were fine. 

The kids and I somehow dodged this round! I always thought the kids would be the ones to bring it home since they are in classrooms with 30 kids every day and there are 600 kids in their school. The masks at school really work since they've been doing it all year. My school nurse said that the covid spread is not happening IN the schools because we wear masks. It's happening out in the community where people don't wear masks. 

The 4 of us were all vaccinated. Elizabeth had just had her second shot a month before Jeremy caught covid. Jeremy had had his second shot over a year ago, so he probably had the least antibodies. Maybe that's why the other 3 of us didn't catch it this time around. I was very grateful that Jeremy had such minor symptoms. I have known so many people at work (mostly women) who were hit very hard and were miserable for weeks and sometimes had ongoing problems months later. I know when I do catch it someday, this will likely be the case for me as my body does not heal well. In theory, the kids should have an easier time when they do catch it. 

As I write this, it's March 13th. No more masks at school come Monday! They are now optional. Both kids say they will keep wearing theirs for a while. I will too when I'm in the classroom. Mask wearing has never bothered us and the kids have never complained. They are tough!  It's been nice not catching things at school since everyone has been masked. However, we are guessing we might catch some bugs now since in the past before masks, school was where the kids always caught things.  We have a big spring break trip coming up and no one needs to get sick! We have been so healthy the last 2 years with the kids not being in school or wearing masks all the time. It's been so nice to be so healthy,  but I think that will now be coming to an end.