I haven't posted in awhile, because we have been extremely busy. I am going to post the highlights of the past two and half months in one long post. We have had lots of fun and lots of change and I want to be sure to document it all!
In July, we ended our regular swim season with a winning record of 3-1. We also hosted City Meet and our team placed 3rd! That was quite an accomplishment as we hadn't placed third in over 10 years! Preston had a great swim season and helped his team place in many relays. He also had some good individual events and had lots of fun at City Meet, even though he didn't make it to the finals. He was a great teammate and spent lots of time cheering for his friends. Evan accomplished his goal and was the City Meet champion for diving for 14 and Under Boys. He worked very hard all summer. He also was able to get 5th place in the 100 meter IM and also helped his relay teams win two more medals in the 14 and Under Boys freestyle and medley relays. It was an amazing season with our amazing team!
Just a couple of days after City Meet, we went to Key West. We had an amazing time. The weather was great and we had lots of fun.
We all spent lots of time at the pool, as it was the perfect spot to cool off.
Preston asked to go to the botanical garden almost every day. He loves catching lizards there. I really enjoy seeing the flowers and the butterfly garden.
Preston found coconuts and got permission to keep them. We ate one and we brought one home to see if we can grow our own palm.
We spent an afternoon at the water park and playground. In addition to playing, there was also lots of lizard catching and tree climbing.
We loved spending time at Fort Zachary Taylor. The water was beautiful and great for snorkeling. Preston especially liked snorkeling on this trip and he and Carl went many times.
We visited Geiger Key where we kayaked and had lunch. We also did a bit of exploring, but not too much, as it was quite stinky from the large amount of seaweed. While we were there, a boat captain was cleaning fish and let both Evan and Preston feed a large nurse shark that was by the dock. It was really cool!
Evan spent a LOT of time fishing. He went out to the pier at least once a day and sometimes he went more than once in a day. He caught lots of fish and was especially excited to catch many sharks and a barracuda. 
Carl and I were able to go out together on a few different nights. We enjoyed a sunset sail, as well as eating at all of our favorite restaurants.
We went to the wildlife center. It was only partially operational, but the boys enjoyed feeding the turtles.
While Evan fished, we kept Preston entertained doing things he liked. We went to the aquarium, tried coconut water, went on walks, visited Southernmost Point, went out on the paddleboard, and caught lizards. We also took him snorkeling. He absolutely loved snorkeling and he saw lots of sharks. He also found some cool shells.
We went out on Captain Rio's boat one morning and had lots of fun fishing. Captain Rio knew a great spot and the boys caught over thirty fish each!
On Carl's birthday, we went out on a boat for the all day adventure. We had a great time snorkeling, playing on the inflatable playground, riding jet skis, and parasailing.
The boys were greeted by a fledgling grackle one morning. It was learning to fly and was super friendly. He reminded of us of Lamar.
When we returned from Key West, we celebrated Granddaddy's birthday. The weather was nice, so we had lunch outside at Captain's Quarters.
On August 2nd, we bought a new house! It was quite a long process, but we are moved in and have already started to make it perfect for us. We love the extra room and we absolutely love our backyard, which has a pond and a dock on Harrods Creek. The boys have already started making friends and they are happy that they remained at their schools.
It was quite a process to find and purchase a new house. Over the past year or so, we looked at several houses in Hunting Creek that just weren't right for us. We tried to look at a few others, but they sold so quickly, that we never even got to attend our appointments to view them. It was quite frustrating.
Earlier this summer. I happened to see an ad online about an open house that was happening in The Landings. It wasn't where we were looking to buy a home, but the house looked amazing. We went to the open house and decided to put in an offer. Although we made an offer over asking price, we were outbid. We were very disappointed. It seemed like getting a new house was just not going to work out for us, so we started to work on making additional improvements and additions to our house.
A few weeks later, our realtor messaged us saying that the house we loved in The Landings, was no longer under contract and that the agent selling the house wanted to know if we were still interested. We made an appointment to view the house again and meet the owners to learn about the repairs that were going to be done on the house. Everything seemed great and the owners agreed to take our original offer. We were thrilled!
After we purchased our new home, we got to work getting our old house ready to sell. Despite having it all updated, it was actually a lot of work to get it staged and ready to list. We had an amazing realtor, Todd Klondike, that helped us get it ready. He also helped us sell it very fast and at a great price. It did take several weeks of hard work to get everything moved out. We hired movers for the furniture, but we still made countless trips to the new house, as we moved clothes, toys, etc.
We made many great memories at out old home and can't wait have lots of fun in our new house!
The boys started school in mid August. Evan is in 8th grade at Kammerer Middle School and Preston is in third grade at Chancey Elementary School.
Here are the pictures from the first day of school.
Evan has continued to fish a lot this summer. He loves catching bass and has also learned to catch carp.
Preston decided to try cross country this year. He has joined the team at Chancey. He loves practicing with his friends, but also enjoys running with Daddy. He has had one race so far and he loved it!
The pool was open extra long this year. It was extra nice to go and relax after working hard on moving and starting back to school.
I don't want to end this post without mentioning the pandemic. As a family, we are happy and things in our lives are getting back to normal. Carl does still work at home, but the boys are back in school full time and we have resumed many of our usual activities. However, Covid-19 is still here and causing lots of people to get sick. To date, there have been over 4.5 million deaths worldwide and about 685, 000 deaths in the United States due to Covid-19. Vaccines have helped people to not get super sick if they do get infected, but many people refuse to get vaccinated. Also, there has been difficulty getting the vaccines distributed to certain places. Healthcare workers are overworked and underappreciated. Teachers and school staff are also feeling lots of pressure as they try to teach, care for the students, and also follow lots of guidelines to help keep people healthy. I am hopeful that we can get this pandemic under control in the near future. Living during a pandemic is difficult and stressful for most everyone.
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