Very nice surprise

 We had a nice visit with Rebeca and Jason and Scotty these last 3 days.  They were only going to be in town two nights but a light came on in the car - something about a low battery in their remote key - so they thought it'd be best to get that taken care of.  The bonus for us is that they stayed an extra day!

The first evening, they met me at Mom's house.  Because the covid cases are high and going up, we thought it'd be best to just say hello at the door.  They did slip just inside the door to get a picture or two in.

The next day, they had breakfast with us - and lunch - and then they left to spend sometime at Aquatica, which is the water park section of Sea World.  Unfortunately, some storms came up after they had been there only a couple of hours so they had to take shelter and then the park was closed.

The day after that was the bonus day.  They decided to try Aquatica again, after getting the battery in their key remote replaced.  Same thing happened at Aquatica.  Storms came up.  But this time, they were able to resume their activities.

So, it's their last day here and we are back home after saying bye to them.  The house always seem so extra quiet and sad after either one of those boys go home.

Moonlight Sonata

 Just posting that I finished learning how to play Moonlight Sonata again.  I actually finished learning the whole thing back in April.  Using a tutorial on Youtube made it easy.  But it really made me aware of how much patience my friend had to have had back in 1972 or 1973 to sit with me everyday and teach me just a little more of the piece.  I see now that was obviously not an easy thing to do.  But I still remember sitting with her at the piano in the Catholic Student Center at SAC and we actually both had a lot of fun.  I guess being younger made it a lot easier to pick up.  

Major catch up

In March, we went several times to the creek behind our old house.  

Look at this wildlife oasis the city built behind where our house used to be!

In March, we also went to Tucson.

Nice thunderstorms in the city left Mount Lemmon with lots of snow!

It was fun watching Leo at his soccer games in April.  It was quite hot though!

Here, he and Fernando are kicking the ball around before the game starts.

Visiting the dinosaur tracks at the Cibolo Nature Center

Game time in May

At the beginning of May, I went to Leo's school to have lunch with him.  I brought tacos and we both had a good time.

On the steps of the porch at Fernando and Eva's house.

Big Mother's Day surprise from Guillermo.  I was at my mother's house on Mother's Day.  Guillermo was in Tucson.  When these flowers arrived, I assumed they were both for my mother.  What a shock it was to us to find out that one bouquet was for me also!  The delivery people were so tickled to see what a happy surprise this delivery was to all of us (my mother, me, and Linda).

Leo turned 7!

Having lunch again with this boy at his school on the day after his birthday!

We are on our way to Tucson!

Visiting Rose Canyon

Looking at the enormous tadpoles.

Our Airbnb had this perfect little yard where every single day there was a soccer game between the guys going on.  Rebeca and I played some too! The goal posts were white plastic chairs.  

What fun everyone had in the pool at Rebeca and Jason's house.

Visiting the zoo.  The next three pictures have always been "must take" pictures whenever we took Scotty to the zoo.  This time he had his cousin in the picture with him!

These boys were absolutely intent on finding in this aviary each and every bird that was listed on the sheet.  I think they found all but one.

Visiting the Desert Museum

Playing miniature golf.

Trip to Sabino Canyon.  We're having lunch before getting on the tram.

 

The boys helping Abuelito celebrate his birthday.

Driving back home we ran into an incredible dust storm after El Paso.  Visibility was never a problem, but the blowing dust was very strong.

It is now June.  Eva had to unexpectedly leave San Antonio while we were in Tucson because her father had a stroke.  It was a struggle trying to decide what was going to happen to the guinea pigs that Eva had stayed in San Antonio to take care of.  We finally found a good friend who agreed to take care of them till we returned from Tucson.

We had Leo over several nights in the two weeks before he and Fernando were to leave for Sweden themselves.  Leo and I enjoyed many trips to the neighborhood pool, playing pool soccer and also pretending the soccer ball was a chicken.

Now he and Fernando are in Newark waiting for their flight to Stockholm.  

 

Christmas 2021

On December 1st, we wanted to go to the zoo with Leo.  We got to the zoo right at 9, when it usually opens, but today it was closed.  We found out later that for the month of December, they aren't opening until 11am!  So, we tried to think of something else we could do and since the Sunken Gardens are right there by the zoo anyway, that's where we decided to go.  We hadn't walked around the Sunken Gardens in ages and today made us wonder why we don't come here more often.  It really is a beautiful place.

Walking around in the Sunken Gardens took about an hour.  I didn't know it yet, but all the going up and down on all those steps in the Sunken Gardens was going to really really affect my left knee later on.

After we left the Sunken Gardens, we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens.

Here's Leo learning to make the snowflakes that I always make.

Christmas Day

We were lucky to have Fernando and family in town.  Their original plan was to be in Sweden for Christmas but with the virus cases getting worse, they decided to postpone their trip until the summer.

 

Latest Happenings

November Happenings

Scotty loved this old skull that was close to our Airbnb.

The Airbnb had this piano in there.  What a great sound it had!  Way back when I was in college a kind friend taught me how to play Moonlight Sonata entirely by heart.  I knew how to play it for a couple of years but slowly I forgot most of it.  While staying at this Airbnb, I used Youtube to try to learn how to play a little more of what I had forgotten.  It sounded so good on this piano.

Scotty really does love to go Geo Caching.  Here he is at a cache called Zip Line.  He is bringing the container down.  While we were in Tucson, we did at LEAST 12 caches.

Scotty with his dog Spot.  

Eva and Leo with the guinea pigs, Zigz and YoYo.

How I loved picking this boy up from school everyday!

 October Happenings.

Fernando went with us to the creek that was behind our old house.  It was a good day to be out there.

Annual trek to a neighborhood - FAR from our house - to see their amazing Halloween decorations.

This is one of Leo's favorite places in the zoo.  Although he has to awkwardly hang over the railing, he loves feeding the turtles.

Up close with kangaroos

In the butterfly house.  A butterfly landed on me!

At a friend's birthday party.  Putting away the loot from a pinata that was just busted.

Up close with flamingos.  

Visiting a pumpkin patch