Final hours with Archer. :**(

Had them over for a casual dinner w/ a pretty good spread.

They spent SO much time together these months of lockdown…

Some of our fun neighbors also swung by to say farewell.

Griffie, gonna miss ya, too. All the best wishes in SAC and we’ll plan to meet on the slopes in Tahoe. :)

E seemed okay as we waved goodbye to them and saw them leave our street for the last time… And THEN, came home and he just burst into tears for a very, very, very LONG time. He was fine when we left TX and even had friends that he knew for a longer period of time. No tears. Guess these emotions become more real as we grow… Sigh, the joys and pains of life. We just let him cry. As Mommy always says, tears sometimes are needed to cleanse the soul.

And then we offered hugs… Sooner or later, we all learn that living is a series of hellos and goodbyes. C’est la vie.

On a totally unrelated and more light-hearted note, Daddy found another place in SD with Hainan chicken rice via the Singaporean online group he recently joined…

Annnnnd summer road trip #1, here we come!

We decided to take advantage of Disneyland’s California residents only (for the time being), reduced capacity and E’s virtual Fridays schedule for the rest of the school year. With the grand opening of the Avengers campus, we chose to spend the day at DCA.

Masks were required the whole day, except in designated areas for eating/drinking.

Hey Woody, I’m back.

Mom, the carousel again? :P

Found out later that Walt Disney’s middle name is Elias!

Crazy daddy!

We actually didn’t get to do this one the last time we were here.

E’s building. :)

Hanging on for dear life before the splash.

Wait times were definitely faster than pre-pandemic — we were able to do a lot of the rides several times but Radiator Springs always had the longest wait. We saved it for the end of the evening.

We didn’t get into the virtual queue for the new Spider-Man Web Slingers ride though both of us logged on at 6:59am and 11:59pm. You will not believe how crazy fast those spots get swooped up! The standby line to get in the Avengers campus was looooooong during the day and we knew we didn’t want to stand in queue for 6-8+ hours like some people had been the past few days… Turns out in the evening, we could just walk right in.

The campus was new and well-done but yea, definitely not worth waiting HOURS for… guess maybe just not huge fans?

E’s feet were pretty sore by the end of the night but we had a good time… We grabbed a quick/late dinner from Downtown Disney and headed back to SD. ‘Til next time!

Hey, we planned a hike in honor of Memorial Day this month… Uhhhh, not really? We almost didn’t finish this one. It started drizzling and then RAINING (with none in the forecast and yeah, it’s SD) so we turned back a couple of times but then finally decided to finish it with the boys’ final call to just push through… They were pretty jazzed to see this flag waving at the top. God bless America! And way to persevere.

Lovely views despite the overcast skies…

Near the beginning of the trail — see, no sign of precip!

A is moving. :( Dad was away getting things in order for his new job so we gave his mom a hand by having him over…

These two have become like bros this past year…

Said brotherhood. :)

We all love Uncle Aaron! And Mommy loves chatting to him about running things.

Daddy is back on the field for games/practices so we checked out Agua Hedionda on afternoon while he was playing.

Roughie. :)

Went to check out out the new Lego Movie World land!

The mommies enjoyed the carousel (and colors — both being “artists” of sorts) whereas the boys found it bor-ing. :| But we all agreed Emmet’s Flying Adventure was pretty cool (no pix as it was indoors).

Character meet and greets of the times…

Air high five.

While maintaining safe distance, lol. (With two workers on the side to kindly remind us!)

The crew + Rex.

H didn’t bring water gear for the waterpark so we tried to put him in Daddy’s shorts. :))

Sho are growing up fast…

A’s b-day bash! What is this thing you call a party? ;-P

Poke-cookies.

Poke-cake pop. Take a wiiiiild guess what b-day boy is into.

And a Mew (his current fav Pokemom) cake. It took quite a bit of sleuthing to find Mew gifts. ;D

Then two joined…

Followed by more. :)

Morning cuddles in Daddy and Mommy’s bed.

Trying out the Oculus Daddy got as a work reward.

Keeping up our May kitchen counter photo tradition. It was lots of pastries/cakes/sweets (and soft shell crab!) for Daddy’s b-day and all the chocolate for Mother’s Day.

Mama friend here sent us these from Kate Weiser in Big D who Mommy spotted at a chocolate festival she volunteered at way back when.