H, I got to take you on another lunch date today.

I am tired, and I have some chores I need to do at home – so I was on the fence about it until nearly 11.

But there seems to be such a short window for doing this.

Not long ago, you would cry so much when we dropped you back off after lunch, it was hardly worth coming to steal you for a one-hour date.

And soon, you will be in kindergarten – and I am not even sure we can easily come and steal you away then.

Until then, I want to kidnap you for every second I can get.

So, I picked you up today and we went to Rosas.

You asked for sopapillas (again) and even took the receipt up to the counter when it was time to pick them up.

I loved the one-on-one time!

Until…

Until mom crashed our party.

She showed up right before we finished eating, to surprise you and say hi.

And we both dropped you back off at school right after naptime had started.

K, we are gonna start lunch dates with you as soon as we can drop off again with minimal fanfare.

I can’t wait.

My girls.

I can’t wait to hug you both again in about an hour.

I love you.

-Dad

It’s swimming time again!

We got our pool passes this last Friday and we were at the Tech pool 24 hours later.

Unfortunately, when we got there, we discovered that the pool was still closed.

Mom checked the website again:

10 AM

We looked at our watches again:

10 AM

So we walked around the front of the Rec Center, only to find the entire facility locked up, and a few dozen students standing around waiting to get in.

Long story short – they forgot to update the website and planned on opening at noon.

H, you thought we were not going to be able to go to the pool at all and lost it, crying more than once.

While we waited, we ran to Target to get a pillow for mom and swung through Wendy’s drive-thru.

When we got back with our food at 11:30, they had opened the pool.

K, you loved the water.

You had a bright smile on your face the entire time we were there.

And H, you are such a big kid.

I think you would have stayed another 3 hours if we had let you.

The only downside of the day was that I didn’t use sunscreen and ended up with a little bit of a sunburn.

I can feel it now as I type.

Let’s make the most of this summer.

I love you.

-Dad

So Lubbock has a little amusement park that is open during the summer, it’s called Joyland.

Our church reserved the park this last week and we got to go.

I was not excited about it because it was so hot outside, but mom convinced me and we went anyway.

We all ate hotdogs on picnic tables before we went in, playing hide and seek with the blistering sun.

H, you had an absolute blast.

You and I even rode the Sky Ride together.

H, you have gone from a kid that was crying about getting on a merry-go-round at the age of 3, to a 4-year-old insisting on doing the Wild River Log Flume 5 times in one evening!

You were a beast!

K, unfortunately, you were too small for most of the rides.

But I think you would have done every single ride with H if we had let you!

K, you loved the merry-go-round when we all did it as a family.

You girls are becoming so big and strong and brave and wise.

I love you.

-Dad