A Well Deserved Rest

Since Matt has been going to college in Texas, we have tried to combine our vacations with him returning to school.  One year we used one of our timeshare exchanges for a resort in Pottsboro, TX and this year we booked a condo in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  This was our third driving trip to Texas since he started college. 

This year Matt decided it would be nice to have a car at school.  He has made it two years without one, but since he is now an upperclassman, it seemed wrong to rely on his friends to run him to the store and for haircuts.  Also, he now has a girlfriend and wanted to have the ability to take her out on dates every now and then.  So we made the decision to drive him to school in the Jeep Cherokee and then fly home - leaving him with the SUV.

We had a safe two-day trip to Hot Springs, with an overnight stay in Albuquerque, NM.  We were very pleased that Matt's girlfriend, Danielle, was able to take the Amtrak from Ohio and join us for part of our vacation.  We did some sightseeing, kayaked a river, took a dinner cruise and rented a ski boat.  Both Mike and I skied many, many, many years ago and we were surprised that we were able to get up (and down) without incurring any injuries.  Matt and Danielle have not skied before and, though they came close to getting up, they weren't able to keep their balance.  We changed out the skis for a water tube and the kids had fun riding that.  Mike decided to try the tube and I, wanting to give him a little more adventurous ride, did a whip which caused him to wipe out and severely bruise a rib.  Guess we should have left the new stuff to the younger guys.  We left the resort on Saturday and made our way to Matt and Danielle's school where we spent a few days helping them get stuff out of storage and setting up their rooms.  We then returned to Phoenix, very thankful that we did not have to drive back.

Laurie kayaking the Caddo River

Captain Mike at the controls

Matt and Danielle hang on in a turn

While we were on vacation, we had a couple of phones calls from the electricians.  Nothing major, just some clarification about where things needed to be placed and how they were doing on time and money.  They were able to finish the initial electrical work (more cleanup and finishing to be done after the inspection) just before we returned home.  After taking a couple of days off, they started the plumbing.  The initial home inspection did not reveal any major problems with the plumbing, but, during the electrical work, Craig and Dennis discovered that some of the pipes were poorly routed and not secured well.  We thought it would be best to have it reworked now instead of later.  We also purchased a blown glass shade to hang over the piano in our new house.

Stats:  0 Home Depot trips; 0 Walmart trips
Remodeling expense 8/7-8/19: $45
Remodeling expense to date: $13,015