First Days and Our Last Week

I still have our last day of Croatia to blog, but it appears to be mid-August and the rest of summer happened while I was busy with work and posting Croatia pictures.

For example, we visited my parents for the 4th of July at their new house in The Woodlands. It's beautiful and perfect for them and right by so many shops, restaurants, lake paths, and other fun things.

Landon's girlfriend Avery came with us. They're basically a package deal this summer and we're sharing custody with her parents before they go off to college 17 hours and 2 time zones away from each other.

We got to hang out with my brother and his family on my parent's boat out on the lake and it was a lot of fun.

Landon turned 19 in mid-July.

His last year as a teenager...

I don't even know what to do with that except embrace it and be really glad I enjoy the person he is and is becoming so very much!

(Random but accurate reflection of life with 19-year-old Landon: appearing in my office any time I'm working at night, always with food- here, frozen mango in a colander- to chat and reflect upon the day. It is my favorite thing and what I will absolutely miss most after he moves next week.)

In late July the boys had a swim meet out of town, so I took the girls up to Colorado for a long weekend to see my sister and her family.

We've never done a girls' trip before and since my sister also has all girls, it was a great combo! The girls played and colored all day and my sister and I played 100 rounds of Blitz. I could not have been happier.

I stopped by my firm's Denver office on Thursday to work for a while, did two workout classes with my sister in Boulder, and then we all drove up to the mountains to stay with my parents for a night.

My brother flew his family up for their birthdays (my brother, sister-in-law, and the twins are all born on July 25, 26, or 27th which is crazy), so we all got to hang out, play, and hike.

It was a great trip.

When we got back the boys left again for Landon's end-of-season meet, so James hand delivered flowers to me at my office because he missed me. Made me smile all week.

Also making me smile? Our gorgeous new oven!

At first it made me VERY sad to have to replace the oven that came with the house that was only five years old (a major part broke that would be 75% of the cost of a new oven to fix), but the appliance guy strongly recommended this brand and the new one was only a little more than the replacement part for the stupid old one that already broke twice so we forged ahead. And I love it with all my heart. It heats up so much faster, it has more burners, it is SO PRETTY. I immediately made roasted vegetable pasta puttanesca and used 3 burners and both ovens. Huzzah!

Jumping to the present, today was Cora's first day of school! She's in 7th grade and was all smiles as she headed out the door to meet the bus this morning, which is quite different from the ball of anxiety she was (we all were) last year when we found out she got into the Gifted & Talented magnet school only 3 days before school started.

6th grade was hard- new school (have I mentioned how much Cora hates change?), new friends, new level of academic rigor (which she killed; lowest grade was a 97 at the end of the year), new anxieties and crises of confidence, but with work, time, and therapy (and more work), she really came out on top and I'm so excited about the year she has ahead. She had a couple of back to school parties and man is it a different vibe to see her walk into a room filled with kids and wave and smile and run up to some and start chatting.

Yesterday was Claire's first day!

She's a junior (what on Earth; I'm barely recovered from having a senior and we're almost there again) and can now drive herself to school! She has taken ownership of her brother's car (freshly detailed because he does not have her standards of organization and cleanliness), left early to pick up a friend on the way to get Chick-fil-A chicken minis, and parked herself in her assigned spot for a great first day. James just got 90 minutes back in his life every day and Claire no longer has to yell at him in the morning because she likes to get to school (and everything else) very early. We love this for both of them.

She sent me this text while I was at work.

Teens really can be just the best.

Oh! funny story. I was working in my home office late last Monday night when Landon wandered in and said, "so, I have something to show you."

It appeared to be a tattoo.

I paused my client/matter timer on my screen and turned to give this development my full attention. The tattoo was a fish. Two fish actually. On his upper outer thigh.

"I picked out the design six months ago. I wanted something to do with water and even if I'm not swimming one day, I'll always like fish. And I thought about the location and thought maybe my ribs but then I decided I didn't want it to always be visible if I just took off my shirt so I picked somewhere you'd only see when I'm wearing my practice suit. It's covered when I'm teched up. And I researched the tattoo place because I knew you'd ask- it has over 1,000 reviews and 4.9 stars."

Huh. Well, okay then.

He went to show James, who had no reaction, and we all continued on with our evening. Later that night I said something to James about how "isn't it crazy that Landon just went and got a tattoo?" and he turns to me, shocked, and says, "Wait, that was REAL?!!".

Then the next morning he sent me this text while I was at work.

Speaking of texts, Landon's remain very random and always make me smile:

He also likes to check in while I'm at work and let me know that he isn't at work.

(James did take them bowling because James is also struggling with the fact that our first fledgling is leaving the nest.)

Landon mentioned on Friday that he might be flying to Denver on Saturday to see Noah Kahan with Avery and her mom because they had an extra ticket.

"I am but sad to leave u guys." He did indeed leave, but he was gone for 18 hours and had a great time.

And he was back in time for our packing date at 2 pm on Sunday afternoon. We fly to Indiana next Monday and Landon has insisted he can fit everything he wants to bring in one suitcase and turns out, he was right?

We went through everything in his room- shelves, drawers, closet, under the bed, etc. and put things in 3 piles: trash/donate, save, pack. Nearly everything was saved (he has ALL of his student IDs since elementary school, every birthday card he received from my grandparents, every rock one of his little cousins has given him, and one million more treasures that pulled on my heartstrings all afternoon), we got rid of a little, and we packed more than he thought he really needed.

(We already have the pick up order from the Target by campus in the queue. Obviously he needs many more things and even he agrees with some of them.)

I can't believe a week from today he'll be moved in and James and I will be flying home without him. I hate it, but I know he's so ready and I'm so excited for him. I'm so grateful for all our family time (wrote about it some at the bottom of this post; it's been a theme in my thoughts all summer) and so glad we have this last week with our three little ducklings all together.

Croatia Day 8: Dubrovnik & Elafiti Islands

Summer with big kids and a full-time job is a bizarre mix of slow moving anarchy for the children (2 of whom can now drive and are thus literally anywhere in DFW/Texas at any moment) and an absolutely packed calendar for me (but packed in a way that is fun and fine because I don't have any kid-commitments to do). I am so busy at work, but I also have plenty of lunches and events, and with no school and my free-range children milling about at odd hours and going to bed after I do, I can commit to so many more after-work social events and that is a lovely treat. It's like the early 20's corporate life I thought I'd have before I decided that starting my career with a 1-year-old would be better (it was). I billed nearly 60 hours last week. But I also got lots of time with random children musing to me while hanging out on my office couch, I got time with James when kids were at swim practices and we no longer have to drive them, I made it to five weights workout classes, and I hosted a pool party on Saturday afternoon for my badass women friends with no husbands or kids involved. I also hosted a summer associate event at my house Monday night to watch Center Stage, my favorite movie of all time, after I learned not a single one of our associates had seen it. (It holds up; they loved it, and not just because I told them they had to.) It was a great week.

But let's go back to Croatia! We're on Day 8 and it's the one the kids were most excited as it involved 8 hours on a boat and nothing else at all.

We met our driver at the hotel to take us to Old Town Dubrovnik and the harbor. As in Split, it amazed me how much the truly ancient and incredible landmarks were so active and USED.

We walked through the high walls of the fortress to meet our boat captain, knowing we'd be coming back the next day for our tour to actually learn about the history we were casually strolling through.

We met our captain, climbed onto our boat, and headed out into the Adriatic Sea! The beautiful walls of the city (and many a Game of Thrones scene) behind us.

Our captain asked what we'd like to do and see and of course the kids yelled, "jump off cliffs into the water!"

"I can do that!" our captain said as we sped off.

We stopped at our first cliff about 5 minutes later. Landon immediately jumped in the water and off the nearest cliff.

James followed.

It was very breezy in the morning from the storm that rolled in the night before, so the girls and I thought we'd wait a bit before jumping into chilly water. It was only 9:30 am after all. We boated all around the Elafiti Islands, soaking in the beautiful Adriatic sea, and marveling at the thousands of years old buildings that periodically appeared on the shore around us.

We boated inside a cave.

We stopped at a lot of spots our captain said he normally doesn't get to stop at because people can't climb the rocks to get up to the jumping spots, but Landon is a little spider monkey and there were many times it took me a minute to spot him on the rocks. His brown swim shorts really blended with his habitat.

The girls quickly got into the jumping and climbing. Here's Claire!

And Cora.

There was a lot of swimming and jumping and climbing. On repeat. There are SO many cliffs you can jump off in that area!

At one point Landon scaled a particularly high cliff where a broken tree was jutting out and he jumped off it to the claps of people on the other boats around us.

Our captain stopped at a favorite island of his so we could get some lunch. I was still dry because I was playing the long game.

We had a great meal with an even better view and I can't believe that was our reality only a couple weeks ago. The protein bar I ate at my desk today didn't quite hit the same.

Aperol spritzes are gluten free!

After lunch we boated more! The water remains ridiculous and the kids were almost always in it.

And I got in!

Graceful as ever.

It was such a fun day.

We got back to the hotel about 4:30 pm, rested a bit, and then got dressed for our last dinner in Croatia!

We had a beautiful meal overlooking the water and the sunset.

This was our last dinner in Croatia and it was a really nice cap on our stay. This trip was in part to celebrate Landon's graduation and in each day's adventures I was very aware that he wouldn't be doing much traveling with us for a while. In fact, we just planned our Spring Break trip for 2027 (taking the girls to Paris!) and there's only four people on the itinerary. I know going to college doesn't mean we'll never see him again, but with swimming he is pretty tightly regulated on when he can come home. 3 days at Thanksgiving. 6 days at Christmas. Not at all for Spring Break (NCAA's is right after). And we're not yet sure if he'll come home to train in the summer or stay in Bloomington (a lot depends on if he improves enough this year to stay on the team; with the transfer portal, nothing is certain and so many people get cut after each season so coaches can start fresh with people coming off a good year somewhere else. It's a lot of pressure and uncertainty).

We are so, so excited for him, and we've already booked tickets to take the girls up to Indiana to watch one of his meets in October, but this is a huge transition and there's some grief. As I sat at dinner - and every meal on that trip, frankly - and looked around the table at these kids I grew and we raised and we have truly loved traveling the world with, it all just felt a little bittersweet. So happy, so fun. So... wow. I met James my first day of college. I don't think I ever vacationed with my family again in a traditional sense. We're still very close, but it was immediately different.

I know, truly, that we have soaked up every phase of the Landon-lives-at-home chapter of our lives. Which doesn't mean every moment - there are some I do not miss and wasn't sad to leave behind - but the chapters, the phases, I feel a lot of comfort knowing we squeezed out all we could from each of them. For me, a big part of that was our travels. As a working mom, it was our time away from everyone's schedules and demands and there is a lot of bonding in experiencing new things together. It's also been the time Landon spends sprawled on my couch when I work in my office at night. It's the time he spent chatting to me while I was cooking when we lived in Fort Worth. It was car rides and reading books before bed. It was family walks and pool days and watching Christmas movies on the couch for the whole month of December when they were little and we were otherwise super mean about TV time.

We loved Croatia, and I still have one more day to share, but as I look at these pictures of one of our favorite days, I remember that even in the moment, it all hit a little different... a little more, knowing it was one of our last full Fike fam adventures for a while. And even though it was not good that he missed a week of practice (even though he found a pool at very stop and did his own!) and his coach is probably still mad at me for making him go, I am so so glad we got these days together. And this night - this meal - watching the sun set and laughing and talking together after a day on the water... it's bright in my mind and will be for a very long time.