Once Again With Family

Marisa, Beth, And Kaia

It's 7:40 and I am sitting in the lounge of the Beeman Hotel, just next to the SMU campus. Since Beth and Rami have moved into an apartment, when the kids are home, we get to stay in a hotel.  Pretty nice. We are a mile away from their apartment so it's an easy drive or long walk. 

We left Shreveport just before 9:00 as we hoped because we knew we had a three-hour drive ahead of us to Dallas.  It's basically a straight shot on Interstate 80 until we get close to Dallas, a busy highway of course. We made good time, stopping once for gas and found Beth's apartment, The Mc Kenzie, fairly easy, no wrong ways this time. She was waiting in front to meet us, with Kaia. They have valet parking which made it easy and we went up to their lovely ninth-floor apartment with a great view of Dallas. Marisa was back from Vanderbilt so there were just the three of us until later in the day.  

Doing Homework!

Beth warmed up some tasty leftover chicken with green salsa for lunch and we got a grand tour of their apartment, two bedrooms, a den, an open living room and kitchen, and a lanai.  We were tired from our drives so it felt good to relax until we decided to check-in at our hotel.  Beth came with us so it was easy to find the hotel and get checked in and unload our stuff and take it up to the sixth floor.  We are getting used to living out of a suitcase.

Father And Son

We were back at Beth's apartment by 3:00 and got a tour of the apartment complex, with lots of spacious gathering rooms, a bar, an outdoor swimming pool, a patio and grill, a workout room, and a small library. They seem to love living there and I understand why. Mitch arrived around 3:00.  He's a grad student at the University of Texas in Austin, studying architectural engineering. He looks great and is happy with his studies. Rami was home by 3:30, in time to take a conference call at 4:00. He bikes to work now when the weather is cool, an easy ten minutes, most of it on the Katy Trail. 

Evie And Beth Relaxing

Kicking Back With Kaia

We sat around talking and taking turns paying attention to Kaia until 5:00 when Mitch and I made Old Fashions, a drink that both Rami and Beth have been making.  They livened up the evening until dinner, Beth's vodka pasta, a request from Evie.  We love it and no one makes it like Beth. 

Dinner

We had roasted asparagus, salad, and a baguette to round out the dinner. Around 7:00, Mitch's girlfriend Milena arrived, after working twelve hours at Baylor Hospital as an intensive care nurse. She's great and she even came to Chautauqua this past summer for a few days.  Both Mitch and Milena will be moving to Los Angeles this summer where Mitch has a job with the Arup Group, an international architectural firm, and Milena will work in a hospital.

Milena And Mitch

A Kaia Welcome

By 9:00, we had caught up on everyone's lives, planned the next couple of days, so we decided to go back to the hotel, as we were both tired.  It was a good choice because we hardly watched any TV and went to bed early.