Summer Plans- 2023

Planning for the summer is always exciting…Who am I going to see? Where am I going to go? What needs to be booked? When I went home last Christmas, I didn’t get to see many people. The holiday was a week shorter than it usually is thanks to the earlier Lunar New Year break this year, plus I got the flu on Christmas Eve, which knocked me out for a week and led me to cancel many of my plans.

I have just over a month off this year, and unlike last year, when I traveled to Texas, Canada, and England, this year I’m staying put in the US. I’m looking forward to spending more quality time with people, rather than the fast-paced rhythm of last summer. I have planned a few trips this summer. In addition to those, I have a list of things I want to do and people to see.

I’m thrilled to get Aunt Kathy to myself this summer. We have booked two nights in a tiny home in Waco, Texas. Neither one of us have stayed in a tiny home before, but have always wanted to see what it’s like. While we’re there, we’ll visit the Magnolia Silos, Chip and Joanna Gaines’ place, and shop in the boutiques and antique shops in the local area.

Here’s our tiny home in Waco! 🙂

Due to Covid, our annual Kesler family reunion hasn’t happened since 2019, but this year, we are back! I’m looking forward to having everyone together once again, as the house is always full of family, fun, food, and lots of laughs!

Here’s the last time we were all together…miss all these smiling faces! 🙂

One thing I try to do every summer is attend an Astros game. There’s something magical about being at the ballpark. The energy from the fans, the ballpark fare, the Friday night fireworks…I can’t get enough of it! Let’s go Astros!

Since they were three, I’ve taken Randi and Logan (my niece and nephew) on a “date,” where they get to spend the day with me doing anything they want to do. It’s such a fun tradition, and we look forward to it each summer and Christmas when I’m home. Since Covid happened, I missed several of our dates. To make up for, I took them on a three-day double-date last year, where we stayed in a fancy hotel in Houston, swam until our fingers turned into raisins, saw the off-Broadway production of Frozen, attended an Astros game, and went to the Houston Aquarium. They were big fans of the double-date! This year’s trip will be to Dallas, where we’ll stay in a nice hotel with a big pool, spend a day at Six Flags (they’ve never been!), play games at Dave and Buster’s, see a movie, play at Kidzania, and go skydiving indoors. I hope they love it as much as last year’s trip!

Here we are on top of the ferris wheel at the aquarium last year!

The last time I visited Nashville was when I was 8, and I don’t really remember it. My mom, dad, and I are taking a 4-day trip to the country music capital in July. I’ve enjoyed researching all of the things we will do while we are there, especially all the delicious food we will eat! Nashville is known for their hot chicken (I’m hoping they have hot tofu or cauliflower for me), biscuits, sweet tea, donuts, and “meat and three” (I’ll just stick with the three!). We will definitely catch some live music while we are there at the Grand Ole Opry and some honky tonk bars. If you have any Nashville recommendations, send them my way!

Other things on my list include:

• Spending lots of time with my family…can’t wait to get lots of hugs from Blayke, Randi, and Logan!
• Visiting my Aunt Alva, Uncle David, and cousins in Tyler, TX
• Eating at all my favorite places- Casa Rodriguez, Stella’s, Shipley’s, Rx Pizza
• Target trips!
• Hanging out with my friends I haven’t seen in a while- Nicole, Sonia, Robin, Suzie, Anela
• A day trip to Austin to go shopping and eat at my favorite places
• Going fishing with my dad…and by fishing, I mean riding around the lake in his boat while munching on snacks. I made the mistake of asking him to take me fishing last summer and we actually had to go fishing. It was super boring! 😛

What are you looking forward to this summer?