I wanted to go for a bike ride after dinner and Colin wanted to swim. We compromised with a short ride around the lake followed by a short swim.

Colin has a friend over and Laura has joined them in the pool for some fun this afternoon. It’s warm but nice to be sitting out watching kids have fun.

Colin completed his activity challenge! He cycled the distance from Cairo to the Giza pyramids (75 km) in just over two weeks. His medal arrived in the post today and he is very proud of it!

He insisted on a series of photos to show off all of its features.

Laura did not know that pointe shoes are all personalized, and it’s the dancer herself who has to finish them! She had to hand sew elastic and ribbons on to the shoes.

Thankfully there were go-by photos available for reference, and I could give a few general tips on anchoring thread, etc.

The effort was worth it, though, and she came back from her first lesson just beaming and brimming with excitement.

Colin got a personal best round of 239 (out of 300) and had an end that was worthy of a photo with nothing less than a 8!

Laura is taking a big step in her ballet career as today. She got fitted for her first pair of pre pointe shoes.

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We rode our bikes to a bee gelato shop to celebrate national ice cream day. To be fair, it might be a couple of years old, but it’s new since we were here last.

We all had tasty treats and enjoyed the outing – we took the scenic route around the lake.

It was a good day for a bike ride.

Going in reverse order…the very first thing we did on our road trip was visit Franklin safari en route to Austin. This is a drive-through wildlife park.

We paid the extra to have an employee take us through in one of the park vehicles rather than risk damage to our new car (and the bicycles on the back).

Our travel companions were pleased to check out the view from our hotel room in Austin.