one and done summer

 And since we had a pretty long vacation (it was nice to be back home!!), our summer wrapped in a blink of an eye.  

Even though we only did one singular week of Orcas, he was there for picture day and was able to swim championships!!  

Ella painted the 3 domes of Santorini for my birthday!!

And a spider on her leg for fun...

Congrats Max! You scored in the top 10% of kids in state testing.

Ready for SAAA Championships!!!

50 yd backstroke - 44.22

50 yd breaststroke - 45.29

50 yd freestyle - 33.52

Congrats on finishing your 11th season as an Orca!!!  

We had a few days of break from swimming and then we headed up to Phoenix for Long Course Regional Championships.  This turned out to be a rough meet - a full 3+ weeks of no practice and not a ton of training time before, and continuing to battle some health issues.  But we're proud of you for your dedication and perseverance.  

50m breaststroke - 44.28

50m butterfly - 34.71 - a PR!

A fun dinner together after hours in the heat.

Saturday morning, we grabbed breakfast at The Henry, did some shopping, then grabbed lunch at Bianco, a pizza place Roger has been wanting to try for forever - it was delicious!

100m freestyle - 1:11.67

200m IM - 3:02.10

Then back to the hotel and Els and I went to see Moana together.

Sunday morning, we made our way up to see Uncle Kenny and stopped at the brand new Buc-ee's on the way.  

OMG overwhelming in every way possible.  We could not have gotten out of there any sooner!

It's always great to see Uncle Kenny!!  He moved a few months back so it was nice to see him in his new place!

Back for lunch at Chelsea's Kitchen, another one of our faves, and then to the hotel for a quick nap.

200m freestyle - 2:40.08

50m freestyle - 32.08

We know this wasn't easy for you, Els, but we are super proud of you.  

In the meantime, we had huge storms back home and our tree in the front yard was uprooted.  Thankful it didn't hit the house!!!

Hello sweet Piper!!  She was having issues of her own - her other ACL was torn.  Ugh...

And the start of band camp...thanks for sharing all of the pics from your fun week!!

They ended band camp with a fun show for the families.

Ella is playing the snare drum this year!!!

And with that, maybe not totally ready for this, but we're here.  Let's make it an awesome year.  Thankful for our fun summer together and love you guys the mostest and always.  

o'choymeyers on the med 2026 part fourteen: back to rome and back to home

Okay, two months later, and I'm wrapping up this trip blog.  What an amazing vacation and truly a trip of a lifetime.  So thankful for our travels and adventures with Mom, Dad, Steve, B, Cillian, Egan, Rog, Els and Max.  Love our family so very much.

Goodbye Disney Dream!!!  Thank you for the amazing memories.

After a bit of a chaotic journey from port to bus to train [and saying goodbye-for-now to the O'Choys] to [another] train to the airport hotel, we took a cab back into Rome to hit all of our Italian faves.

Delicious pasta!!!  Cacio e pepe and an Aperol spritz

One last "Max pose circa 2026" for the road 

Our favorite gelato!!  Els was sad to learn that we missed Tom Holland and Zendaya by about 24 hours...

Mmmm...my espresso slush, Max's passion fruit slush and Rog and Els were always up for new flavors!

A bit more [window] shopping near the Spanish Steps

ALL the pizza and one last Aperol spritz

We headed back to the hotel to get packed and ready to head home.

Also one final Concierge Key perk of the trip...

Ciao and grazie Roma!!!  SUCH a memorable and beyond fantastic vacation!!  Where to next??

o'choymeyers on the med part part thirteen: disney dream day 7 (naples)

 Buongiorno, Napoli!!!

While my parents headed to Sorrento and the O'Choys went in search of some delicious pizza, we embarked on a tour of Pompeii.  It was a cool experience to step back in time into an event that I so vividly remember learning about as a kid in school.

We had a great tour that described how this city was covered in ashes for so many centuries and incredibly well-preserved.

Mt. Vesuvius

The water fountains that depicted different animals for different neighborhoods.

The entrance to a home; all homes had the mosaic tile floors.

Another water fountain

Exploring, experiencing and learning like Roger

Max using the step stone that enabled residents to avoid stepping in sewage

More "being a tourist a la Roger"

A Roman gym!!  The tile work and the floor and the preserved art work on the walls were incredible!

The main square

These used to be shops

Our tour guide pointed out the small white stones in the paved roads that would act as reflectors at night!

Our tour then went into the museum which held other works of art and included several plastercasts of people and a dog who died when Mt. Vesuvius erupted.

Such a somber experience and thankful that we were able to step into this world and learn about the people who lived there.  

A very hard emotional left turn, and we went back to Naples in search of pizza.

OMG, it was HOT.  Like, really really hot and miserable outside...  But the pizza was delicious!!

Back on the boat and reunited with the O'Choys for a few final rounds on the Aquaduck!

A few final soft serves...

And a delicious dole whip with a rum float!

Ugh, I missed a few characters in their Italian outfits, so Els snapped this pic of Minnie really quickly.

Last trivia!  Another Disney tunes one - these were seriously the BEST and we had an amazing team!!!  Els and me trying to remember Jessie's song in Toy Story 2 and figuring it out at the exact same moment.  

Thanks for the early birthday wishes!!!  Love love my nephews and these memories and smiles make me want to book another Disney cruise immediately...

Salute!  

Thank you Disney Dream - such an amazing cruise and love all of the fun memories and togetherness.  B did a great job putting together our family door magnets!!