June 25 - Father's Day Fun

Yamo babies

For Father's Day this year, JD and the kids set up a slip 'n slide and the mini-unicorn pool for some fun. The kids played outside on the slip 'n slide for literally hours. They loved it! JD was out there for a long time sliding too (I was worried he would get hurt because..you know diving onto the grass over age 40 isn't for the weak of heart, but he was okay). Jillian loved getting into the action and trying to copy the big kids. It was adorable! As for Apollo..he didn't seem to care too much about the slip 'n slide. I'm pretty sure Amelia and Karma would have been out there with the kids but he was content to follow me around as I took pictures and videos. 

so much personality

Well, it's hard to believe but we are almost done with the summer swim season (especially weird since 'summer' technically started just a few days ago). The kids have been doing fantastic. The last duel meet is this weekend and the championship meet is the following weekend. The season has flown by! Also in swim news, Julia *might* have qualified for the Texas State meet (called 'TAGS') for Aquastar (in a relay) and we should find out soon either way. Exciting!

Enjoy these picture and the next post will be.....THE NEW PUPPY!

A boy and his dog

Luke & Kaleb

June 17 - Longhorn Swim Camp

Top: Myah, Holly, Julia, Reese, Erin & Kennedy (Aqua girls)
Bottom: Reese, Kennedy, Jill, Julia, Lucy (w divers)

Last year Julia went to A&M swim camp and came back a HUGE Aggie fan. As JD nor I attended Texas A&M, we were a tad alarmed at her quick indoctrination. This summer we decided she needed a change of pace and signed her up for Longhorn Swim Camp at UT Austin. She roomed with 3 Aquastar teammates while Kennedy and Reese also attended and were in the room across the hall. Jen (Kennedy's mom) and I carpooled over to Austin last Sunday to drop the girls off. We stopped by the Oasis for lunch and the girls were "wowed" by the best view in the state of Texas. After lunch, we headed over to the dorm. 

Okay-when I say dorm, you may be thinking of a small box type room and a communal bathroom. This "dorm" was a 17 story building with a rooftop pool, movie theater and full gym. Every room is a suite. The girls each had leather L-shaped coaches, full size stainless steel fridges and 2 bedrooms off the living area. Each bedroom had a half wall partition so these was a semblance of privacy, including their own ceiling fan. Each bedroom also had a bathroom complete with double sinks and a nice shower. Even more exciting? Julia had 2 friends attending Longhorn Diving Camp and they were in the same dorm..the room directly below Julia. What are the odds?!

There were approx. 200 swimmers at the camp and they were divided into 4 groups based on 100 freestyle times. Julia was in the orange group with Kennedy, Erin and Holly (Erin and Holly were 2 of her roommates). All of the kids had 3 swim practices a day as well as drylands.

meeting Olympians

They had the option to do fun activities daily like go bowling, miniature golf, smoothie king, Starbucks and watch a movie. They also got to meet several Olympians. One the last day Josh David, 3 time Olympic golf medalist ran their practice. He told them "Pain, from now on, is going to be your friend. You will love it. And you will work with it." He also told them "In the pool, you must be a tiger, because a tiger is fast and agile. Longhorns are strong and fierce. You must be a tiger in the water and a longhorn out of the water." And.."Every time someone was beating me, I thought to myself 'Just one more. Find a way to go faster.' If it's your kick, your pull, your underwater, you can do it. Find a way!" Now, the cool thing about this is that he was shouting this to the kids while they were in the pool with a bullhorn.

Oasis

My friend Jacqueline was there watching diving and she told me she some guy wearing a tiger shirt chanting to the kids and the kids chanting back. So Julia and her friends were in the water shouting "Just one more!" and roaring like tigers. Awesome!!

So, what was her verdict comparing swim camps? A&M had more "fun activities" so she says she preferred that. UT was much harder from a swim perspective (more yardage). She complained about being out of shape after A&M last year because all they did was 25s. As a parent, I think UT was the better camp. 

June 12 - Lunch Date

The majority of the kids summer camps start when swim season is over. The exception to that is this week (Julia is in Austin at swim camp). I take the kids to lunch once a week and they rotate on who picks which restaurant. Last week Julia chose Jimmy Johns, this week Luke choose a smoothie place. Luke loves smoothies! I was also super excited to get a picture of him smiling and looking at the camera. Love this little man! 

June 10 - Fairy Princess

rare pic of Luke..he hates pics these days

Summer is officially here! Our morning schedule is a tad crazy but we're making it work. Luke has swim practice from 7.30-8.30 and Julia has practice from 8.30-9.30am. When JD is in town, I take Luke to practice (Laptop in town so I can start working) while JD drops Julia off on his way to take Jillian to daycare. Last week and this week are a tad hectic as JD has been out of town and getting Jillian up an all the kids out the door by 7.20am has been a tad challenging but doable. I load everyone in, drop Luke off, drop Jillian off, drive back to the pool, work, and then head back when the big kids are done. Julia and Luke are both reading every morning and doing a few pages in math workbooks (Julia is also doing 30min of typing every day) and then they are allowed to watch TV, etc. 

So what has Jillian been up to lately? Well, she's obsessed with princesses, dressing like a princess, calling herself a princess and Sophia the First. Oh-and she's figured out we have popsicles in the outside freezer and knows how to help herself. Little stinker! We went out to dinner this weekend and she told me she needed to go to the bathroom. I took her...and she wanted to go to the bathroom so she could DANCE and watch herself in the mirror. She is really funny! We were at the grocery store this weekend and she stopped in front of the makeup brushes:

"Jillian, let's go. We need to go to the milk aisle." - Julia

"Julia, no, I am just looking at these!" - Jillian, with hand on her hip

Here is our sassy little diva, "princess" mode with fairy wings

June 5 - My Minnie Suit

Saturday was the first dual meet of the season and the kids did fantastic. Luke qualified for the championship meet in the free and back and swam a legal butterfly. Great job Luke! Julia qualified for the championship meet in back, fly and breast. She was really thrilled to drop 5 secs in fly (which is another A cut time, although it doesn't count since this wasn't a USA sanctioned meet). Most exciting..we found out after the meet that her medley relay (she swam the fly leg) broke a team record. Great job girls!

Sunday was a "mommy and me' day with Jillian and I. We went to jumping world, lunch and then did a little shopping around town. She was really excited to find a Minnie Mouse bathing suit (My Minnie suit!). Love this little girl. She has so much personality and is a total jokster!

She mastered the beam without falling

They are deadly deadly deadly in the medley medley relay! (Sam (free), Reese (breast), Kennedy (back), Julia (fly)