May 31 - Scuba Certified

He did it! Luke is officially scuba certified as of yesterday afternoon. We traveled to a small lake an hour southwest of Houston (Mammoth Lake) Monday and Tuesday. Four students from his class were there and they did dives to complete their certification. So proud of all of them! Congratulations Luke!

Mammoth Lake

The Westbrook crew (Felicity, Luke, Amelia, Isaac )

Luke

Luke & Isaac (scuba "buddies" - check each other's equipment, etc)

May 27 - New Braunfels Adventure

Because things weren't busy enough with end of year school activities and Orcas, Julia and I traveled to New Braunfels last weekend for a swim meet. New Braunfels is a 3H drive from Houston. We left at 3.45pm last Friday so it took a solid 4H+ with traffic. The meet was Friday, Saturday and Sunday but Julia only swam on Saturday and Sunday. The people who went to the meet on Friday said it was the hottest meet they had ever been to (that is something considering we live in Houston and these girls have been swimming since age 7). However, a storm came through Friday night and the weekend was a cool, breezy 70, overcast with drizzling rain.

It was nice not to be sweating all weekend but no one was prepared for the cooler weather. The poor t-shirt vendor was swamped by parents buying sweatshirts to keep the kids warm. 

Julia barely practiced the 2 weeks leading up to the meet but did pretty well considering. The warm up/warm down "pool" was actually part of the Comal River. The girls kept saying "A real life fish brushed up against me! The water was freezing!" On Saturday, several people went out to dinner together at the Gristmill which was really fun. 

Great weekend!

Swim Girls

Julia & Ava

Team Dinner

Christine & Amy (Ava's mom)

May 26 - Summer Swim Begins!

Jillian & Adelynn

It's the most wonderful time of the year, Orcas! This is Julia's 9th year on the team and she is a full-time volunteer coach this season. Practices started the 2nd week of May and she worked after school from 4pm-7.30pm every day while school was in session. Morning practice began this morning so she is now there from 6.30am-9.30am. This is Luke's 6th year on the team and he has volunteered a few times the first few weeks to help with the little ones when we were short coaches. He did a great job! This is Jillian's 2nd year on the team and she's super excited to be swimming with Leeya, a friend from preschool, and Adelynn, a friend from North Pointe and her Girl Scout sister. The practice meet was a few evenings ago and Jillian had a blast hanging out with friends. Luke volunteered the whole meet as a timer and Julia did her coaching duties. Great evening!

Luke

Coach Julia

These girls have grown up with each other at the pool!

May 25 - Kindergarten Graduate

And just like that, another school year comes to a close. Julia's last day was Friday as her school has exemptions from finals if you meet certain criteria (grade minimum and attendance requirement). She was exempt from everything so she's having a relaxing week and enjoying sleeping in. Luke and Jillian are both done today at noon. 

Our little caboose had an end of year "Water Day" party on Monday complete with snow cones, water slides and little pools. She and her friends had an absolute blast! Yesterday was kindergarten graduation, which was adorable with songs and a little diploma ceremony. 

Onward to 10th, 7th and 1st grade!

Water Day Fun

Jillian & Ms. Bach

While the principal was reading a story to the entire grade level...I look over and see Jillian posing like this hahaha

She's a sassy one! (and yes, she's wearing high heels)

Kindergarten Class of 2023

May 24 - Band Concert

Luke's spring band concert was last week and he did an amazing job! The entire band improved so much from the fall, it was incredible. I'm really proud of all the kids!

May 16 - Can We Just go Back Inside?

North Pointe Elementary field day was last Friday and was hot hot hot outside. Mid 90s and lots of sun. We started off the festivities (which is more of a fun day, not a true field day) by spray painting all of the kids hair fun colors. Next, our class started on the bounce houses and then had popsicles and waters. At that point, Jillian was completely done with field day and wanted to go back inside to the air conditioning. She and her friends spent most of the time trying to find shade. It was long, it was hot, the kids were fully melting down at the 2h mark but overall. I think they had fun! 

She got a little fun in before she was too hot

Hair time!

They found shade under a tree!

And hid under a table to escape the sun

And Jillian sat next to these bushes for quite awhile

And then we sprayed hair again with Sophie when we got back home

May 14 - Hollywood Wedding

Wedding #1 of 2023! Last weekend we celebrated Brian and Fernando in Hollywood, FL and it was magical. Greg, Chris and I had dinner Friday night and then we all met up with Rachel and Jay on Saturday for brunch at a very unique place..that was concrete (hard to describe but it definitely had a 'vibe' LOL). The food was excellent. Afterwards we walked along the beautiful Hollywood Beach and then met up a few hours later for the wedding. It was so wonderful seeing Greg, Uncle Chris, Jay, Rachel and of course, Brian and Fernando! The wedding dinner afterwards was at a delicious Italian restaurant and I think it's safe to say we were all stuffed from the bread, salad, antipasta, calamari, shrimp, main dishes and dessert (and Jay had about 6 cups of coffee LOL). It was a great weekend! 

Brunch

Beach

Wedding time