July 31 - Life's Better at the Beach

Summer vacation 2024! Location: Inlet Beach, FL. Greg picked up Luke and Andrew from camp and drove to the beach. JD and I drove with the girls while Jill and Victoria flew into Panama City (they were slightly delayed due to the global outage but made it). We rented a little house directly on the beach that was sandwiched between two enormous houses. It was so tiny from the front that we all drove by it the first time but it was the perfect size for our families. And the location, complete with a private beach for the few houses near us, was absolute perfection. 

We had a great time at the beach! Skim boarding, boogie boarding, enjoying the waves, playing in the sand, reading, relaxing and quality bonding time. And of course, the big kids filmed another movie. Awesome long weekend and fabulous memories. 

Our little house

Gorgeous Beach

Girls photoshoot

Crab hunting

Cousins

The fabulous Cook's

Memories!

July 28 - Embry Riddle Aerospace Camp

Luke's first flight

Luke and Andrew went to Daytona Beach, FL a few weeks ago for aerospace engineering camp at Embry Riddle. Greg and Andrew picked us up from the Jacksonville airport and we drove down to campus together. Camp check-in was from 3-5pm and we got there just in time at 4.45pm. The boys were the last 2 campers to check-in. Their camp had 26 kids (24 boys, 2 girls) and there were kids there from all over the US and 2 international students (Costa Rica and Saudi Arabia. So cool! The boys were in a 2-bedroom/1 bathroom dorm room and had a great week. The camp did not provide a detailed itinerary (for parents or students) so every day was a surprise of activities. Here are some of the fun things they did:

*they got to FLY A PLANE!! (Andrew's favorite)

*saw $10M wind tunnel

*used a flight simulator 

*did a circuit lab

*checked out turbine engines (Luke's favorite)

*learned about RoboBoat, an international competition where teams design autonomous robotic boats to navigate a challenging course (kind of a collegiate version of WIRED)

*had lectures by professors/grad students in meteorology, robotics, flight controllers, safety and more. 

What a week! The food was also good. So glad the boys experienced this together. 

July 24 - Hurricane Beryl

One week before Beryl: There is a storm in the gulf, doesn't look too bad.

5 Days before Beryl: The storm is getting stronger but all Houston will see is some rain. No biggie.

3 Days before Beryl: Be prepared for some rain, it's not going to be bad. This is going to be another "nothing sandwich" of a storm.

2 Days before Beryl: Storm has shifted, we are still expecting rain in Houston.

1 Day before Beryl: Okay, there is definitely a storm coming. Cancel plans for Monday, rain will be intense. Other than heavy rain Monday, all should be good.

my friend's pool

1 day before Beryl we were preparing for the summer league champ meet. I went to the grocery storm and bought food for the meet and filled up on gas (I did have to drive around to find gas because stations were running out). 

3am Monday morning: JD and I wake up to intense rain and wind. It sounded like every window in the house is being pressure washed at the same time and wind gusts were recorded in our area at 102mph. We could hear the windows flexing. We lost power around 4am (which is when Julia woke up, Luke and Jillian slept through everything). The large tree in our backyard fell over and we were very lucky it didn't hit the house. The rain stopped around 9am but the wind was going strong until closer to noon. I took the dogs for a walk once the wind calmed down and there were a lot of plants, trees and fences down, debris everywhere.

JD (and Luke for a period of time) cleaned up the yard and driveway, it took hours. We closed the plantation shutters in the house once we lost power and that helped the house stay cool. JD told us to "be prepared to be without power until Thursday" and I told him he was crazy, we'd be back up by then. I headed to HEB on Monday afternoon and they were open, pretty much business as usual (they had everything except lunch meat). I bought some canned soup, chili, bread, bagels, etc. I headed to Kroger next (Jillian loves chocolate muffins) and they were without power. I had to wait in line and then was escorted around the store with an employee with a flashlight. Wowsa!

Our neighborhood is divided into 2 sections. The older section past the pool and our newer section, closer to the elementary school. Monday evening, half of the newer section had power restored. I thought "Awesome! We'll have ours back soon." We slept in the house Monday night. It was hot but doable. Tuesday brought clear skies and SUN. The downstairs of the house stayed cool(ish) with the shutters and tile floors but it was warm upstairs. Tuesday afternoon, half of the old section had their power restored, as well as everyone on the new side (where we live) except for 40 of us. You have probably seen Centerpointe power in the news.

cleaning out the fridge

We did see trucks staged for hours near us without moving (due to no work orders) and we didn't see any workers in the neighborhood until Saturday. They didn't have a map with estimated restoration times and at one point, JD received a text from them that they wouldn't provide any updates. After 3 days without power, Centerpointe finally posted an outage map, they looked like it was being updated manually using Microsoft Paint circa 1985 LOL. 

What a week! So grateful for good friends. Jillian and I slept at Tammy's all week. I did laundry there and we ate breakfast and dinner there every night.

During the days, Jillian had playdates at various friend's houses who had power. Luke basically moved in with his friend Shawn all week. Julia slept at Kendall's one night and then her friend Mariam (swim captain from Lake) for the rest of the week. JD stayed in the house with the animals and cooled off during the days at his friend's Paul's house for a few hours. We lost everything in our fridge and freezers but in a positive light, our ice machine had been frozen over so now that i had a chance to dethaw, it's working again. Small blessings!! 

On the agenda now: buy a generator!

July 5 - Happy 4th

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July yesterday! Jillian and I went to the neighborhood pool at noon for a community party (DJ, pizza and snowcones) and ended up staying for over 5H. She played with her Girl Scout friends Jacqui and Guinevere, another classmate, Khaleesi for hours, as well as Mrs. McIntyre's kids (her first grade teacher). What an awesome afternoon. After that, we went to Nic's house for a 4th of July party complete with swimming in the pool, jet skiing and a fireworks show on the water. What a day! 

Neighborhood pool fun

Jules

Fourth of July Fun