January 31 - Districts

100FL Champ!

Luke swam in his first district meet last week and did great. As a freshman transfer student, he needed UIL approval to compete at the varsity meet and was not approved (we're not sure why) but he's been sick on and off for the last several months with flu, strep etc so JV was the right meet for him. He placed 4th in the 200FR, 2nd in the 200FR relay, 2nd in the 400FR relay and he WON the 100FL!! Congrats Luke!

Julia swam in her last varsity district meet yesterday. For the first time in her HS career, she landed on the podium in every event: 2nd place 50FR, 3rd place 100FR (highest placements in individual events ever at this meet), 1st place 200FR relay and 2nd place 400FR relay. The girls team placed 2nd overall and missed 1st by only 7 points. Great job Julia! One more meet to go next week!

Super proud of these kids!

January 27 - Geaux Tigers

Julia, Reese and I headed to Baton Rouge this past weekend to visit LSU on admitted students day. We initially planned to stay for 2 nights so we could check out Baton Rouge after the years activities, but a winter storm was forecasted for Saturday evening so we made a last minute call to leave early. LSU is a quick 4H drive from Houston on I-10 so it was an easy drive. We got in late Friday night and were up bright and early for breakfast at the hotel and then headed to the student union. We didn't think many people would be attending due to the storm but there were over 2k people at the general welcome sesson. Wow! After the general session, people broke out into session based on major. Reese headed to nursing while we went to health and human services. They had a panel with a phD student, professor and various advisors. I thought it was informative and well done. After that we headed out for a campus tour. The tour was an hour and we had a good 10min with clear (but cool) weather before the sky opened and it started to torrential downpour.

The most surprising part of the tour? LSU has a real live tiger in the middle of campus! We were all pretty shocked. After the tour, we went back to the student union to dry off and get a quick snack. We were planning on 2 more tours (dorm and athletic center) but the sky just kept getting darker and darker and the rain was coming down harder. We decided to forego the addtional tours and get on the road as the weather was not letting up. I left the girls at the student union and walked to the car and when I say I got soaked during that walk, I looked like I had gone swimming fully clothed. It was nuts! The girls got some ponchos and when I drove up, they made a run to the car. Luckily we hadn't checked out of the hotel yet and we were able to go back to the room and change into dry clothes. After that, we headed back to Houston. It rained hard for about 3h but otherwise we didn't hit any traffic. 

The verdict? Reese loved it and Julia thought it was okay. It reminded me a lot of the Houston Med Center. We've toured a lot of campuses and this was definitely the most extreme weather during a tour. 

January 19 - Chilly Zoo Day

Jillian, Guinevere and I headed to the Houston Zoo yesterday in the brisk Houston weather. Brisk being mid-30s! We were there for over 5h and had the zoo almost to ourselves. In my 16 years of living here, it's the emptiest I've seen it. A few animals were not out due to the weather (monkeys, tiger and a few more) but overall it was a fantastic visit. We also fed the giraffes for the first time ever (it's usually too busy) which the girls loved. We love the Houston Zoo!!

Zoo Fun

January 13 - Robonauts 118

Last Wednesday, high school robotics season officially commenced. Luke is part of Robonauts 118 which competes in FIRST robotics. They are apparently a world famous team within FIRST circles (not joking). They currently are:

FIRST Hall of Fame

*Most Blue Banners - 2nd place
*Most Einstein Appearances (world finals match) - 6th place

*Most Regional & District Wins - 2nd place

*Most Successful Teamups - 5th place

The team is composed of approx 90 high school kids across the district. The schedule is INTENSE and I don't think we'll see much of Luke until the beginning of May. While practices are not mandatory, they are heavily encouraged and the more you attend, the more opportunity there is. Kickoff was this past Saturday and Luke was there for 12H. Sunday with another 9H and he was there yesterday for 6H. Going forward, the official practices are MWF 5pm-9pm (kids can come in early from 3pm-5pm and stay as laste as 11.30pm) and then Saturdays/Sundays from 12pm-9pm (with many staying until 11.30pm). So far Luke is loving it. Right now they are working on strategy but they will eventually move to subsystems and then each subsystem has an electrical team, mechanical team and software team. Luke is hoping to be on one of the software teams. It's only been 4 days (and 31h...they actually started last Wednesday) but so far Luke is LOVING it!

Here is a link of the robot they build last year for competition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndos8iP0w88

Here is a link to the game for this season:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fybREErgyM

Good luck robonauts 118!

January 10 - Senior Night

2026 is going to be a big year for Julia. Last semester of high school (if she can survive calculus LOL), the end of 12 years of swimming, committing to a college, moving away from home. A lot of people are asking me if I'm sad and the answer is not yet..but I'm sure it will hit at some point. 

A big "last" was a few days ago. Lake Swim had "senior night" to recognize our 9 swim seniors. I created collages for each athlete with pictures from the last few years, a giant collage of the kids swimming and a senior board.

A few parents helped set up a table and it all came together. We even had cupcakes with swimmer toothpicks (forgot to get a picture of those). In the middle of the meet, the coach introduced each athlete and read off some of their highlights. Here are Julia's (that I can remember):

*Favorite memory: making the A final in the 50FR sophore year and winning the intrasquad meet all 4 years

*Advice: the faster you swim, the more rest you have

*Future plans: will be attending Iowa State or LSU to study psychology 

*Thank you: she thanked JD and I for driving her to all the early morning practices and thanked all the parents for bringing in breakfast, the highlight of her day

*Said she met most of her best friend's through swimming and will forever be thankful for that

There was a little bit more but those are the highlights. She had several friends come to cheer her on (Mariam, Kendall, Madi, Addie, Reese and Kennedy) and I was so thankful they were there to support her. I can't believe it, 12 years of swimming and she officially has 3 more meets. She'll be done in about a month. So many great memories. 

Friends coming to support Julia

Congratulations Seniors!