July 17 - Schlitterbahn Galveston

We decided to beat the heat at Schlitterbahn water park in Galveston last week. Julia, Luke and Kendall stuck together while Jillian and I did slides together. Jillian is now tall enough for almost every slide and she had a blast on the big slides. She also loved the rapid river and wave river. Bonus-the river water was actually refreshing. It was a hot day but the park was pretty empty and we had a blast!

The hottest coolest time in Texas, Schlitterbahn! 

Dinner Afterwards 

July 13 - Happy Birthday 'Merica

This year we celebrated the 4th of July at Nic and Inna's house in Nassau Bay. It was a great time! They have a pool and live on the water so the kids had fun swimming and jet skiing. We also had a perfect view of the fireworks from the docks. It was a great day! 

Happy Birthday America

Luke - lounging in the pool

Jet Skiing

July 11 - Great Job Orcas!

Love these kids

Another successful season of the Orcas is in the books! I am so proud of all the kids and their hard work. 

Jillian

On school days, Jillian was a beast to get out of bed. So it was a (pleasant) surprise that she was up and ready to go to swim practice every morning. She swam with two good friends this year, Leeya (preschool friend) and Adelyn (North Pointe & Girl Scout friend). She had so much fun running around the swim meets with her friends, playing on the playground, hanging out and buying out the snack bar. The dad who managed meet concessions said she was their best customer LOL. We also had a snow cone vendor at a few meets and she loved the snow cones. In terms of swimming, she improved her free and back considerably from last year and she almost has a dive down. I'm so proud of our little blondie!

Jillian's Orca season

Luke

Luke absolutely rocked this swim season. His goal was to break 30 secs in the 50 free which he finally did in the second to last home meet (going mid 29). At the champ meet, he dropped another second going mid 28 and placed 3rd!! I am not exaggerating when I say I was SCREAMING for him in the stands!! He also swam the IM (best time) and dropped 2 secs in the fly with another best time. He was on fire! He also swam on the boys 11-12 relays (breast in the medley and the leadoff leg of the free relay). They were not seeded to win either race but their team came together and WON both of them. They won by 0.2 in the medley and the free relay by 0.16. They were exciting races!! So proud of Luke!!

Luke playing sharks & minnows

Julia

In addition to volunteer coaching this year, Julia was also swimming. She had 2 goals for herself. Lower her 50 free Orca record and break the 50 fly Orca record (from 2005). She achieved both goals! She swept all of her events at the champ meet for the first time ever. She won the 50 free by over a body length and lowered her own team record by 0.86sec. It was also her best time in this event by 0.32sec. She won the 100 free by over 2 secs and lowered her best time by 0.14. She won the 50 fly with a best time and broke the team record from 2005. Her relays (breast in medley and anchor in free) absolutely dominated, winning both by over 10 secs. Great job Julia!

Champ Meet Pics

June 30 - Love These Babies

 My 2023 Orcas, love these babies

June 28 - Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

Another week of 111+ degree weather in hot hot hot Houston. Luke is tackling the heat at golf camp and he's loving it! Julia is in the heat all day between morning swim practice, coaching and private lessons (her evening swim practice is indoors). The heat doesn't seem to bother Jillian at all as all she wants to do it play outside with a neighbor friend. True Texans!

Golf Camp

Funny Memes 

My biggest accomplishment is keeping these alive in this heat

June 23 - Golf Camp

With record breaking heat this week in Texas (who doesn't love 112 degrees with the heat index?), Jillian had the misfortune of being outside at golf camp all week. Luckily the camp was only 3h a day in the morning and the instructors did a great job keeping the kids hydrated. She absolutely loved it and asked us to buy her her own golf clubs. Glad she is open to trying new things! Luke is attending the same camp next week (for the older age group) and hopefully he loves it as well. Happy Friday everyone!

June 21 - Stars and Stripes Band Camp

Another week, another summer camp! Last week was Luke's turn. He went to the Stars and Stripes Band Camp at his middle school, although the camp was for middle school students across the entire district. Full disclosure: Luke did not want to attend this camp but I signed him up anyway. Luke is passionate about many things and makes time for them, practicing the trumpet is not one of those things. I don't like paying for private lessons and instrument rental for something he refuses to focus his energy on but he's adamant he loves trumpet so we're continuing with trumpet through 7th grade. Auditions for camp were last Sunday and the kids were placed in blue (beginning), white (intermediate) or red (highest level) bands. Luke was placed as 14th chair in the blue band and a few of his friends were also placed in the same band. Although he was adamant the camp was a waste of his time and the blue band sounded terrible, we went to two concerts on Friday and they did fantastic! 

The first concert was ensemble and the trumpets played 'My Country Tis of Thee.' In the evening 'blue' concert they placed 'Worksite', 'Shadow Fire' and 'Doctor Boo.' I am so proud of Luke, he did great!

His summer private lessons start tomorrow and I'm hopeful his instructor inspires him to start practicing on a regular basis. Fingers crossed!

June 20 - Wait, I Have To Go Back Tomorrow?

"My girls both said they had a muddy blast!"

"Ella talked nonstop the whole what home about it!"

"Mine loved it too especially the kayak."

"Yes. Mine loved it."

"She was obsessed. Best part of her life yet."

"Adelyn was in tears that she had to leave." 

These my faithful readers, are exact messages I received in a group chat with Jillian's Girl Scout troop after their first day of Camp Happy. Camp Happy is a Girl Scout at a local park. The girls are in different units and do all sorts of fun things like archery, canoeing, crafts, games, songs and get to play on the playground. They even do a campout the last day. Julia loved this camp when she was in elementary school and I took it for granted that Jillian would love it too. Jillian's response to day 1 of camp:

"There were bugs swarming me when I was trying to eat."

"The bees thought my hair was honey. They kept trying to get in my hair."

"Canoeing was awful. I was in the dry canoe and still got wet!"

"Wait, I have to go back tomorrow? I thought this was only one day." 

Well, not what I was expecting. I informed her it was all week and hopefully she would learn to have fun. By Thursday, she realized she could opt out of the canoe and that seemed to make a big difference. The camp also has 'people washers' which are PVC pipes with water spraying out of them, with the purpose of keeping the kids cool. Turns out my child only likes to be wet if she is swimming or taking a shower.

Her unit leader sent me a picture of the girls going through the washer to cool off..with Jillian standing next to it wearing a poncho (yes, a poncho) to stay dry. In the mid-90s! That child! 

By Friday afternoon, she finally found her groove. She was very proud to have made 6 bullseyes in archery and loved learning new Girl Scout songs. She also loved her Goddesses (teenage helpers who work with their unit), Popsicle & Angry Bird. 

June 5 - Spicy Pickle

After the lovely 9H roundtrip drive dropping Julia off at camp last Sunday (should be a 6H drive), I decided to get a hotel room for Thursday night to break up the drive. Especially since Jillian would be along for the ride. So we made a little mom and Jillian vacation out of the trip! JD booked us a night at the JW Marriot downtown and we had a fabulous room on the 26th floor. The view was amazing-downtown and two blocks from the Congress bridge. We went swimming in the pool, found a hip burger joint for dinner and then ate at a fancy restaurant in the hotel for dessert. So fun! The next morning, we headed over to the Texas pool and watched part of practice. It was a great mini-vacation with my sassy little diva!

Room with a view

Pool time

"Mom, this is a spicy pickle!"

Mmm, brownie

Delicious hot chocolate (best facial expressions ever haha)

We found Julia in the pool!

Pool time!

June 3 - Just One More!

Ava, Julia, Mia

Julia spent the last week at Longhorn Swim Camp at UT Austin. She went with her two close friends from Lake HS swim team, Ava and Mia. The girls stayed in Callaway House, a beautiful dorm a few blocks from the pool. The girls were in a 2-bedroom suite, complete with a furnished living area, kitchen with stainless steel appliances, full size fridge and 2 bathrooms (yes, they are in for a rude awakening when they go to college and experience a normal dorm room LOL). Julia and Mia roomed together while Ava roomed with Abigail, a girl from Austin. 

Julia and I drove over to Austin last Sunday and hit some bad traffic on the way there. But we had an amazing BBQ lunch at County Line (a place JD and I used to frequent when we lived in Austin) and I'm not joking, I had BBQ tacos that literally melted in my mouth. Absolutely amazing!!

busy schedule

I dropped her off at camp and she was ready to go. She roomed with Mia while Ava and Abigail were in the other bedroom. The girls were placed in training groups based on 100F times. Julia and Mia were in the blue group while the others girls were placed in red. Wasting no time at all, they were already in the pool that night! This was the first time Julia trained long course meters and she was definitely challenged by the workouts. The girls met several Texas swimmers who have won word and Olympic medals, which was a pretty awesome opportunity. The last day of camp, Josh Davis, 4-time Olympic medalist, ran their practice. I watched part of the practice and he was pretty motivating. He was telling them they have to be strong like a Longhorn and fast like a Tiger (taking off his UT shirt to show a tiger shirt underneath LOL).

Josh Davis (look at that tiger shirt)

He told them to dig deep and keep pushing themselves. After doing their last set, he told the kids his favorite set was "Just One More." When you are completely spent and think you are done, you keep going. Just One More! So the kids got back in the water for 'just one more!' Afterwards, they were able to meet with Eddie Reese, Texas head coach (the winningest swim coach in history with 15 NCAA titles and 3-time Olympic team head coach). What an opportunity! Julia said kids were asking him crazy questions like "How have you stayed married for so long?" "How do you recommend I transfer schools?" but what a cool experience. 

Jillian and I picked up Julia and Mia yesterday and headed home. What a week!

John Shebat, Will Licon, Ian Crocker

Go Longhorns!