July 10 - Puerto Rican Adventura!

Cook/Yamo vacation 2025: Puerto Rico! To celebrate Greg's 50th, he planned a trip to beautiful Puerto Rico. I'm so thankful our schedules aligned and we were able to join in. Fair warning-I will be doing several PR posts because we squeezed a lot of adventure into a week and there are A LOT of pictures.  

Location: We stayed in a 3 bedroom condo on the northeast side of Puerto Rico. I think the beach we were on is Playa las Picuas, Rio Grande. If you can find the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar Rainforest Beach Resort on a map, we were a 20min walk (via the beach) north west (or a quick 5min drive).

The location was fantastic. We were about 30-45min from the San Juan airport, our condo complex was right on the beach and the El Yunque Rainforest was a few miles away. Greg, Jill and the kids got in late Saturday and we flew in Sunday afternoon. The cousins haven't seen each other since Thanksgiving so they were so happy to reconnect. We went out to dinner the first night and the food (lots of seafood and plantains) was delicious!  

Next Post: Beach Day! (as I type this, I am still peeling from said beach day. I'm very itchy LOL)

July 6 - Alice In Wonderland Jr

Theatre camp! Jillian and her friend Guinevere did their second summer at San Jacinto theatre camp two weeks ago. Last year was SpongeBob the Musical, this year was Alice in Wonderland Jr the Musical. I drove the girls to camp every morning and they were so cute. They had their binders out and we played the soundtrack so they could practice their lines. They performed Friday night and did a fabulous job! Jillian told me "I think I'm a theatre kid!" Love this little sprite. 

June 22 - Success!

 Success! Jillian had a great time at camp AND she loves her new room!!

June 20 - Lilo & Stitch Room

Jillian's nursery was pale pink with an elephant theme and then transitioned to unicorns when she moved into a bed. Before camp this year she requested a change: Lilo and Stitch! She picked out the wall color and JD painted this week! I ordered new bedding and some new storage for her dresser. She comes home tomorrow and can't wait for her reaction.  I hope she loves it!!

June 17 - Crazy Weather

Jillian mid jump into the lake

We have had a very rainy June this year. An afternoon rain shower is normal this time of year but we've had some crazy storms roll through with several days of straight up rain. I dropped Jillian off at sleepaway Girl Scout camp on Sunday and we drove through a CRAZY storm in north Houston on the way there. The only time I've experienced worse weather was when I drove through a tropical storm years ago in Florida. We were delayed 30min driving with the storm and luckily the weather let up a little when we pulled into camp with a light drizzle. I felt terrible for the college counselors at check in-they were soaked from head to toe.

storm rolling into Houston (Credit: Gage Goulding, KPRC2) 

I felt even worse when I saw the girls luggage. Everyone's suitcases and bags were on a truck bed (including pillows and blankets strapped on)...soaking wet in the rain. I'm talking saturated here. Luckily Jillian's suitcase is waterproof and I happened to pack her blanket in a plastic bag into her backpack, because her backpack was dirty (I wasn't even thinking about the weather) so she's okay. But it's going to be quite a week for the girls! Luckily the weather was beautiful yesterday and today. The camp posts pictures daily and I can tell the girls are having a blast! 

June 12 - Jessie the Robot

Robotics camp! This week, Jillian went to the Learning Support Center (previously the 9th grade center next to Julia and Luke's high school) for robotics camp. The camp was divided up between 2nd-3rd graders and 4th-5th graders.  She was in a group with 2 other girls, MacKenzie and Wren (also 3rd graders from different elementary schools), and they had a rising junior robonaut (high school robotics team member) who was their mentor, named Dani. The girls had a blast building the robot and driving it around. Unfortunately, Dani was sick today (the last day of camp) but MacKenzie's brother filled in to help the littles. Jillian had a great time! And fun fact: the girls named their robot Jessie. 

June 10 - Someone Wasn't Happy

Orca team pictures 2025....can we guess who wasn't happy? Hilarious!

Luckily I got one good one of all the kids and good ones of the big kids. I can't believe this is Julia's 11th year, Luke's 8th and Jillian's 4th. 

We had a great turnout and even had an ice cream social afterwards!

June 8 - Learning to Dive

Coach Luke had his first private lesson today with....Jillian! They went to the pool today and worked together for about an hour and a half. He was very patient and Jillian said "He's a good coach." When they started the lesson, she could not dive at all, but by the end she was successfully diving off the side repeatedly. Great job Coach Luke!!

June 7 - Fired Up for Camp Happy

Jillian's third year of Girl Scout Camp Happy has wrapped! Her troop (excluding one girl who is on vacation this week) all went last week and were part of "3BC" with the same leader as last year, Chickadoodle. The girls had fun canoeing, doing archery, crafts, learning songs and more. Although Jillian's favorite part of camp was apparently "eating lunch" every day LOL. While it was hot Friday, the rest of the week wasn't too bad and they lucked out with pretty nice weather overall. Several days she still had energy at the end of the day (to my surprise). On Monday, she went to club swim practice after camp. Tuesday, she went to the playground for another hour and Thursday, she and the girls played on the splashpad afterwards. Yesterday, a few of the girls went to the neighborhood pool after a hot day of camp and swam from another 2H. Can't slow these girls down! 

Making Memories

June 6 - Chlorine Babies

Last weekend was our first official home swim meet and we had beautiful weather. Even though the meet lasted 6h+, it wasn't crazy hot, which was a pleasant surprise. Jillian is living her best life at these meets, running around with her friends. She's also figured out how to put on her own cap which is a huge help. 

Love these kiddos

Jillian and London

Julia and Reese