October 28 - She's Just So Friendly

The scene: last Wednesday, 8pm. I am getting ready to take the dogs for a walk.

I open the back door and see both cats and Apollo all sitting in a row on the patio, looking at the corner of the yard. 

"What are you guys looking at?"

I look over and see.....Bella being sprayed by a skunk. Direct face and chest hit. AGAIN. For those keeping count (I am at this point):

• Apollo - 1
• Crumble - 1
• Christine - 1
• Bella - 2

"She's so dumb!" - Luke

"She's not dumb. She's just so friendly, she wants every person and creature to be her friend." - me

October 26 - Peace Love Rockets

Jillian and I hosted a trunk at North Pointe's "Trunk-or-Treat" for the 3rd year in a row. Our initial plan was an Under the Sea theme but Amazon couldn't get our supplies delivered in time so we shifted gears last minute. Our trunk ended up as "Peace Love Rockets" with a dash of ninja (Jillian LOL). We had a great time! The weather was perfect and there were hundreds of kids there. Great turnout. Love celebrating with my little ninja. 

Trunk-or-Treat fun!

October 24 - California Adventure

UC Davis arboretum

Fall Break 2024: Iowa. Fall Break 2025: California! When we looked at the school calendar a few months ago I gave Julia the option of east coast or west coast for a few more college visits. We looked at flights and the choice was clear: California. Southwest flies direct to all the major cities there so it was logistically very easy. 

We squeezed a lot into a long weekend so let's dive in:

UC Davis

We flew into Sacramento and Julia's first comment walking out of the airport was "Wow, the air is so clean here." Yes, the crisp air with zero humidity was a nice change from HHH (hot humid Houston).

UC Davis

We drove about 30min to Davis, checked into our hotel on campus and went out for dinner in 'downtown Davis' at a cute burger joint. UC Davis is considered 'California's only college town' (per our tour LOL) and the little downtown area is right next to campus with shops, restaurants, ice cream shops, etc.
While we were eating we saw students everywhere walking around and on bikes. The next morning we did an official tour. The weather was absolutely perfect. The campus was nice and I've never seen so many students on bikes. But the best part about campus is their 3.5 mile arboretum. You can literally go from the hustle and bustle of main campus to a secluded forest in a few minutes. We saw students jogging and sitting at picnic tables working on their laptops. Just incredible. After a delicious pizza lunch in Davis, it was time for our next destination. 

UC Santa Cruz

UC Santa Cruz

We drove about 3H from Davis to Santa Cruz. The drive was absolutely beautiful, especially after we drove through San Jose. Google routed us through a random neighborhood with concrete block houses and were both thinking "Where is the forest? This school is supposed to be in the middle of a redwood forest." We eventually made it to campus and parked at the lot admission recommended for a self tour. Ironically, we were next to the athletic facility and a swim and dive meet was going on. So fun! We walked out of the parking lot (which was at the very edge of campus) and literally found ourself in the middle of a redwood forest. It's hard to describe and pictures don't do it justice but the campus was absolutely stunning. Students literally walk through the forest between buildings and classes. It was also very non-traditional compared to any other school we've been do. There is no quad, limited signage and we spent a lot of time walking around lost.

UC Santa Cruz

For those that have been to a Colorado ski town, it reminded us of someone building a college into part of the mountain. I had to stop a student to ask where the academic buildings were because we couldn't find them. But we eventually made our way around to one of the most breathtaking parts of campus-the athletic field. There is a giant open field that was filled with students playing soccer, baseball, volleyball, etc. The pacific ocean was in the background. Just breathtaking. After our tour, we checked into our hotel and went out to dinner. Guess who we saw? One of the swim teams from the meet earlier at UCSC. 

UCSB 

UC Santa Barbara

The next morning, we woke up and went to Gayle's Bakery in Capitola, CA (close to Santa Cruz). My friend Sarah (who is from CA) recommended it and after eating her breakfast sandwich Julia declared "this is life changing." It was absolutely delicious! We then drove about 4.5h to Santa Barbara. The views on this drive were incredible. We took PCH for part of the way and if you haven't done this, I recommend it at some point in your life. Just beautiful. After driving in Santa Barbara, we checked into our hotel on campus and then started our self tour. The campus was pretty empty for a Saturday afternoon but the grounds were beautiful.

UCSB

The buildings were very nice with a mountain view from one end of campus and a lagoon view from the other. The school also has dedicated bike lanes throughout campus (and we saw a ton of bikes outside of dorms) so I assume it's like Davis in that respect. It was much easier to tour this school compared to UCSC which we appreciated. The school also has beach access from the lagoon and I mean....there is literally a beach about a half mile from campus. We saw students jogging along the lagoon/beach path and others reading on the beach, pretty incredible. That night, we went to dinner and then checked out Isla Vista, the area with shops, restaurants, etc right next to campus.

UCSB

We had ice cream and Julia was amazed at one boy (def a surfer type) walking around barefoot. The following morning went to Starbucks and there was a farmers market going on. There were dogs EVERYWHERE which I loved (also a lot of families waking dogs on campus while were walking around). 

UCLA

What's a trip to California without Beverly Hills? Los Angeles wasn't on our original itinerary but we were there and had a rental car, so why not? We drove about 2H to Los Angeles (once again, took PCH for part of it, stunning) and headed to Beverly Hills. It's always fun driving around Rodeo Drive and the uber rich neighborhoods! Since we were there, we decided to drive around UCHL which is literally 3 miles from BH.

Beverly Hills

I've visited Sarah many times over the years but I never realized how close UCLA was. The campus was absolutely gorgeous. Very traditional style with trees everywhere. I attempted to park so we could walk around and take some pictures but they had meter maids everywhere ticketing people. One was actually following me around and when parked, he immediately pulled up next to me and started to write a ticket. Crazy! 

UC Irvine

After our quick Beverly Hills/UCLA detour, we drove about 1.5H to Irvine. Los Angeles traffic can be rough but we luckily didn't hit any on our way out. We were starving when we arrived on campus and headed to In-N-Out (in a main shopping area next to campus). I have never seen a busier fast-food place in my life. There were students EVERYWHERE, it was crazy. After eating, we parked in a garage and started our self-tour.

UC Irvine

UC Irvine has a central park type area (huge) with academic buildings surround surrounding it in a circle. It was very easy to walk around and absolutely beautiful. There were students walking around but it was a Sunday, so we decided to sit down next to one of the freshman dorms and people watch. We saw students everywhere and was great to see a busier part of campus. We eventually checked into our hotel and then went out to dinner at a cute BBQ restaurant. Irvine itself reminded me of Fort Lauderdale. A very beautiful, very nicely groomed suburbia (but with better weather). 

UCI has a Lord of the Rings dorm

We woke up the next morning, grabbed breakfast and then drove around campus to get more of a feel for it with students heading to class.  Julia said Irvine was her favorite UC campus so far. 

UC San Diego

We initially had a 9am tour scheduled for Monday and were able to reschedule it the night before to 1.30pm. We drove just over an hour from Irvine to San Diego, had lunch and parked in the lot admissions recommended. Luckily we arrived an hour before the tour because after parking, we put the student center into Google maps and it said we had a 1.3 mile walk. "Are you sure this is correct?" Julia asked me as we were walking on a sidewalk over a highway. "I guess we'll find out." - me. Julia was skeptical and pretty tired of driving and living out of hotel rooms at this point but we kept walking. We eventually passed an athletic field and saw the pool (with the swim team and water polo team both practicing).

UCSD Library

A few turns and we were on main campus. We've done several tours at this point but this was the largest group we've seen (for the general admission presentation portion). One thing that we learned during the admission presentation is that UCSD have specific "colleges/houses" like Hogwarts. What's unique is that when you apply into UCSD, you are accepted into a specific college (based on things like community service, etc) and they each have different education requirements (as well as dorms and traditions). I'm so grateful we went to the official visit because when Julia did her initial application (which hadn't been submitted yet) she had to rank the colleges and we just did a quit Reddit search.

UCSD

The tour was fantastic and she loved everything about the school. The campus was awesome, we saw students everywhere and even stayed on campus for another hour after the tour checking out academic buildings and most of the college residences. It was clear-UCSD was her favorite UC campus and she said she may like it even more than UWashington. Wowsa (I was not expecting that). 

After trekking back to the car, we checked into our hotel and then headed to La Jolla Cove (restaurant area) for dinner with a view. Not thinking, I was wearing my normal Christine attire of yoga pants and sweatshirt...which was not appropriate for any of those restaurants. Oops!

UCSD

We were able to walk around some decks to see the ocean which was still cool. We ended up a casual restaurant that happened to be a student hangout. There were students everywhere!

The following morning we were up bright and early for our flight to Houston. What a great trip! I'm amazing that we saw many different types of campuses in one long weekend. And quite possibly this was the last mother/daughter trip with my oldest baby!

UC Davis - college town

UC Santa Cruz - redwood forest

UC Santa Barbara - beach

UCLA - swanky 

UC Irvine - suburb 

UC San Diego - urban 

October 19 - Zoo Boo

Zoo Boo 2025! October weather has been relatively nice so Jillian, Guinevere and I headed to the zoo two weeks ago for Zoo Boo. I haven't been in years but I remember all of the kids in costumes, trick-or-treating around the park and pumpkins everywhere, so we were excited. The girls dressed up (ninja for Jillian and vampire for Guinevere) and we were out the door bright and early for a parking spot. To our surprise, only one other kid was dressed up and there was no trick-or-treating (I assume things changed after covid) but we still had a blast.  

Making memories at the zoo

October 18 - 15!

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday dear Luke,

Happy birthday to you!

15! I can't believe it. Our little man is not so little anymore.

Age: 15

Grade: 9

Favorite Class: chemistry

Least Favorite Class: AP human geography

Current Activities: Lake Swim, Aquastar Swim, Lake Coding Club, Robonauts (FIRST robotics team)

Current Style: comfortable/baggy

Current Interests: music composition, programming, drones

Favorite Food: Japanese (Tokyo Bowl)

Best Friends: Ethan, Ryker, CJ, Karley

Dream College: Purdue

Dream Job: Professional Race Car Driver

Place I Want to Travel: Greece

Birthday Celebration: dinner at Tokyo Bowl

Fun Facts: You got your permit on the 15th and you are very motivated to drive. You are very (VERY) confident already on the road and prefer the Honda over my car. 

You have really blossomed in high school and become quite the social butterfly. You have stayed after school to cheer on friends for volleyball and even though you've been out of the pool for a month (tendonitis in your shoulder) you have attended every water polo practice and game to cheer on the team. You just started physical therapy for your shoulder and are doing great. School hasn't been a challenge so far and you find chemistry very interesting. Even though human geography is your least favorite class, you are doing fantastic (I thought this would be a tough one for you). You competed in your first UIL programming tournament this morning and placed 2nd, great job! Robonauts officially starts in January and I hope you love it. It's an enormous time commitment with 29h/week of practice plus competitions. 

Words you love to use include "Bro", "chill", "chat" (used at the end of sentences, phrases or words..I'm old and do not understand this LOL) and your teenage boy appetite has definitely kicked in. I know I shouldn't be surprised at how much you eat but after years of you being super picky (you would straight up refuse dinner if you didn't like what I served), I'm still shocked by this. 

I can't wait to see what 15 brings. Happy birthday Luke!!

October 4 - Future Career Day

In the midst of homecoming week, Jillian's school had themed spirit days and the last day of the week was 'future career day.' 

I present to you: Dr. Jillian, Veterinarian! She had a stuffed animal that she carried around with her at school. And her favorite part-the stethoscope actually works. She and her friends have had a lot of fun playing with it. Adorable!

She also had picture day a few days ago. Notice the shoes...her feet are now the same size as mine (slightly larger if we're being totally honest) so she tried to wear my platforms to school. 

 

October 1 - Hoco Part 2

Luke & Karley

The homecoming dance was this past Saturday. The homecoming dance is held at the high school and is primarily attended by freshman and some sophomores (Julia went her freshman and sophomore years). This year, Luke's date Karley (his BFF from polo) is a sophomore so he was the lone freshman in a big group of sophomores. The kids met at a yacht club for pictures, went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant on the water and then headed to an after party (pool party) at one of the girls houses. Luke looked so handsome and they had fun!

Seniors usually do something similar. They get dressed up, take pictures and go to dinner. Many of them rent beach houses in Galveston for the weekend. Julia and her friends went to a local Indian restaurant and spent the house at one of the girls houses. She had fun!

Handsome Luke!

Luke & Jason (swim friend)

Swim Crew (Luke, Karley, Emily, Alicia & Jason)

Huge Hoco group!

Julia & friends