March 30 - Adventures with Jillian

Jillian, Audrey & Dallas

Fun week with Jillian! The elementary school book fair was Thursday and it was a "stuffed animal sleepover and pajama party" theme. The kids came in jammies and their stuffed animals slept over in the library (complete with story time). 

On Friday, she headed to Great Wolf Lodge with her Girl Scout troop to celebrate Adelyn's birthday. The girls ate pizza, had fun in the water park and then slept over at the hotel in a cool bunk room. In the morning, they did a magic quest, mini golf, virtual reality, ropes course AND more water park fun. They capped off the party by making custom candy cups in the GWL store. I helped monitor the girls on Saturday and they all had so much fun together. 

The action didn't stop on Sunday. Candice gifted me free tickets to Kemah Boardwalk so Jillian, Leeya and I spent over 6H there doing rides. The weather was perfect (sunny, breezy, not too hot). The girls had the same energy level (i.e. lots of it) and both loved all the rides, it was awesome!

Julia had a great weekend at a lake house, celebrating her friend's 18th birthday. While Luke was at a robotics competition near Austin. They came home with another win. Great job Robonauts!

Happy Monday everyone!

Kemah Boardwalk

Great Wolf Lodge

March 21 - Artemis

FIRST Robotics season is officially underway! The team robot has officially been named Artemis. Let's dig in (full disclosure, readers know I'm not a robotics person so I'll do my best in layman terms).

Tournament: Space City 1
The first competition of the season was the weekend of 3/7. They were very behind putting the robot together and I think it was 'semi' put together less than 24H before this tournment. They placed 4th with a record of 10-2-0. They came back motivated to make some design and software changes for the next tournament. 

Tournament: McAllen 

The second competition was the weekend of 3/13. The team loaded a school bus and drove to McAllen, TX, which is typically a 5.5h drive. McAllen is in south Texas close to the Mexican border. While it's normally a 5.5h drive, it took over 8h with multiple stops and the bus driver drove slow (per Luke). The kids stayed in a hotel Thursday and Friday night. Luke roomed with his swim friends, Arturo and Ethan. 

Impact Award

During the build season, the Impact Team (think of it as a marketing type team) puts together a video presentation that is submitted to the judges. The video highlights everything the team has done to make the impact on the community and they emphasize things like the 50h of minimum community service each team member completes, mentoring elementary teams, organizing and reffing VEX competitions at the elementary, middle and high school levels, outreach events like STEM nights at community schools, summer camps for elementary students and girl powered events to get girls involved with STEM. The Impact Team makes an in-person presentation along with their video submission and they are judged against all other teams at that specific competition. Once you win the impact award during the regular season, you cannot win it again. 

There was stiff competition this year with several competing teams winning Impact Awards at big competitions last year, including the team who won it at the Texas state championship. The Robonauts came out on top with a WIN and the win earns them a bid to states. 

Event Results

The Robonauts ranked first with a 12-0-0 record in qualification matches and running the table in eliminations. That is their first season WIN!

Traversal Ranking Point

There are different ways to score points during a match and the 'traversal ranking point' is a bonus point earned during qualification matches by achieving 50 or more tower points, which are achieved by climbing. Through week two (worldwide), in 8206 qualification matches, there have been a total of 11 traversal ranking points awarded (just 0.1% of matches). 2 of the 11 were scored by the Robonauts during the McAllen event. 

Wow-what a great showing at the McAllen event! I'm super proud of all the Robonauts and mentors. They made great progress in less than a week. They got back from McAllen at 4.50am Sunday morning and as I type this...Luke is at yet another robotics tournment in Spring, Texas. 

Great job Robonauts!

March 19 - Black River & YS Falls

Last day in Jamaica was a day of big adventure! We got up bright and early and loaded a bus for Black River, Jamaica. It was a long drive, about 2h. We were in a group of 30 people and once we arrived, we loaded a boat on the actual Black River. Our guide was fantastic and told us about the history of the area and the river. The river is in a mangrove forest and we saw several black alligators. It was a unique experience for sure!

After our tour, we traveled to YS Falls. We started with a delicious lunch (Jamaican jerk chicken for me and Jillian, fried chicken for Julia, with black beans and rice) and then heaed to the falls. YS Falls is a 7 tier waterfall with natural spring pools. Pictures do not do the place justice. It was simply incredible.

Towards the top of the waterfalls was a rope swing and the girls had a BLAST. Jillian went on it at least 20x and Julia was not far off. It started raining while we were there and the other tourists left but we stayed and the girls literally played in a waterfal in the middle of a forest all by themselves (plus me taking pictures and videos). AMAZING!

Eventually, it was time to leave and we drove 2H back to our hotel. It rained most of the drive and it was perfect weather for a good nap. 

We were sad to leave the next morning but all good things come to an end. We left the hotel for Montego Bay for our very long travel day. We ran into Julia's friend Imina and her family at the Montego Bay airport (small world!) and then headed to Baltimore. It was very quick going through customs in Baltimore and after eating dinner at the airport, we headed to Orlando. Our flight was slightly delayed but we eventually landed in Houston around 1.45am. Our bag didn't make it but arrived about 6H later. 

We love you Jamaica, thanks for the memories!

Black River

YS Falls

Last night at the beach

March 17 - Rick's Cafe

Another day in paradise, another adventure. On Tuesday, we headed to Negril's famous 7 Mile Beach, considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The water was just absolutely breathtaking. the pictures don't do it justice. After hanging out at the beach for a few hours, we boarded a catamaran and cruised for awhile before we stopped in the middle of the ocean to snorkel. Jillian was very annoyed that everyone was required to wear a life vest around our waist but when we got in the water it was apparent why-we had to swim in some strong currents! The fish were colorful and it was a fun experience. 

Our next stop was the west end of Negril, to Rick's Cafe. Rick's Cafe is on a cliff overlooking a turquoise lagoon and known for..you guessed it, cliff jumping! Julia went off the highest jump, 40ft multiple times (she loved it!) and while Jillian wanted to go off the tall ledge, she stayed on the 9' cliff. And she had a blast jumping off the 9' cliff multiple times. 

After Rick's, the cruise turned into a dance party of sorts and we danced, sang and watched the sunset. Core memories with my girls!

7 Mile Beach

Snorkeling

Rick's Cafe

Action shots

Sunset

March 15 - Bambuza Adventure Kingdom

We started our 2nd full day in Jamaica at Bambuza Adventure Kingdom. Bambuza Adventure Park is about 20min from our hotel but the road was in rough (ROUGH) shape from the hurricane with pot holes everywhere. Our driver actually got a flat tire on the way to pick us up but we made it there (and back) with no issues. We were the first tourists at the park and started off with ziplining. There were 3 of us with 3 employees and it was awesome! 

While we were ziplining, a group of college students from UPenn arrived. Our next activity was horse back riding and half the guys from the UPenn group were paired with us. The guide asked if anyone had riding experience. Jillian immediately raised her hand and shouted "I know how to ride." Julia and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes, thinking one time on a horse at age 3 probably didn't count but the guide gave us all directions and we were assigned our horses. We started out practicing in line, walking in a large circle. Jillian started in the lead horse with the guide holding her reigns. But to my surprise, she did great while one of the college guys could not control his horse. So the college guy was moved to the lead (with the guide directing his horse) and Jillian proceeded to ride by herself (through a forest, up and down some steep hills) for over an hour. I was so impressed!

After horseback riding, it was time for an ATV adventure. It was just the three of us plus two guides. Jillian was furious she wasn't allowed to drive by herself (feel free to laugh that she thought that was possible LOL) and wanted to ride with Julia, but she rode with me. This was Julia's first time on an ATV and she LOVED it. It was muddy and fun. We had a blast!

Once back at the hotel, the girls hit up the water park while I got lunch from the food trucks again. We swam in the pool for awhile and then Julia went back to the room to rest, while Jillian and I headed to the beach so she could meet up with her friend Emma to play for a few hours. 

Another fabulous day in Jamaica!

Most delish burger

Resort Fun

March 13 - Girls Trip! Ya Mon

Spring Break 2026! This year was all about the girls as Luke had a robotics competition last weekend in town and is currently in McAllen, TX for another one. JD is teaching a class at Rice and their spring break is next week so he had to work. So...girls trip!

We threw around a lot of different ideas for this trip: cruise, Hawaii, skiing, Caribbean. We decided on Jamaica because I was able to book direct flights using points and we got a great deal on the hotel since it was heavily damaged from Hurricane Melissa. It was a tad risky as the hotel reopen date was 3/1 and our check-in date was 3/7 but luckily it opened on time. 

SW changed our flights 2 weeks before the trip (more on that later) and we had a connection in Nashville on the way there, but it was no problem. We breezed through customs in Montego Bay and were quickly on our way to the hotel in Green Cove (about 20min north of Negril). We checked in around 5pm to the Princess Grand and it was gorgeous. Our room was huge with a king bed, nautical themed bunk beds and a view of the water park and ocean. We explored the resort and then headed to dinner. Jillian was VERY IMPRESSED with the buffet and ate 5 plates of food. 

Our first full day in Jamaica was a resort day. We had breakfast at the buffet again (Julia said the hash browns were some of the best she's ever had) and then we headed to the beach. Julia played beach volleyball with some guests for awhile while Jillian and I swam in the ocean. After a few hours we moved to the pool area. The girls went to the water park (loved it) while I got lunch for food trucks nearby. We had the most delicious quesadillas (Julia and I) and cheeseburger (Jillian). Julia eventually headed back to the room while Jillian and I went back to the beach. She ended up making a new friend, Ella, also from Houston, and the girls played until sunset. Perfect day!

Ruining her for future vacations LOL

Gorgeous views

My Girls

New Friend