August 30 - Julia is an Adult!!

My baby is officially an adult! Happy Birthday Julia!! (a little delayed, bday was the 18th :)

Age: 18

Current Activities: working as a lifeguard at Lifetime; very bored because all of her friends are at college

Current Style: Baggy

Current Interests: music, reading, thrifting, binging Netflix, crafts, girl groups

Favorite Foods: chicken friend rice, tortellini, mac 'n cheese, cheesecake


Best Friends: Mia (currently in boot camp with the Navy), Tanner (currently at College of Sequoais), Kiley (currently at UT Austin), Hannah (currently at UC Berekely), Kendall (currently at Texas A&M), Reese (currently at Texas State), Nat (currenty at Ohio State), Addy (currently at LSU)

Birthday Celebration: dinner with the family and cheesecake at home. 

Next stop: UC San Diego 

Major: Cognitive Neuroscience

We love you Julia, happy birthday and so excited for your next adventure.

August 16 - Third Time's the Charm?

Home Improvement Highlights

2010: home purchased & primary bathroom gutted

2012: shower completed & in use (SHOWER RENOVATION 1)

2015: shower leaking (water spot on ceiling below shower)

2016: hired a contractor with a master plumber to redo the shower (SHOWER RENOVATION 2)

2018: home renovated including AC and roof replacement 

2024: shower leaking again (water spot on ceiling below shower which quickly turned into water dripping downstairs when shower was turned on; tile sunken in where floor met lip of shower entry; spongy floor) ==> shower not in use

2026: hired a new contractor to fix the bathroom (RENOVATION 3)

We pulled the trigger on the bathroom in mid-July. Things we knew:

*the entire shower needed to be ripped out

*a small portion of the subfloor would need to be replaced

*main floor would need to be replaced

We decided to rip out the tub and shower and put in a giant shower. Things we found/learned in this renovation (because it's never as simple as we think, right?):

*2012 renovation: shower pan was installed improperly, causing the initial leak

*2016 renovation: shower pan was installed properly but the contractor screwed it in at the bottom of the pan on all four corners (supposed to be screwed in up on the sides)...resulting in water seeping out of the corners.

*the leak was worse than we thought-the entire subfloor below the shower had to be replaced, as well as half of the water closet and a portion of the general bathroom area

*when the demo'd the wall between the shower and tub, we discovered the 2x4 holding up that wall was also wet and moldy

*Turns out when our roof was replaced in 2016, the flanges were not replaced nor caulked

So..our bathroom remodel became a much bigger project than anticipated but I'm happy to report that we finally have a functioning shower! And I went bold with the new paint color: Vermont Slate. 

August 12 - 10th & 4th

And just like that, another school year commences! 

North Pointe Elementary had their annual Lemonade Social (meet the teacher) on Monday and Jillian was thrilled to get the same teaching team that Luke had in fourth. And most exciting? Almost all of her close friends are in her homeroom class! She plans to do spirit squad and choir again this year and is considering applying for robotics and safety patrol. Today was an extra special first day because Julia was able to walk her to school. 

Luke is a sophomore this year. He has a tough schedule planned with AP chem, AP pre-calc, AP US History, AP Computer Science A as well as honors English, honors German and swim. He starts swim practice next week (welcome back 5.45am mornings!) and is going to be the elementary school robotics mentor again this fall. He's considering being the water polo manager this season too. It's going to be a busy year!

Cheers to a great year!

August 10 - End of Summer Sleepover

On Friday night, we hosted a sleepover with the Girl Scouts to celebrate the end of summer. We had pizza, dessert fondue and then had a dance/karaoke party for several hours. Even I got into the action, it was so fun! After dancing the night away, they did some old fashioned sleepover fun: sliding down the stairs on a pool raft and then their stomachs. They did this for over an hour. The girls were in bed by 11pm and we wrapped up the night with a bedtime story. I've been doing this with Jillian and some of her friends for a few years now and they love it. They help craft the story..this time all the girls were dragon princesses who were imprisoned in the castle on Spruce Hollow Court. 

Queen Paris (Jillian): QP was a fire breathing dragon who loved to dance and loved jewerly. She broke into the royal jewerly store because she wanted to dance with a gorgeous tiara. She had no plans of stealing it.. she just wanted to dance with those gorgeous diamonds. But when she was caught by the mayor, she was sentenced to one year at Spruce Hollow. 

Queen Guinevere (Guinevere): QG was also known as 'Lady of the Lake.' She watched over the lake but wasn't allowed to interfere with anyone on it. One day, a one legged duck was trying to swim across the lake because he had a mud wrestling date with a pig. She felt bad for him and helped him get across. Poseidan saw her and sentenced her to Spruce Hollow for one year. 

Queen Tsunami (Adelyn): QT was a water dragon and she was not allowed shift water patterns. She was on vacation in Bali and had an amazing hut over the water with a slide. But the water levels were low and she couldn't use the slide. She decided no one would notice a tiny shift of water, all she wanted to do was raise it enough to use the slide But Poseidan caughter her and she was also sentenced to a year at Spruce Hollow. 

Queen Shape-Shifter (Ella): QSS had a fabulous life moving between dragon and all sorts of animals. She was allowed to move between shapes as long as she didn't cause harm to humans.  Her current favorite was shifting into this little kitten named Zuko. One night she was sleeping with her little human and decided to shape shift into a falcon. While she was in the sky, she was frightened by a bolt of lightening and quickly shifted back to Zuko. But her nails were out and she accidentally scratched her human. Athena made an appearance and told her she was sentenced to one year at Spruce Hollow. But she gave her some special info: there was a hidden key in Spruce Hollow. If she and the other dragons worked togther, they could find it and leave early.

And then...I was tired and called it a night! LOL

August 3 - Cousinpalooza

Mar Lago Lagoon

The Raleigh cousins take on H-town! Victoria and Andrew came to visit for the first time since Thanksgiving 2016. In preparation of their visit, I printed out pictures of the kids throughout the years and hung them on the fireplace and on the kitchen windows and wow-they have made some great memories over the years. You'd never know we live so far apart, the kids have done so much together. They have vacationed in Miami, Ocala (farm), Disney, Universal (twice), Puerto Rico, Vegas, Panama City Beach, summer camp (Luke & Andrew), Raleigh, Houston, Gatlinberg, Jay and Rachel's wedding and more. I'm happy they were able to make some new memories back in Houston!

Museum of Natural Science

Monday
Victoria and Andrew flew in a week ago. After getting lost in the parking garage (due to airport construction and lack of signage), the kids and I made our way to baggage claim to wait. The cousins soon arrived!! We ate lunch at Jimmy Johns and made our way back to the house. They played Mario Kart and hung out all afternoon. After dinner, we headed to BJ's for pizzouki's (one of Julia's favorite desserts). We played some fun games at the restaurant including 'Umbrella' and 'Imposter.'

Tuesday

We spent the day at the Museum of Natural Science and we all agreed-King Tut was our favorite exhibit. After the museum, we went to a bodega for an authentic Mexican lunch and the food was delish (although a tad spicy for Victoria). That evening we went out for some Texas BBQ. So fun! 

Kemah Boardwalk

Wednesday

Wednesday was the designated "go with the flow" day on the schedule Julia and Luke sent me (yes, they sent me a schedule LOL). We had a Houston staple for breakfast: kolaches. Andrew and Victoria liked them. The kids spent the day playing Mario Kart and working on their movie. Julia had to work that evening, Victoria took Jillian to a claw machine place nearby (they had fun and came homem with a surprising number of stuffed animals) while the boys rode bikes to a neighborhood park. 

Thursday

We went out for brunch at Snooze (mmm) and then headed to Urban Air. Urban Air is usually packed but apparently going midday on a Thursday in the summer is the time to go because it was empty. The kids played for hours and had a blast. After Urban Air, we headed to the Robonauts robotics lab so Luke could show them around. Andrew really loved the experience, especially the machine shop. Victoria had fun doing cartwheels with Jillian in the VEX area LOL. They capped off the night playing werewolf, a game they have been playing for literally years together. It was a jam packed, fun day!

Urban Air

Friday

Friday we tried someplace new that none of us had to been to before, called Mar Lago Lagoon. It's 12 acres, quarter mile of "shoreline" making it the largest man-made lagoon in Texas. A portion of the lagoon is roped off for swimming, another portion for a bumper boats, another for a water adventure course and then a good portion (over half) for kayaking and paddle boards. It was a HOT day and our initial plan was to rent a cabana but they were sold out when we got there (the people in front of us booked the last one). No worries though, because we found a shaded table. The biggest draw to this place was the adventure course-the kids waited in a line to get wristbands and a return time.

Lago Mar

They probably had to wait about an hour before their assigned time and they had a BLAST on the course. I will forever remember watching them play tag and sprint (and fall off many times in Andrew's case hahaha) into the water. Luke left early (allergies were acting up and he didn't want to wait in line for the course again) but the other kids did and had a blast. It was not quite 'water park' level fun but it was a great bang for the buck. We were there for almost 5H! The big kids went out for frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog that evening and kept working on the movie. 

Saturday

I don't have any pictures of Saturdays adventure but they all went bowling together. That evening, we went to dinner at Luke's favorite restaurant, Tokyo Bowl. Andrew learned how to use chopsticks and I think both Cook's were surprised at how often we eat Asian food in our house (all the time!). That evening, the big kids went to see the new Spiderman movie and enjoyed it. 

Pizooki time!

Sunday

Luke woke up Sunday feeling under the weather with a low grade fever so he spent the day solo. The rest of us went to a local escape room and-WE ESCAPED! It was a low difficulty room and family friendly-but it was Jillian and JD's first escape room experience and they loved it. Great job Yamo/Cook's! We escaped with I think 5min to spare and we still had to ask for a few hints but so fun. After that, we headed to Kemah Boardwalk for dinner and rides. It was extremely hot-even after the sun went down. But heat doesn't stop these kids! When we got home, Andrew finished editing the movie and we watched the final cut. Once again, love their creativity. 

I dropped Andrew and Victoria off at the airport this morning and another fabulous memory making week. 

Love our family!! (picture dump)