Well, summer is just about over. Besides swimming and vacations, we did quite a lot, though we dialed back on the camps a bit from last summer, at the kids' request. As you can see from our June calendar, we still stayed pretty busy. There was a lot of swimming in June, and Owen also started going to the high school's Strength and Conditioning (SAC) Camp every M-Th in preparation for school athletics. I didn't get a picture, but we carpooled with friends and their junior high slot was 11:30-1:30. They spent time in the weight room, ran bleachers, and practiced football, all in the sunniest part of the day!
Owen also got to dabble in some of the youth programs at church, now that he finished a year of junior high. One of these programs is Bridge, where they spent a weekend helping out a small town community ~1 hour away. They cleared out overgrown landscaping, cleaned, and painted at a crisis center, while fellowshipping, bonding, and sleeping at a church at night.
We did a quick weekend trip to Austin to see some out-of-state and old friends. Austin in June is wicked hot, so we spent time in a friend's pool. The next day, we went to a new-ish brewery, Meanwhile, which had a farmer's market, food trucks, a soccer field, and big box fans in the shade of a cedar grove. But it still felt like 100+!
Hadley attended maybe her last VBS; she's pretty 'meh' on the whole thing. She's an old soul in a kid's body and doesn't appreciate mindless coloring or rambunctious, immature elementary boys' humor anymore! At least Owen enjoyed the photo props.
We finally participated in the neighborhood's 4th of July parade, following the fire truck around the block in patriotic colors and decorations.
Hadley also attended T Bar M Camp at church and had a great time! This is a traditional week-long camp based in New Braunfels, but they also have a group that travels to various churches during the summer for those that don't want to do a sleep-away camp. The kids are broken up into small groups (tents) and spend the day in Bible studies, fun activities, and worship.
Her counselors were Bacon (yes, that's her nickname) and Ava, and she was given the Maturity Award, as once again, she showed herself to be an old soul.
She followed the next week with a theater camp put on by one of the local high schools. They were doing Seussical (the Musical) Kids, with high school students directing, stage crew were junior high students, and elementary students were on stage. In keeping with the theme, Hadley wished she was doing set design with the junior high kids instead of being on stage.
The theater teachers took professional headshots as part of the camp. Hadley is at the end of the second row in the closest triangle here and full headshot below.
Somehow they put on a whole musical show with only 4 days of camp! This included songs, dances, and stage directions. It was a great show for such a short time investment.
Hadley landed the much-coveted roles of Jungle Citizen #3 and Accompanying Monkey. That's her in the monkey hat and purple shirt.
She wants to go back in a couple of years when she can be in the crew. 😁
I'm starting one more year as the Philanthropy Chair for the local Texas Exes chapter. One of my favorite events is the Student Sendoff. The last couple of these have been virtual or very limited attendance, so it was fun to have a "regular" one where students got to eat, learn, and mingle with future co-Longhorns!
We took the kids to play Bingo as a family at the local Catholic church. They were skeptical, but I think they ended up liking it. They were all business with the daubers when the next ball showed up on screen! Sadly, we didn't take home any winnings, but it was for a good cause.
Some other Youth Group events that Owen attended over the summer were a Beach Retreat and a lock-in at the trampoline center. I chaperoned the latter, so I got a few pics from that event (that's him on the wall), but I don't have anything to show from the beach, though he assures me he had a good time and dug a really big hole on the beach. 😎
Hadley and I volunteered with our church at Brookwood. We held a small carnival for the residents, and our station was rock painting to create rocks to put around their garden. The lady next to me here was legally blind, but a great conversationalist.
I was floored when one Sunday Hadley requested that we wear our matching dresses! She was never one to want to be like her Mama, so of course, I appreciate these moments when they do happen. I don't have a picture, but Hadley kept a list of all of the books she read this summer, and it came out to over 40 books! Most of them were large (several hundred pages) chapter books, so this is quite a feat for 11-12 weeks!
And finally, his and hers dental cleaning appointments to get ready for the new school year! These kids are both still cavity-free! Woo hoo! (And Owen nearly hangs off the pediatric dental table!😆)
It's hard to believe, but we've now had 10 years with this girl enriching our lives! Double digits, an official tween, 10 going on 18.... Her birthday is always hard to plan, being in the summer and just a couple of days away from the biggest summer holiday. This year she opted for a family celebration with her perfect day. We started with kolaches and donuts and moved right into presents. Her main requested gifts: tennis shoes that tie and an Alexa so that she can ask it questions. Spoiler: she got both.
Next on the agenda was rock climbing at the local gym. All four of us darned harnesses and climbing shoes for bouldering and auto-belay routes. (Subsequently, we all discovered muscles we didn't know we had that were sore the next day!)
Climbing was followed by a trip to a real movie theater! We hadn't done that in a long while, especially as a family. We couldn't convince her to see Top Gun: Maverick (she fell asleep during the original); birthday girl's choice was Lightyear. We all liked it.
Dinner request was sushi. We inadvertently went to the same place that we went to for Owen's 10th birthday. Our plate pile was quite high by the end!
Finally, we got to the cake. Mint chocolate chip ice cream cake, that is. Happy birthday to this beautiful, funny, smart girl! She loves nothing more than reading (all day long, if possible!), uses words like "context" in general conversation, and definitely has her own way of doing things. But she also likes being goofy, is the first to volunteer to help (especially at the grocery store!), and can't get enough snuggles. She definitely has great things in store for her future. We love you!
