Meet Harry Potter!

I just had to squeeze in a post to wrap up swim team season. Owen rebounded from his swimmer's ear just in time to swim at the Meet of Champions at a high school natatorium. This is where the team can send its top 6 finishers in each event to compete against the top finishers from the other 4 teams in the division (with some finessing from the coach). Top finishers at MoC can move on to the West Houston All Stars competition. O got to swim the freestyle and decided that he liked swim team and wants to do it again next year! (Very rare for him to okay an activity that far in advance!)

Hadley got to swim both freestyle and backstroke at the MoC. She actually enjoyed going to practice everyday (even at 7 am for the 6-and-unders!), and despite some nervousness about the butterfly (taught in the older age groups), has said that she'd like to do it again next year also.

We didn't quite realize the full commitment level required from swim team parents when we signed on. We had to sign up for at least 5 volunteer shifts at the meets throughout the season. One of the easiest jobs was to be the ready bench parent for the 6-and-under girls. Not too bad of a gig, since there were only 5 girls, they aren't into much drama or devices yet, and they were done before the halfway point of the meet. Aren't they cute working on a jigsaw puzzle together here at the MoC?

After the MoC, the team got to just be at the pool together and party with pizza! They each received a medal for the year and kudos from the coaches. I thought they were both making funny faces in these pictures, so I put them both. :)

Lastly, this part is for Aunt Jenn... This summer has turned into a Harry Potter summer! Owen wasn't really interested for a long time. Then I started to read them together with the kids at bedtime, but I was apparently going too slow for Hadley. She started to read them on her own, and then Owen had to keep reading them to stay ahead of her. Nothing like a little sibling rivalry to get your read on!

Keep Austin Wonderful

We finally had a swim-free weekend, so we headed to Austin to see some friends. Because we could, our first stop was The Salt Lick for dinner. It will always be a special place for us, even if our kids don't like BBQ sides! Ugh, how did we mess up that? The sides are the best part! Anyway, we enjoyed our meal, Owen enjoyed the ribs, and Hadley sulked, except for this picture.

In Hill Country style, there is a limestone patio under the oak trees and live music playing after dinner. But we were definitely shocked at the amount of development that has happened along the road to the restaurant! It used to be mostly rural with a few ranches here and there, but now there were neighborhoods nearly all the way. Kinda sad.

The kids love staying in a hotel because it's like a full family sleepover. They have gotten into Harry Potter this summer, Owen finally reading it to stay one book ahead of his sister. Hadley left her big book at home, and had already read the Easy Reader books she had brought on the trip, so she opted to read the Gideon Bible provided by our hotel room. She vowed she would read it all! She read Genesis 1, flipped to the end and declared that there were only 22 chapters in the Bible (*that is, 22 chapters in Revelation), so she was already off to a good start, and flipped back to read Genesis 2. We didn't have the heart to tell her that the chapters were by book and that there are 60+ books in the Bible...

On Saturday, we spent the day with college friends (Kim and Kristel) and their kids, eating, playing, swimming, and seeing Kristel's beautiful, newly remodeled house. Then we met another friend (Juan) at an East Austin brewery (Oddwood Ales) that had the brilliant idea to put all sorts of video game consoles and games around the place. Great idea for families! I failed at taking pictures with our friends... But we really enjoyed Mario Kart!

We couldn't resist checking in on our first house. It looks like a family lives there, but they cut down the grove of trees that J used to spend time trimming.

Finally, we snuck in a hike on Sunday morning because our hotel was right next to the greenbelt. It was a muggy morning, but we pressed on through the cedar forest.

And 3-ish miles later, we finally arrived to our waterfall destination, where we could wade in some cool water. Next time, we vowed to bring our swimsuits and park at the closer trailhead. The kids liked the water until Owen slipped and fell in, soaking his shorts for a squishy walk back. We finished off the weekend with a perfect lunch at Central Market, one of our favorites, with more live music. All in all, a great weekend!

June in a Nutshell

Rainy summer days are perfect for movies. I love that we can go to the movie theater now without anxiety. We have found a new favorite here - Alamo Drafthouse with reclining seats, waiters and full menus, as well as cheap kid movies! This was a matinee of Aladdin!

Outside, the kids are deep into swim team season. Hadley has really come to enjoy it and is taking advantage of being an almost-7-year-old in her 6-and-under category (second from right). She's gone from having to grab onto the lane ropes multiple times to finishing second overall in backstroke in the last meet.

Bonus - we get to check out all of the local neighborhood pools! A slide?!

Kids mid-meet. Can you tell that Owen doesn't like his mom checking in on him too much during a meet? I'm in 'the zone', now step aside, mom!

Unfortunately, Owen developed swimmer's ear right before the 3rd meet, so he had to sit out the last two meets of the season to keep his ear dry. I don't think he minded too much. He got to visit with friends, watch the meets, and sleep in a little longer.

Hadley kept right on swimming though, getting faster with every meet. The silver lining to Owen's ear infection was that we could leave after the 6-and-under's events (about a third of the way through a meet), so we were home by 8 when one of the meets went to midnight. Phew! 

We've been getting in some extended family time, even in the bugs and humidity. Bubbles and swings are a hit no matter the temperature.

Aunt Loni came to town, so we got a quick visit! And a full family photo. We just needed Oma, Papa, and Uncle Lampe! So nice to be together.

Summer sure makes the grass grow, so Owen has been volunteering to help with the lawn mowing. I love this!

It turns out that the library on the edge of our neighborhood has a lot of cool summer events going on for the kids, including bridge building, puppet shows, a petting zoo, movies, and a magician. Owen got to shoot a balloon animal with a potato! Guess you had to be there...

The kids already finished the summer reading program! It was a lot simpler than the one in Idaho, but maybe that's a good thing?

You can't spell summer without VBS... Um, you can, but why would you? This one featured video games, which was so relevant to their lives!

And we can't forget Father's Day! We had a great day starting with fathers being recognized and singing at church, Chipotle for lunch, and watching Star Wars as a family for the first time. We love the Dads in our lives!

Swim, swim, swimmer-time!

Summers in Texas are spent in the pool or lake, river, ocean, or whatever body of water you can find. Over Memorial Day weekend, we went pool hopping from a cousin's back yard to another cousin's neighborhood pool and back to our own neighborhood pool.

Oh, and before June rolled around, we got our new-to-us car, a Toyota Highlander. Isn't it sharp? They are pretty ubiquitous, but we liked the seating capacity, interior details, and smooth drive. Glad to have the car search behind us!

Speaking of swimming, we had our first official swim meet. Swimmers had to report by 6:30am for an 8:00 start time, and we weren't done until about 1pm. I was on clean up crew afterwards and felt every bit of the 105-degree heat index. Phew! The kids did great though. Hadley swam in 3 events, and because of some no-shows, Owen ended up in 7 events! I guess it's not too bad of a gig to sit in the shade, eating snacks with your friends, and going to swim a lap every half hour or so.

The kids really enjoyed their ribbons, but we were most impressed with them both shaving off at least 5 seconds from each practice meet time! Now that's improvement in less than two weeks! Fancy technology nowadays allows us to track their events and times on our phones. Bonus - our team won!

I snapped some unofficial pictures from their team picture day. O&H are on the first and second rows, near the middle. That's a lot of swimmers, eh? Six different age groups and two categories per age group makes for a lot of events.

It was recommended to us to get sibling pictures, rather than individuals. Who are these little swimsuit models?!