Fall Champs Swim Meet

Spent the WHOLE weekend at the Fall Champs swim meet. Maddy and Regan dropped time in most events. Hard to do after having a week off of practice for Thanksgiving break. Regan even qualified for Gulf Champs next weekend in the 50 Breast. So I guess we make the 1 hour drive, probably before dawn, for a 30 minute warm up and then a 30 second swim. Gotta love it....

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a busy Thanksgiving weekend! Grandma Gerrie and Papa came to visit. Maddy won't stand up straight in the picture because she doesn't want it known that she's taller than Grandma Gerrie now. She's grown another 1 1/2 inches in the last 3 months.


Then we headed to San Marcos for Thanksgiving Day. We had our traditional hayride, which Bear got to enjoy with us. It was freezing cold that night! Much different from the 80 degrees earlier in the day!


We topped off the weekend with a marshmellow roast by the new treehouse. The kids dug out a firepit and even decorated the treehouse with Christmas lights. Don't know if you can really make them out in the background, but Dad finally got to use some of that pallet of spindles he bought years ago for $50 (because, you know, they might come in handy some day). They go all the way around the front porch of the treehouse and line the top of it as well. I'm not usually a huge s'mores fan, but i had two of them that night.

Scare A Kid Today, Make a Better Adult Tomorrow

Scare a Kid Today, Make a Better Adult Tomorrow is a quote i saw recently from Alton Brown, the guy from the food network. This saying ended up being my "theme" for halloween this year. And yes, I did scare several kids (and adults) at our 4th annual Haunted Train. It was tons of work, but sooo worth it. In a few more years we're gonna have to open it up to the public to get a little more mileage out of it. Here is a link from a slide show my sister put together. I didn't actually get to take any pictures. I misplaced my camera and didn't find it until we got home. It was in my purse. Who'd have thought to look there????

http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d546b354e6a67784e6a52384e444d334f546b774f444d3d0d0a&sb=1

Happy Halloween Week

When witches go riding
and black cats are seen
the moon laughs and whispers
'tis near Halloween!
-author unknown

websites of people who really know how to do Halloween
www.pumpkinrot.com
www.lovemanor.com
www.hauntedoverload.com

Renaissance Festival

Time for the Texas Renaissance Festival! We made the annual trek out to Plantersville to see what kind of scary creatures would make themselves known to us. Turns out it was "Fairy" weekend, so the forest was pretty void of anything too crazy, but we did find these guys, who totally look like they belong in the forest but were nothing to run screaming from. No dressing up for us this year, since it was about 90 degrees! This weather has way overstayed it's welcome...

6 Months in Under 6 Minutes

Swimming in the BIG Pool

We spent the weekend at Texas A&M for the girls first "long course" swim meet. Long course means the 50m pools. Wow! That is a LONG way to the other end. The facility was fantastic. Wish they had had it when I was there for school. No wonder college is so expensive now. The ammenities they offer these kids would make you never want to leave! Anyway, we had a good time and they swam great. Regan for sure has decided to continue swimming through the summer. Maddy has yet to commit. She wasn't so thrilled with the big pool! Summer league begins as soon as the neighborhood gets the pump fixed. Always something... I don't think the girls realize how "easy" summer practice is going to be after the practices they've had at the club level. And the 25m pool will seem very short!

We Are The Champions (of the C2 division)

Appropriately, the season ended on a rain makeup. I believe we only had 2 or 3 matches that didn't require a rain makeup this year. By Monday afternoon, it was mathmatically impossible for anyone to finish ahead of us. Wednesday's makeups were, as Gene put it, to simply leave no doubt that we deserved it. We easily won our last 3 lines. Yeah us! It's nice to finish on top for a change! So now we celebrate and accept our trophy, or towel or whatever they bestow upon us, and move on to swim team and USTA tennis. LET SUMMER BEGIN!

More Bluebonnets

Just a few more pics of the spectacular bluebonnets at mom and dad's. The fields were an endless sea of blue. We just couldn't stay out of them! I think there were more every day! Once again, though, it was easier to get cute pics of the dogs. They were much more cooperative. I wish they could stay forever...

Happy Easter

Spring has finally arrived in Central Texas and the bluebonnets are spectacular! It has been several years since we have any any, but the wait was worth it! We attempted to get pictures of the kids in the flowers today, but let's just say that the dogs were more cooperative....

Regan Gets to Swim With Olympians

Swim season is upon us and we kicked it off this weekend with Regan swimming at a clinic directed by 2 former Olympic swimmers, Ian Crocker and Megan Jendricks. She had a great time and really didn't want to take that medal off! The clinic was a little bit instructional but mainly inspirational. Every kid even got to race against the olympians! Regan was excited because she swam in the lane next to Megan one time and Megan high fived her at the end of the race. Every olympic swimming story I've heard or read begins with "When I was little I was a terrible swimmer.... i didn't even like to put my face in the water!" Guess that leaves both of mine out. We've never had that problem. Swim team registration begins tomorrow and soon our lives will be all consumed by it! Life will be crazy between that and the summer tennis team we are putting together. We are determined to get back to Dallas! Not many weeks left of school, Yeah! Definately ready for a break from that. Regan gets braces (top only) on Wednesday. Should be fun. Better stock up on applesauce and yogurt for awhile. Weather here is finally normal! Warm and sunny. Just makes you want to sit outside and bask in it, at least until the mosquitos make a comeback, which I'm sure they will.

Wild Texas Still Exists

We are just headed back from an adventure filled Spring Break in Concan, Texas, where we spent several days kayaking down the Frio River. This place was pretty close to the middle of nowhere. And as an added adventure, we drove to the middle of the middle of nowhere. Miles and miles of dirt (mud) roads and not a gas station, grocery store, or even a car to be seen. We had some good weather, some bad, but it didn't make a difference to the kids. Water is water to them whether it's 80 or 40 outside. Regan has found a new sport to love... kayaking. She, as well as all the kids, spent hours just paddling around the river.

I never knew there were so many stars in the sky. It's amazing what you can see when you have absolutely no city lights infringing. We could sit there and watch the satellites go by. Nice to know that places like that still exist. On a side note, may every single one of the supposed 216 votes today be marked for eternity as the individuals that began the deliberate destruction of our country.

Sisterly Love

Can't add anything to this. The pictures say it all.....