Hurricane Swimming 2013

I have wanted to get the kids involved in a summer swim team for years, and felt like they were missing out whenever I would hear about their cousins swimming.  When we lived by Sea World there weren't great swim team options.  After we moved I was happy to hear there was an open swim team in a neighborhood fairly close to ours.  We just had to sign up before they hit their 130 max.  Someone from the ward forwarded me the email with the information and I went to the pool on a Saturday to sign them up.  Because they were new to the team, they had to try out and show the coach that they could swim across the pool.  I was worried because I didn't know if Julia could make it all the way across the pool without stopping.  I had Matt take her to the pool a couple of times to have her practice.  They all did great and made the team.

First Swim meet 6-17-13 at Colonies North

Blake keeping himself entertained

Julia

5th - 8&U 25 yd. back - 37.38

3rd - 8&U 100 yd free relay - 2:11.75

Brayden 

5th - 10&U 25 yd. breast - 26.25

6th - 10&U 25 yd. free - 23.22

Kylee

4th - 12&U back - 23.00

2nd Swim meet 6-25-13 at Northwest Crossing

Julia

4th - 8&U 100 yd free relay - 2:13.97

Brayden

4th - 10&U 100 yd medley relay - 2:14.25

3rd - 10&U 25 yd breast - 24.47

Kylee

4th - 12&U 100 yd. medley relay - 1:37.65

3rd - 12&U 100 yd free relay - 1:09.09

3rd Swim meet 7-1-13 at Braun Station

Julia

3rd - 8&U 100 meter medley relay - 2:45.53

6th - 100 meter stairstep relay - 1:45.73

4th - 8&U 25 meter breast - 1:04.62

4th - 8&U 100 meter free relay - 2:36.56

Brayden 

3rd - 10&U 100 meter medley relay - 1:55.63

5th - 10&U 25 meter breast - 28.80

6th - 10&U 25 meter free - 23.50

Kylee

5th - 12&U 25 meter back- 24.12

6th - 100 meter stairstep relay 1:45.73

4th - 12&U 100 meter free relay - 1:27.32

There was a 4th swim meet on July 8, 2013 against Misty Oaks.  There was a storm with lightening that rolled in after the medley relays and some of the butterfly.  They ended up canceling the rest of the meet.

Julia

4th - 10&U 100 yd medley relay - 2:06.03

Brayden 

3rd - 10&U 100 yd medley relay - 1:55.16

Kylee 

2nd - 14&U 100 yd medley relay - 1:10.46

Championship Meet 7-13-13 at Northside Aquatic Center

For the Championship swim meet, they score differently than the the rest of the swim meets. They score them by each age, so all the 7 year olds are competing against each other instead of the combined 7 and 8 year olds.  The kids did great with their swimming.  We are very proud of how much they have improved.  Results:

Julia

7th- 7&U 25 yd. back - 34.73

12th-7&U 25 yd. free - 34.97

Brayden

DQ- 10&U 100 yd. medley relay 

2nd- 10&U 25 yd. breast - 24.21

5th- 10&U 25 yd. free - 20.58

3rd- 10&U 100 yd. free relay - 1:15.77

Kylee

5th- 12&U 25 yd. breast - 23.67

6th- 25 yd. free - 16.60 

Team Results

Hunters Chase II Hurricanes - 1533

Northwest Crossing Dolphins - 1072

Colonies House Dolphins - 968.5

Dominion - 831.5

End of Year Party 7-15-13

Each of the kids got a trophy for being part of the team.  Coach Haidin called them up by each age group and hand them out.

July 4th

This year for July 4th we wanted to keep it low key.  We have been trying to get things done around the house before the baby is born, so we didn't really want to stress about hosting a get together.  We celebrated as a family with Uncle Carlos.  To make it a little more fun we got a Slip-n-Slide and an inflatable baby pool for the kids.  We thought the hill in the back yard would make the slip n slide more fun, though it didn't really work as envisioned.  The slope made the water in the sprayers running the length of the Slilp-n-Slide only spraying at the bottom.  We improvised with some success and the kids took turns pouring water as they went down.  

The next day we went on a day trip to the beach because we weren't going to be able to go in the summer with the baby's due date in August.  We went to Mustang Island which is only a couple of hours away.  The sand isn't great because there is lots of seaweed, but the drive is not bad and the kids like it.

Day Camp for Brayden

Brayden went to Cub Scout Day Camp at McGimsey Scout Park for his third and final year attending, this time as a webelo.

The cubs in attendance were Jackson Vaughn, Neal Morril, Zack, Mac and Jack Watson, Eddie Gruwell, Ander McFarland, Matthew Stockwell, and Brayden

They shot BB-guns and bows and arrows, made crafts, played ga-ga ball, did relay races, went swimming, and pretty much wore themselves out in the hot San Antonio summer heat.  I was the cubmaster and was able to take a couple of days off from work to attend camp with the boys.

14th Wedding Anniversary

For our 14th wedding anniversary we decided to go somewhere that we had not tried before.  So, we went downtown and ate at the top of the Tower of the Americas.  It was fun to have a rotating view of the city as we had a really yummy dinner.

Kylee art work for 6th grade

From a young age Kylee has impressed us with her creativity and artistic talent.  She enjoyed her sixth grade art elective at Vale Middle School where she created a wide range of masterpieces.

End of the School Year 2012-2013, I Love You Like a Love Song Baby

Highlights from the 2012-2013 school year.
Kylee liked eating outside in the courtyard for lunch with her friend Kara.  Most kids had to eat in the cafeteria, but Coach Prose said they could always go out because they were good all the time.  They fed food to the birds.  Her favorite teachers were her GT tearchers, Mrs. Aguilar Cruz and Coach Prose.  She did not like Mr. Chessar for social studies.

Brayden was excited to finish up the school year so that he could start a new one in a different school. He didn't really didn't like his teacher Ms. Young, though she had a team teacher who he liked more. He didn't really want to take a picture with his teacher.

Julia had the same first grade teacher that Brayden had three years earlier, Mrs. Branch.  She enjoyed having her as a teacher.  She was nice and no one really got in trouble.  I was a volunteer for the first grade and I would make copies for everyone.

Blake's Pre-K teachers were the same that Julia had.  He learned so much and enjoyed the year. His favorite thing to do was free centers on Friday.  He liked making bead necklaces during the free choice time and bringing them home to give to our family.

Since we moved up to Helotes a little more than half way through the school year we decided it would be easier to commute back to Bob Lewis Elementary and Vale Middle School for the remainder of the year rather than change schools midstream.  That meant I had to make the 1 hour round trip drive several times a day.  In the morning we would all drive down together at 7 a.m.   I would drop off the elementary school kids and then take Kylee over to Vale.  Blake and I would come back to the house because he had afternoon Pre-K, so only a few hours later we would head back to drop him off.  I would sometimes run errands around the old neighborhood, but sometimes head back home just to make the trip a third time a few hours later.  In the afternoon Kylee got out almost an hour after the elementary school kids.   We would hang out and let them play at the Bob Lewis playground and then head over to Vale a little early to be near the front of the line to pick her up.  Spending a lot of time in the car meant getting to know all the songs on the radio.  Blake, who got the most car time started singing to the top 40.  It was pretty funny to hear him singing along with Selena Gomez to "I love you like a love song baby".

More Cataracts, Now in Belize

In June I lead another humanitarian mission to Dangriga, Belize.  I had visited the location the year before as part of the pre-mission site visit.  We stayed right on the beach at the Pelican Beach Resort, a small colonial style hotel with only about 30 rooms.  Despite the small size it had a nice restaurant where we ate breakfast and dinner each day right on the beach about 40 feet from the water with palm trees all around and a beautiful boat dock and little cabana out on the water.  The beach was covered with these crazy crabs that would come into the restaurant and even the rooms.

Our surgical team of ten included six surgeons and four technicians, but we were supported by a couple of marines who provided security.  The surgical list was much smaller in Dangriga where the population was significantly less than for the Panama mission.  We did a total of 77 surgeries including cataracts, pterygia, as well as some diabetic lasers.  

On our down weekend in between the two weeks we went cave tubing.  There are networks of rivers in Belize that go for miles underground.  The St. Herman's cave was about a mile stretch of tubable river along a 28 mile underground river.  We wore lights on our heads to see where we were going, but it was pretty slow and mostly shallow.  We also went swimming in the adjacent Blue Hole which was a part of the river where the ceiling of the cave had collapsed and the water came briefly to the surface.

 We also spent a day exploring the Caracol Mayan ruins which was a several hour drive way up in the mountains.

We also hiked to a pool below a scenic waterfall in a Jaguar preserve.  We did work hard, but we also took advantage of the beautiful country.