Asher's 3rd Birthday

We went as a family to Marco's to celebrate Asher's Birthday.

Favorite outside activity...explore and jump on trampoline
Favorite inside activity...playing with his toys and watching TV
Favorite food...all fruit, leepops
Favorite color..all the colors
Favorite shows...Daniel Tiger and Curious George
Favorite book...Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb
Favorite movie...Minions
Favorite friends...Austin and Soli
Favorite toy...buckets, christmas stocking to stuff objects in, and animal pet house
Asher loves his blankets and kitty. He is very observant and checks things out when I am driving.  He pays attention to details of everything he sees out of the window and notices if something is different than normal.  During the drives he is non stop talking and asking questions.  He looks at all the picture details when you read his stories for bedtime.  He comments on all that is going on in the pictures.  He was on a kick of pointing out whenever he saw "diggers", construction vehicles.

We wanted to do a party for Asher, but were not up to all the planning and work.  We were originally going to invite all the nursery kids and their families.  That would be a lot of people, so we decided on a few families.  We invited the Herrera's, Moore's, and Wideman's.  We didn't really start making preparations for the party until a few days before.  We went with a Daniel Tiger theme because that is one of Asher's favorite shows.  We decorated Prince Wednesday crowns, played pin the tail on the tiger, and broke a pinata.  Matt also had rented an inflatable water slide.  It was raining all morning and we didn't know if we were going to get to use it.  Luckily it stopped raining and kids were able to go out and play on it.  Asher was scared about climbing up it to slide down.  Matt had to set him up there everytime he went down.  It was a little bit chaotic at times, but it was fun to have a little party for Asher.  He had fun.   Kylee also did balloon animals and we found out that brother Wideman has a talent with it also.

Staycation August 2016

Since Matt didn't get to go with us on our "vacation" this summer to Mexico, he decided to take the last week before school started off so that we could do some things as a family.  It was forecaste to be a rainy week, so we were waiting to decide what to do on each day.

Tuesday, August 16th-
On Tuesday we decided to go and hike around OP Schnabel.  The kids were venturing off the paved trail and going into the trees to explore around.  They had fun hiking up and down some hills.  It was a pretty humid day, but a little bit more bearable in the trees.

Wednesday, August 17th-
On Wednesday we decided to tube the Medina river.  We showed up and because of the recent rains the park that we were planning on going to was closed.  We drove around a little bit trying to figure things out.  We ended up finding the tube rental place.  We blew up our own tubes and for a fee they gave us a ride to the drop off point.  It was a pretty quiet day, not too many people tubing.  About 10 minutes after we got on the river there was a 5-10 minute down pour.  It was kind of fun and nice that it didn't last long.  It was a pretty slow moving river.  Matt chose the shorter route of 1-2 hours?  We packed a cooler with sandwiches and drinks to eat along the way.  We were able to stop at a rope swing where Matt, Brayden, Julia, and Blake took turns jumping off.  As we waited to be picked up there was a convenient location where we could get out and walk back to the beginning of some rapids to go down again.  The kids had fun doing that.  Kylee decided not to go because she didn't feel up to it.

Thursday, August 18th
Thursday was the day that we biked the Mission Trail.  We drove down to Mission San Jose with some of the bikes.  We had to go in 2 cars to fit the bikes.  Kylee and I rented bikes there.  They were heavy bikes with some baskets.  Asher was in the stroller attached to Matt's bike.  We got a little lost on the start of our bike ride and had to turn around to try and find the trail.  Blake was on bigger "new bike" to him.  He was used to the bikes the brake by pedaling backwards and this one had the brake on the handle bar.  It was kind of wide, so it was hard for him to squeeze.  His bike ride was a little out of control.  We started at Mission San Jose and went down to Mission Espada.  We went a total of 5 miles, with frequent stops along the way for snacks and water breaks.  The humid day made for lots of red faces and sweat.  

Family Pictures 2016

Our pictures were a little earlier this year because I wanted to make sure to get them before Matt left for Afghanistan in September.  I contacted EmyLee McIntyre and we settled on August 13th for the pictures.  We planned several weeks ahead which gave me plenty of time to search for coordinating clothes.  It is always tricky to figure out a balance between coordinating, but not too matchy.  Open to location, EmyLee suggested the Cibolo Nature Preserve in Boerne.  It had been a rainy week, but Saturday was supposed to be OK.  There was a downpour on the way there and we almost turned around, but when we arrived it was only a drizzle, which made for frizzy hair.  The location ended up being perfect. The tall cypress trees that line the creek give the same look as the rivers we have been exploring lately. The kids said it was the most fun they had taking pictures as a family.  We took pictures standing in the water and the kids enjoyed walking in the water with their clothes on.

After we were done taking pictures, we did some exploring.  Kylee enjoyed finding little frogs, the kids enjoyed exploring the forts, and I enjoyed sitting on the wooden bench swing with Matt.  We also walked on the boardwalk to explore the marsh.  It was fun to watch a little turtle swimming in the water.

Add family pictures

Exploring the Medina River

On one of our morning walks, Nicole had mentioned that they had tubed the Medina River with her husband Matt Winmill's family.  She said that they all really enjoyed it because it was not as busy as some of the other rivers, and it had great trees all along that shaded the river.  We decided to explore it on Saturday, August 6th.  We drove around trying to figure out where to go.  We found a park a little out of the town of Bandera where people were hanging out in the river and setting up picnics. We decided to pick a spot there and set up our camp chairs.  We ate a lunch and played in the river.

We had tubes that we had purchased from Costco.  We didn't go down the river.  We just hung out playing on the tubes in the river and enjoying the refreshing water.

The older kids were able to go off a rope swing a few times and Asher enjoyed picking up rocks and stacking them in Matt's hands.

Balmorhea

On our way home from the reunion Cynthia and I drove back together in a caravan.  Our husband's weren't with us, so we decided to make the trip a little more exciting by stopping at Balmorhea.  In all the years we have driven back and forth from San Antonio to El Paso we had never stopped in.  We had heard about it and had wanted to go.  It is one of the world's largest spring fed swimming pool.

From the website it says, "More than 15 million gallons of water flow through the pool each day, gushing from the San Solomon Springs.  The pool is up to 25 feet deep, covers 1.75 acres, and holds 3.5 million gallons of water.  The water temperature stays at 72 to 76 degrees year-round."

It was a fun experience.  The water felt cold when you first got in.  I tried to get Asher in the shallow part, but he didn't like it.  The steps are really slippery and slimy from all the algae.  He spent his time watching us from the side.  The other kids had fun jumping from the diving board and exploring in the water.  There were fish swimming all around.  We ran into the Potter family there.  It was nice there was showers to rinse off so that we could travel comfortably back home.

Hurricane Swimming 2016

The 2016 Hurricane Swimming season started later than in years past.  Kylee had an ear infection the last week of school, she was still not feeling better the day of the meet so she didn't go.  She stayed home and watched Asher because Matt was out of town.  The morning of the swim meet they found out that the 13-14 year old age group needed to do 50's, not 25's like they have done in years past.  Brayden was freaking out about doing a flip turn. 

Blake was put in a medley relay at the last minute and swam breast stroke.  He did pretty well.  I didn't know he was swimming and only saw him at the end.  Brayden saw him and was super excited to tell me that his relay was behind when Blake started.  Then he caught up and passed the other relay.

1st Swim Meet - June 6, Misty Oaks

Results:

Blake 

2nd place - 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 2:03.57

3rd place - 8 and Under 25 yard Freestyle - 26.91

Julia 

1st place - 100 yard Medley Relay - 1:44.26

3rd place - 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 1:41.13

6th place - 10 and Under 25 yard Freestyle - 22.34

Brayden 

3rd place - 100 yard Medley Relay - 1:37.75

3rd place - 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 1:15.36

4th place - 14 and Under 50 yard Breastroke - 44.03

8th place - 14 and Under 50 yard Freestyle - 35.59

2nd Swim Meet - June 21, Northwest Crossing

Results:

Blake 

2nd place - 100 yard Medley Relay - 2:08.99

2nd place - 100 yard Freestyle Stairstep Relay - 1:14.01

3rd place - 8 and Under 25 yard Breaststroke - 31.31

5th place - 8 and Under 25 yard Freestyle - 27.41

3rd place - 100 Freestyle Relay - 2:05.12

Julia

3rd place - 100 yard Medley Relay - 1:41.59

6th place - 10 and Under 25 yard Backstroke - 29.20

10th place - 10 and Under 25 yard Freestyle - 22.31 

3rd place - 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 1:34.07

Brayden

4th place - 14 and Under 50 yard Breaststroke - 42.39

5th place - 14 and Under 50 yard Freestyle - 32.79

3rd place - 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 1:05.34

Kylee

2nd place - 18 and Under 50 yard Backstroke - 39.71

4th place - 18 and Under 50 yard Breaststroke - 41.91

3rd Swim Meet - June 27, Colonies House

Results:

Blake 

1st place - 100 yard Medley Relay - 1:59.13

1st place - 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 1:46.75

2nd place - 8 and Under 25 yard Breaststroke - 29.75

Julia

2nd place - 100 yard Medley Relay - 1:45.01

5th place - 10 and Under 25 yard Backstroke - 30.28

5th place - 10 and Under 25 yard Freestyle - 19.94

Brayden 

1st place - 100 yard Medley Relay - 1:14.72

2nd place - 14 and Under 50 yard Breaststroke - 43.44

3rd place - 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 1:12.14

5th place - 14 and Under 50 yard Freestyle - 35.76

Kylee

1st place - 200 yard Freestyle Relay - 1:57.57

2nd place - 18 and Under 50 yard Breaststroke - 41.11

3rd place - 18 and Under 50 yard Backstroke - 40.04

Championship Meet - July 9, Northside Aquatic Center

Blake

DQ - 100 yard Medley Relay (breast)

1st place - 8 yr old -25 yard Breaststroke - 30.29

7th - 8 yr old - 25 yard Freestyle - 26.92

2nd - 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 1:38.94

Julia

5th - 10 yr old 25 Backstroke - 26.57

4th - 10 yr old 25 Freestyle - 19.83

6th - 10 and Under 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 1:31.35

Brayden

3rd - 14 and under 100 yard Medley Relay(free) - 1:06.31

2nd- 13 and Under 50 yard breaststroke - 42.14

6th - 13 and Under 50 yard Freestyle - 34.71

3rd - 14 and under 100 yard Freestyle Relay - 57.40

Kylee

4th-18 and Under 50 yard Breaststroke - 40.47

4th - 18 and Under 50 yard Freestyle - 30.93

Team Picture????

color war

For one of the combined youth activities they did a color war out on the field.  The powder is died cornstarch that needs to sit and dry for 2 days.  It is quite the process.  It looked like it was fun