Amazing swim meet in the books!

Claire had a great swim meet this weekend! She ended up dropping at least 10 seconds in every event she swam! Clearly her work at practice has paid off some! Now we just have to keep that fire under her for the entire season!!!

 

Jellystone Park - Waller, TX- 4th annual camping weekend

We finally got to head to Jellystone for our 4th annual camping weekend with the Townsend family and the Moore family. We had to miss last year due to Covid and we all were very excited to have this weekend back! Claire brought her good friend Abby with and the two girls had a blast! We put them to work setting up their own tent and with minimal help, they got it done.

With a burn ban in effect, we were only able to have a small fire using charcoal. It lasted long enough to roast hot dogs thankfully!

The girls spent some time playing outdoor games,

jumping on the big pillow,

and tossing the nerf football.

Jeff and I spent most of our time in the lazy river with the other adults!

Had to get one group photo by Yogi!

Had to fulfill the tradition of the "magic pumpkin seed". You buy a magic pumpkin seed, go plant it and sprinkle the glitter over it and return in 2 hours to a full-grown pumpkin! Then you go to the rec center and paint your pumpkin. These two names theirs Fred and George!

We got in a little time at the mini golf course. The girls lost multiple balls into the water!

This was the first weekend the campground does Halloween events. The kids all went trick-or-treating around the campsites and came back with lots of candy!

Everyone had so much fun and the weather was absolutely amazing! Couldn't have asked for a better weekend blessed with wonderful friends! Until next year...

 

First day of 7th Grade!

Still cannot wrap my mind around how this happened, but Claire started 7th grade today. It makes me so sad that my baby is quickly turning into a beautiful young, independent lady. On the other hand, it makes me so excited to continue watching God's path for her unfold as she grows more into the woman He had planned for her to be! I will always treasure every single moment Claire wants to spend with me and I pray daily that God gives me the patience, grace, understanding, and guidance to help Claire be the very best she can be. This is going to be a great year!

It is tradition to get at least one crazy or silly picture every year!

 

Houston Interactive Aquarium

Our last family day before school beings. Jeff and I both had off work today so we took Claire to the new Houston Interactive Aquarium! It was pretty cool and we got to pet and feed some pretty awesome animals!

Claire liked to pet the giant rabbits...

and she loved feeding the ground squirrels!

This was just a cool picture...an octopus is such a strange looking creature!

We ended up being in many of the right places at the right time. Claire was allowed to finish feeding the camel it's bottle!

Jeff got to feed the Emu.

Claire liked hanging with the goats for a while...

and she had fun feeding dried seaweed to the fish. They liked to snatch it out of her fingers!

We had fun feeding the parakeets...Claire chose to not do this activity.

Jeff and Claire went inside with the ring-tailed lemurs to learn about them and pet them!

Claire and I got to experience having a Kinkajou...related to the racoon, they are nocturnal and they sure are curious little buggers. They quickly found my ponytail and tried chewing it! We learned that their long tails are all muscle and their tails are strong enough to support their entire body weight! It sure felt weird having them crawl all over us!

Claire got to go in and pet the kangaroos.

 This was my favorite part...Claire and I spent some time with the black and white ruffed lemurs.

They were so soft and fun to pet! Their paws are super soft with long fingers! They sure do make some loud noises though!

It was a wonderful way to spend our last family day together before the chaos of school begins!