Wednesday, June 27, 2018

He Took Some Pictures!

I have to admit I'm shocked that JR actually took some pictures on his trip to Spain. 
Here are the highlights:


JR and Fergie at the Alhambra Palace in Granada. 
(JR described it as a "giant castle".)


 JR in front of a church in downtown Granada.



Fergie and JR at a paella cooking class.


The famous Nerja caves.  They weren't discovered until 1959 and they think this is just one entrance to a linked series of sinkholes that go miles into the mountains from Nerja to Granada. 



They toured the caves before they went to the Arabic baths where he said he got an "amazing" back massage. 


No big deal, just hanging out on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
He said the water was freezing. 


Garden of the Alhambra (Alhambra is in the background.)





In the center of the Plaza Isabel la Católica with the statue of Queen Isabella  and Christopher Columbus.



JR hates soccer (as he always proclaims) and was not looking forward to the tour of the Real Madrid soccer stadium. 

 But he said it was a really nice tour and he actually really enjoyed it. 

The Fifi Wild cup



In the "dugout"  (he doesn't know what the soccer term is).
  

On the field 


Certificates of completion of his coursework at the University of Granada.

 Celebration dinner



JR showing off his flamenco moves




JR and his flamenco teacher

Monday, June 25, 2018

Juan Roberto está en casa en Houston

We picked JR up from the airport yesterday evening and celebrated him being back home.


His brothers were happy to see him.


As was his sister. 

Sunday, June 24, 2018

17

After the big diving meet, Jason and I headed out to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. 

 We've been at swim meets, Fiesta Texas, roller skating, and not even in the same country together for past anniversaries, so being at a diving meet was a new one to add to the list. 

We went out to eat and had lots of fun.
Reed took our picture for us.


And since he took our picture, he got to be in one with us...which took a few tries.



Happy Anniversary to us! 

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Going to Nationals

Today was Kyle's first meet to dive Junior Olympic in 3 meter. He's won his last two meets in 3 meter, but he was still in the novice division.


I was very worried how the day was going to go as he looked like he was about to cry when he was warming up.  His warm up wasn't going great, and he just looked more and more defeated.  Finally he nailed one of his dives and he started warming up great and looking happy.



Come to find out, he was about to cry not because he was nervous, but because he had hurt his leg entering the water wrong and hard.  This was his bruise after he finished competing. 


I didn't care at all how Kyle placed today, I just wanted him to qualify for Nationals.  I knew it was important to him, and I also knew it was a legit possibility that he could do it if he had a good day. 


You have to score 125 points in 5 dives to qualify on 3 meter.  
Thankfully Reed, Jason, and Sherry were adding up the scores for me. 
 (I had out my calculator and still couldn't keep up with it.)


Kyle scored 143.95 and won 1st place, he beat his teammate Georgii by less than a point, so he qualified for Nationals too!


Celebrating that we now have a new trip planned for July!


This was his 3rd meet to dive Junior Olympic in 1 meter.  Kyle missed qualifying for Nationals at the last meet by 2.65 points.  I was happy that he had already qualified in 3 meter earlier so the pressure was off.  


Kyle was dancing and giggling during warm ups and I was happy to see him having fun and relaxed.  Not only did he qualify, he came in 3rd. (Georgii was 2nd.)

Kyle and Georgii then came running up to us saying that they wanted to dive synchro (synchronized diving). 
I thought they meant they wanted to start training together to do that in the future since neither of them has ever done any synchronized diving in their lives.


Oh no, they meant right then.  The meet was doing a little fundraiser with a no splash contest and a synchro contest.  So they entered.  I was laughing that not only had they never done this before, but they had Georgii, who just learned to speak English about 6 months ago, counting them down!


They practiced a couple of times, and here are their dives. 
(I was calm enough to video since it was just for fun.)

Really unbelievable considering they've never practiced!  

(If you listen closely you can hear Georgii's Russian accent.  On the same hand, you don't need to listen closely to hear me screaming like a maniac).



They won because they were the only ones that entered.  But they scored between 6-7 1/2's on everything, so I think they could have placed even if they'd had a little competition! 


Kyle had a big fan club cheering him on today.  And I'm glad they all got to see him do so well.
I didn't get a picture with Paw-Paw, but he was there too.



Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Jumbo-tron Stars

We went to the Astros game last night (win 12 of their streak) 

Kyle didn't want to go, and Sean was over playing with Reed so it was the 4 of us.



Sean and Reed got themselves on the jumbo-tron, not once...but 3 times!

The first time I got a bad picture, but you get the idea.

I missed their second time because I thought I was videoing and I wasn't.
It was the "dance cam" and they were flossing (of course).


But I guess the 3rd time was a charm for me finally getting them.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Comprobando en Juan Roberto (Checking in on JR)

The group that JR is with in Spain told us they would be posting pictures to a website each day.
They haven't been doing that, so I've really had no idea how JR is doing (since he doesn't check in with us).


Last night I happen to get on Twitter and was excited to see that his principal had posted some pictures from their trip.


This tweet cracked me up because their principal is Dr. Williams.  JR has always called him "D Willy" when he talks about him...and I guess JR let Dr. Williams know that on this trip.



This was from their trip to Antequera. That's JR in the lime green shirt. 




And I have no idea where they are, why JR is the only one shirtless, or where he got a cowboy hat. 

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my daddy, Jason, and Gary!





We had a nice brunch at the Racquet Club to celebrate them today. 


Saturday, June 16, 2018

Celebrating Trump's Birthday

Thursday was our president's birthday.


It was very sweet of my friend's to celebrate Trump's birthday for me in such a big way.


Thursday is my normal spin class day. I got to pick the music, and since almost every one of my songs was from a 1980's hair band, they decorated my bike in rocker chic, everyone dressed up in rocker black, and we all wore Bret Michael's bandannas. 
 (Who knew Trump was such a fan of spin and Motley Crue?)


Here's my bike, they even put my fan right in front of it for me.


They put me in front of the class to ride next to our teacher.  Everyone knows I'm always lip syncing along to the songs I like, so they gave me a blow up microphone to "perform" in to whenever I wanted.  You can see it hanging down from the bike. 

Then April, Jenn, and Julie took me to lunch at a new "it" Houston place Fig and Olive.

They know Trump and I love a party hat...


And we also love ridiculousness


You can see I wasn't excited at all that they got Trump a birthday cake too! 

Then Jason and I went to dinner that night at Emmaline.  I had been there for the school's Mother's Day lunch, but Jason (and probably Trump) hadn't.  I don't have a picture from that. 


So our president's birthday day was definitely celebrated big time. 

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Juan Roberto va a Espana

I dropped JR off at the airport yesterday for his 2 week Spain trip.


He is going with his middle school Spanish class, and there are about 20 kids going.  Fergie and JR are going to be roommates, and I'm so glad I have his mom on speed dial since Fergie will actually contact her in the next 2 weeks.

They landed in Madrid at 8:30 AM (around 1:30 AM our time I think) and took as bus to Cordoba.  They'll stay in Cordoba a few days and then they head to Granada.


In Granada they stay in a nunnery and Spanish nuns cook for them. They have college classes from 10:00-2:00 to learn about what they are going to see (in Spanish, of course) and then they go site-seeing in the afternoon and evening.


JR's homecoming date went on this trip last year and she absolutely loved it, so we know it's an awesome trip and are really excited for him. 

Monday, June 11, 2018

Church Camp

Kyle and Reed left for church camp yesterday.  It's a quick camp for them and they will be home on Wednesday.

They had lots of fun last year, and were excited to go back this year.

They posted a few pictures online, and I was surprised to find Kyle and Reed since there were tons of kids that went. 


There's Reed on the volleyball court.


And Kyle at the end of the lunch table with Reed across from him.


And I'm pretty sure that's Reed on the right hand side of the bench and Kyle down below in the water.  It looks like they're watching The Greatest Showman, which they both love, so it would make sense that the both have "front row" seats.