Our first stop on our cruise was Costa Maya, Mexico.
Kyle was less than impressed with his first impression of Costa Maya.
But Kyle and Reed both soon became huge fans when they found themselves the stars of a street performance.
Jason and I were in a store when Granny Sherry came running in to tell me to come watch Kyle hula-hoop. By the time I got there the hula-hooping was over but there was plenty more left.
We just got home this morning from a week long Thanksgiving cruise with my parents and Granny Sherry.
All the boys said it was their favorite Thanksgiving ever, and I have to agree with them, it was pretty awesome.
Jason was the only person in the family who actually ate turkey on Thanksgiving day. The rest of us were quite happy to eat from the "non-traditional" menu!
Kyle and I have been on a little trip to Austin these last few days.
I got him out of school early on Thursday and we went up to watch a UT diving meet.
(U of H and Rice only have women's diving, so UT is the closest school to us with men's.)
We couldn't believe we have to pay $3 for a middle school sporting event, but a college diving meet is free!
The Longhorn Network was broadcasting live from all the final rounds.
You can see them above Kyle's head.
I think Kyle videoed every single dive.
We found the Longhorn Network truck outside.
We saw diving Thursday night (men's 1 meter springboard finals), Friday afternoon (men's 3 meter springboard prelims) and Friday night (men's 3 meter springboard finals). As an added bonus all the divers were practicing for their platform competition that was Saturday afternoon, so we got to see all kinds of platform diving too.
We had a great time and were super impressed with all the divers.
I've been holding on to JR's science fair project since he was in the 5th grade.
He turned it in in both the 4th and 5th grade, and I've always known that Kyle would turn it in when he had to do one.
Unfortunately for me, they wouldn't accept JR's science fair project because it wasn't "scientific" enough (even though he turned it in to the exact same school 3 years ago).
Science Fair is optional for extra credit, so Kyle was perfectly fine not turning a project in.
Reed was dead-set on turning in a project, so I told him he was going to have to hook up with somebody because I didn't have it in me to do one.
Luckily for Reed, Sean's brother's old science fair project was approved.
They actually re-did the experiment (mentos in soda bottles).
And Wendy did an amazing job on their board!
I did absolutely nothing for this project so I told her I owe her a girls night out, and I"ll have to do their science fair project next year.
Kyle, Reed, and JR all had their Veteran's Day assemblies at the same time.
Kyle had a speaking part and Reed had a "solo with Sean and 3 other girls" (as he told me), so for the first time in their lives, Kyle and Reed trumped JR in the singing and speaking department.
(Plus I went to JR's last year and missed theirs.)
I was volunteering in the front office the day before, so I snuck in during Kyle and Reed's rehearsal so I wouldn't have to video during the show and could just enjoy it.
I so wish I had videoed Kyle during the show. He was hands down-no contest the absolute best speaker in the show. Much better than in this video.
Reed's group was the finale and they were great!
As one mom told me. "I kept waiting for them to go off key and they never did! God Bless America is hard."
I also didn't take pictures during the show, but I knew I'd have lots of friends that would.
My kids refused to wear "collared shirts", so yes, everyone else around them looks so much more presentable.
Kyle's group
Reed's group
Grandpa Gary and PawPaw were both there and got to stand up and be honored for being veterans of the army. I missed getting a picture with Grandpa, but here's PawPaw.
And since I have eyes and ears everywhere, I don't feel like I missed a thing from JR's program.
A few weekends back, Kyle and I got up early on a Saturday morning and drove out to Pearland to a diving clinic.
He was in heaven with all the diving, and he got some great coaching.
Here are all the diving kids that were there.
(Kyle is the only boy on the diving board.)
In the afternoon we headed over to a gym that was equipped with all kinds of dry land diving equipment. After a pep talk from to Olympic diving gold medalist, Laura Wilkinson, (and Kyle getting to hold her gold medal from the Sydney Games) they spent about 2 hours in the gym.
He said their "real" Olympic trampolines are way better than the "fake" Olympic trampolines they have at trampoline parks.
Here he is jumping on the trampoline, and then how that helps him at the pool.
He also spent lots of time on the dry board.
Here he is doing the same dive (a front flip with a twist) on the dry board and at the pool.
