Bridlewood Torpedoes 2012

The kids just finished swim team for the summer! It was a lot of fun. All of the kids swam in the Free and Medley Relays and they all excelled in their individual events as well. Colin swam the 100 meter Individual Medley and 50 meter Butterfly, Brooklyn swam breaststroke and backstroke, Bella swam backstroke, freestyle and butterfly and Jared swam freestyle and backstroke! They all made All-stars and mostly had a great time swimming everyday!

The unique thing this year is that our family represented each age group during the meets and practices.  Which meant we had four different practice times each morning starting at 7 and ending at 10. It also meant that I had 16 races to watch during the meets, more than any other mother on the team!

Movember No Mo!

Ha! All of us were grateful when December 1 arrived (especially Jared being that it was his birthday)! Unfortunately, we had to wait until December 2 to say goodbye to the mustache for another year. But, thanks to our friends that provided us with these stick-on mustaches, we were all able to join in Movember!

The reason for the wait...to take the picture below. In total, there were 25 colleagues that joined Movember to raise money for cancer research. A bonus this year was an auction, that determined what color John dyed his mustache on the last day! He looked very Christmasy.

Sometimes I Miss

The view from our apartment in Melbourne.

Jared at 3! Chillin at our window watching traffic and footy, while listening to "Yeah!" by Usher and "Who Let the Dogs Out" by Baha Men.

But I am pretty sure (the kids are definitely sure) that I don't miss this...

Movember is back! Awesome!

Texas Vacation - San Antonio

We stayed in San Antonio for three nights and spent one day at Schlitterbahn. It was blistering hot, but we all had a good time.

We also went to the Alamo and spent some time on the Riverwalk. One of the interesting things about being in Texas is the huge amount of Texas history taught in school. Almost a greater amount than US history.


The Riverwalk was beautiful, but hot. One of the neat things about the Riverwalk is that you can go down many different channels and have a different experience each time.

Our last day we went to the San Antonio Zoo. Surprisingly the animals were mostly active, especially our four!

One of the highlights for us when we go to zoos is to see all of the Australian animals. Here is a Cassowary. Seriously ugly birds, but really cool as well!

Our drive home felt long. Jenny always likes this church, but because of the flow of traffic never really gets to take a picture, luckily this trip she got to take many. (Did I mention how long the trip was? Traffic was a beast!)

This was Jared's expression for the greater part of the trip home. We must not have been giving him enough to eat!!!

Texas Vacation - Austin

Two of our favorite shows on TV are Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network and Man v. Food on the Travel Channel. Right before our vacation we watched Man v Food about Austin and so I needed to go and try out Round Rock Donuts and Salt Lick. (We also went to Dough Pizzeria in San Antonio, which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives)

The Original Salt Lick located out in the country. Far out in the country.

John is currently traveling to Austin each week and so we joined him one night before heading to our final destination in San Antonio. We headed down to Congress bridge to watch (and listen to) the bats come out at twilight.

The Bell Tower was directly across the street from our hotel.

The State Capitol

The next day we rented a ski boat on Lake Travis. The girls had a blast on the tube and could have been out there for hours! The boys...not so much. Both John and Jenny got out on skis. It was a lot of fun.

We ate at Berryhill's Baja Cantina, a favorite restaurant of ours from Houston. It has fantastic fish tacos.

London and Prague

Prague - the city of 100 spires.

London. A brilliant city.

Awesome!

Piano Recital

Colin, Brooklyn and Isabella started playing piano in September of 2010. We had their second recital last weekend and they did fantastic. It was a name that tune themed evening and Colin played "When the Saints Come Marching in," Brooklyn played the theme from Beauty and the Beast, and Bella played "Alouette."

Jared is a super star for going along with all of the lessons, group lessons and piano practicing that is done on a daily basis. He can play the first bar of "We Three Kings" and insists that he is ready for piano as well.

Flashback Friday!

Three years ago we were in Hawaii! We had been planning a trip with our friends, Mark and Laura Hamilton, to coincide with our ten year anniversaries since our first year of marriage. Since that time we met Dave and Kim Chapman in Texas and invited them along. At the last minute, our friends Dallin and Sarah Combs decided to come as well (actually Dallin was working in Honolulu at the same time we were going and Sarah decided to join him). It was awesome!

We took them to the Polynesian Cultural Center for some island culture and yummy food.


Hanauma Bay was amazing!

Laura & Mark

Sarah & Dallin

Kim & Dave

John & Jenny

We went boogie boarding at Sandy Beach. Technically the boys boogie boarded while we sat on towels and watched. I think they had plenty of fun without us.

The sunsets were amazing.


We also went to Kauai with the Chapmans and packed our 3 day stay with a weeks worth of activities. Landsurfing is a sport co-discovered by Dave and John. They spent hours in the surf with waves pounding them from all directions at Barking Sands Beach (a.k.a. 10 mile beach).

Kayaking Wailua River

Ziplining in the mountains


The memories are sweet!

Na Pali Coast, North Shore of Kauai