Volleyball season is back!

 We started this week with long practices and ended it with two days of scrimmages. Anastasia got a lot of playtime, and it was so good to see her in her game again. I rarely see her smile as much as when she is playing volleyball!

4-H Annual Cake Show!

 We spent a busy two days baking and decorating as usual. Sebastian set a goal of winning biggest cake this year, and he succeeded! It was quite a production. The other cakes turned out beautifully but didn't win any awards this year. 

Games of Texas

 Our two lifeguards working for the city of Bryan this year are helping with Games of Texas this weekend. It is a busy schedule. They were both assigned to the swim meet and saw many of our friends whose kids were in the meet!

Random July activities

4-H day camp (the preteen was not super excited but I promised not to sign him up next year!)

And Sebastian has taken over the mowing job since Stephen is lifeguarding this summer and keeping busy with that.

The biannual EVB Veterans' dinner

And bowling with friends!

Baby moments

 We added the youngest member of the family that Mariana babysits on Mondays and Fridays. We are really enjoy this sweet baby!

Lil Wrangler Tryouts

 We had Lil Wrangler boot camp and tryouts this past week. I missed Gloria being a part of it, but in her place we added Cecilia this year! She tried out with her friend, Sam. It was an exciting week.

They just happened to be playing when teams were announced and were so happy they made the Junior Wrangler (JW) team!

Stephen and his partner will remain on Elite Prep, which he was happy about so he can get back into it without too much pressure!

Moving Allia to Florida

 It took us two long days of driving with a U-Haul trailer, an emergency stop for tire repair after picking up nails, and many pitt stops for gas, snacks, etc. But we made it all the way to Largo and got her unloaded that same evening. What and adventure. We were only able to stay a few days since we had to drive the two days back and return before Wrangler tryouts. But we made the most of it and enjoyed our time with her before a very sad departure. Thankfully the trip home was smoother and a little faster without the trailer!

Cecilia was so happy to have a pool at the airbnb where we stayed. She swam the first night while I unpacked (after the many hours sitting in the car) and several other times during our stay.

Beach fun

Early morning beach buddies

We had fun hanging out in the deep water. Everyone took turns with the goggles diving for shells and sand dollars. Austin found a huge one that was still alive!

Random storms kept blowing in.

Our last night, we had a nice dinner with Allia.

More beach storms when we tried to take sunset photos!

Cecilia made these photo frames with some of the shells we collected. We sent one to Allia and kept one to help comfort all of us when we miss each other! It was tough to leave her so far away!