Swim Season

We participated in the summer swim team again this year. The big news was that Gemma made the team! It took her the entire week of tryouts to make it across the pool unattended. But she did it!

Ashton moved up in age groups, which meant she swam 50 yard races instead of 25 yards. Tanner also moved up in age groups and swam all four strokes this year. Gemma swam free and back, when she felt like it.

Gemma earned "most improved swimmer" for 6 and under girls. It helps that her first 25 yard freestyle was over 2 minutes long. You can only improve from there. Tanner qualified for the "playoff" meet in July with his breaststroke. Ashton was very close to that in her backstroke. I have a feeling next year will include Ashton and Tanner qualifying in more events.

Lydia was the honorary coach for the year. She loves the head coaches and they love her. She gets popsicles from them all the time. At the end of year swim party, Lydia got right in the pool with the coaches. I don't think she'll be strong enough next summer for the team. Maybe the year after.

We had a good swim season. I am grateful it helps my kids be strong swimmers. When we canoed the Buffalo River, I had minimal concerns about their swimming ability in the river. They are strong swimmers, which is nice to know in Texas.

His face when he found out he qualified for the playoff meet.

Trip to Whitney

Back in January, my sister called me. She asked if I would be willing to hike Mt. Whitney with her in the summer. Nonchalantly, I said, "sure." My thoughts were- it's a lottery to get a permit and we probably won't get one.

Fast forward to March when permits are released. Lo and behold, we win a permit for late June! My first step was to actually look up what Mt. Whitney is. And then I see all the articles about record snowfall in the California mountains. My brother, my sister, and a close family friend were all planning to hike together.

Over the next few months, I trained physically and mentally for the challenge ahead. With the snowfall, making it to the summit would be very difficult and with additional risks. In a regular year, late June can be a little tricky with snowfall. So in a record year, there was no doubt we would be facing extreme conditions towards the top. Typically, there are 97 switchbacks towards the top that you take. While they are physically easy, the challenge is the mental game of being so close and yet so far. However, in a snowy year, the switchbacks are not available. You can't see them with all the snow covering it. Instead, you must hike up a snow slope that is about 40 percent grade. And it's a mile or so in length. On average, it takes 2 hours to hike just that one mile. If you slip, it is a straight fall into rocks. Not exactly the best scenario. Experienced hikers recommended helmets, crampons, and ice axes (and the knowledge and experience to use them) to make it up the slope safely.

I wasn't about to spend $200 on an ice axe that I would never use again in my life. Nor did I want to train on one while on the mountain. I decided I would stop the hike at the base of the slope, roughly 6 miles of the 9-10 mile hike.

My sister, family friend, and I all flew into LA a few days before our permit date to acclimate to the elevation. My brother spent the weekend before in Las Vegas so would meet us in Lone Pine (the town by the Whitney trailhead) the day before our permit. We got to spend some time in California, enjoying the mountains and hiking around. A highlight was hiking some of the Pacific Crest Trail, which was beautiful. We stayed at a neat house up in the mountains and soaked in the cooler weather and sunshine.

Monday came and we all met in Lone Pine to go over our hike. The first two miles of the hike do not require a permit so we hiked those on Monday. That's because we would be hiking them in the dark the next morning so we wanted to see them in the daylight. The first two miles also has the most intense water crossing so it was nice to navigate that in daylight rather than at night for the first time. After our short 4 mile (up and down) hike, we went back into town, grabbed dinner, and rehashed the plans for Tuesday. Because of the amount of snow, we knew we had to start early before snow started to melt in the middle of the day. We tried to go to bed early.

Our hike day started at 2am with the goal to be on the hike by 3am. We were at the trailhead at 3am and ready to go. Navigation was a little difficult because of the snow covering the trail so much. We got turned around a few times, which added extra mileage to our hike. Seeing the sun come over the mountains though, was amazing. We kept trekking up and hit trail camp around 8am. I got to use my crampons, which was a first for me. At this point, I was content being done. My brother and sister attempted the snow slope. They made it about 1/2 mile up and turned around. The 1/2 mile took them 1.5 hours so it was rough.

On the way down, we got lost for about an hour, which was stressful. Thankfully, we found our way back to the trail. When all was said and done, we had hiked 18 miles for the day, in about 11 hours. All of us were safe and no one experienced altitude sickness. Despite not summiting, we had achieved our goals of being safe and getting down the mountain.

We drove back down to Lone Pine, found some food, and went to bed. The next day, my brother left to Las Vegas and we went back to LA. I met up with an old friend from Lake Jackson and got to have dinner with her. We visited the Pacific Ocean as well. Then we all flew out Thursday morning to go back home.

The scarier water crossing. It was about mid-calf deep in the middle of the day. But both sides are waterfalls. So a slip isn't an option.

Mirror Lake. So beautiful.

One fun part was these little snow slides all over. Going down them was much more fun than climbing up the snow.

This is at trail camp. The sign for it is buried and you can barely see the top of the sign. I'm guessing 4-5 feet of snow. The lake here was also frozen. You had to climb the snow up to the trail crest- the top ridge. Then it was still another 2 miles to the summit. You can't see the summit in this picture.

Our PCT day. We hiked over this lake. Beautiful views.

Is I?

I find myself wanting to remember more of the simple and small moments of my day. As Lydia gets older, I see the baby and toddler years getting harder to recall. Some memories I don't mind forgetting- little sleep, blowouts, screaming and crying, etc. But other moments, I crave to experience again.

Sunday nights, I try to ask the kids what they learned in church. I love hearing what each of them learned in their individual classes. Lydia, attending nursery, typically shares what her snack was or what toy she played with.

This last Sunday, I did the same routine and started with Lydia. She had subs in nursery so I wasn't sure if a lesson was given. Lydia told me about who her teachers were and what kids were there. I asked her if she was a child of God, hoping to get her to say something spiritual. She looked right at me and asked, "Is I?"

Aside from her adorable but incorrect grammar phrase, I had the opportunity to testify to Lydia in 3-year-old terms that yes, she was a child of God. I sing "I am a Child of God" to her every night, followed by "I Love to See the Temple." My prayer is that those words help her know who she is and where she can go for peace.

I've had times where I also ask, "Is I" (just a little more grammatically correct) to the question of am I a child of God. I am grateful to have that knowledge for myself and that I can share that knowledge with my children.

Gemma Gets Glasses

After a few questionable complaints about her eyes and vision, we took Gemma into the eye doctor. Turns out she and Ashton share similar eyesight. Gemma has an astigmatism like Ashton and is far-sighted (can't see up close). Ashton was about the same age when we found out about her vision issues, but the optometrist recommended waiting until Ashton complained about it before glasses. Ashton got glasses halfway through 1st grade when reading piano music became more difficult. The optometrist said Gemma couldn't wait. Her vision is worse off and glasses would help her read. I am hopeful that the glasses help us with reading; it has been a rough go at learning to read. She loves taking care of the glasses and hasn't broken them...yet.

End of School

Ashton and Tanner finished out their school year and did great! No conduct marks for the year, which is a great sign! Tanner is a little concerned about Gemma next year. His concern is the Wilcox kids do well at the school with no conduct marks and he worries Gemma will ruin that. Time will tell.

The PTA hosted a party on the playground at the end of the year and we enjoyed hanging out with our friends. 

Tanner loved his teacher this year and it was a perfect match for him. We got to see her at the party as well. He achieved his reading goal for 1st grade, which was to be at the end of 2nd grade level, in Spanish. He loves to read and nothing slows him down.

Ashton finished 3rd grade and loved her teachers as well. She made great progress in her Spanish and is a good little translator for me when I visit Spanish-speaking primary families. 

Hard to believe they're off to 4th and 2nd grade in the fall! And Gemma will join them.

Gemma's Preschool Graduation

 Gemma finished out her preschool year. The school she attended goes all out for graduation. Caps and gowns and a little graduation ceremony. Then cake and a party afterwards. I think the high schoolers get very excited about graduation and that carried over into the preschool too. Gemma had a fun time celebrating the end of the school year.

Weekend in Austin

Joseph had two weeks of training for work in Austin. In hindsight, May is a really busy month and being down a parent was rough. Lots of driving and shuttling kids around. But we made it.

The weekend between Joseph's two weeks in Austin, we either could have him drive home or I could drive the kids there. Since his work was helping pay for lodging and food for him for the weekend, we decided to go join him in Austin. Our first stop by seeing the bats fly out of the bridge Friday night. Except, they didn't come out! I think it was going to rain later that night and I read somewhere that the bats sense the rain coming and don't come out. Ugh. We waited for about 2 hours at the bridge, playing charades and eating ice cream. We saw a few bats here and there but nothing like the millions of bats that come out all at once. We'll try again another time. The kids weren't too happy with me.

Saturday was spent hiking around some fun areas. We went to McKinney Falls State Park and found lots of water to play in. We saw a coyote too, which was cool. My cousins live in Austin and they joined us for the state park.

After the state park, we had a picnic lunch and regrouped. I really wanted to do another hike in another part of the city so we cooled off in the van, some kids took a quick nap, and we hit the hiking trail again. We hiked up to Sculpture Falls, which was well worth it. It reminded me of a place in Wisconsin called Eau Claire Dells. We went growing up. Sculpture Falls had a nice quiet "upper falls" spot where the littles could wade in the water and not need to swim. Then the water trickled down into a pool where the big kids could swim and jump in from the rocks. We spent about 2-3 hours at the falls and then hiked back down. All in all, I think we hiked about 6-7 miles that day, which I consider a success.

Saturday night, we went to a restaurant for dinner. I think it was the first time we went to a restaurant without a play area that we actually sat down and ate dinner. We didn't have to chase kids around or take turns eating our food. Maybe that chapter of our life is over!

Sunday morning, we went to a local ward and then drove to San Antonio to see some friends. Then Joseph went back up to his hotel for work and I drove back with the kids to Houston.

Of course, the ending of his work trip to Austin wasn't so great. He left his training Friday afternoon and was rear-ended by a semi-truck within a few minutes of leaving town. So that has been "fun" to deal with. The car is totaled so now we have to buy a new car and deal with the insurance of the semi truck driver/company. Thankfully, Joseph's work is being really great about it all and helped get Joseph home from Austin. Joseph is sore and moving slowly but hopefully he gets better soon. The damage to the car is pretty significant. I am grateful there wasn't a child in the back seat. The rear window shattered, and there was glass all over the car seats.