SUMMER 2015 - Lakes-Berries-Caves-Snakes-Baseball-Dyslexia-Robot Zoo-Bugs

What a BUSY summer!

We made a bucket list for summer and did ALMOST all of it.

Our annual Honeycomb Beach excursion was quite fun.....and infinitely easier than last year.

Our trip to Jack's lake was awesome, and the fact that I finally (after 3 years) made it through a Jack's Lake day without letting the boys get sunburnt was just the icing on top!

We hit 24.75 hours of reading over our 6 week break and the boys were thrilled to turn in their reading logs to our beloved Miss Maggie at the library at the final summer reading party....which just happened to include snakes, lizards and frogs.

Creek trips always top the summer (and who am I kidding...spring and fall) to do lists for the boys.

We made a trip to Cathedral Caverns with Nana and Gramps.  No trip to the caverns is complete without a berry picking excursion.  Thankfully Nana is an adept berry picker, even when the little boys lose focus in the adjacent peach orchard.

I participated in an INTENSIVE dyslexia training at our local Dyslexia school to beef up my skills in teaching Matthew.  Nana & Gramps came and kept the boys....as a result these boys got a little spoiled and Kimber thinks all toast now "needs" CHEESE on it.

The baseball bug has hit Matthew HARD.  He has always loved baseball but I would bet we have played catch 5 out of 7 days for the past 3 months, since baseball season ended.  He also attended a 3-day baseball camp at the local high school that he thoroughly enjoyed.

The local Space and Rocket Museum has a Robot Zoo exhibit that is phenomenal.  We spent a fun day exploring it and enjoying the lack of crowds as the local schools have started.

Our new school year starts next Monday!  We are shifting from American History and Geography to a study of the ancients this year.  Add this to math, reading, cursive, biology, geology and Latin.  We will be dissecting owl pellets (poop) and crayfish in a few weeks and the boys cannot wait. 

SEVENTEEN!!!!!

Mind.  Blown.

We have been married 17 years.....how is that possible? 

17 years ago we boarded this crazy flight to the land of marriage, we had no clue what to expect. Thankfully there have been plenty of blue skies, our fair share of turbulence, some baggage lost and two priceless freckled souvenirs gained, a few course corrections, a number of destination changes and more grace and mercy than imaginable.  I have zero doubt that we were made for each other....even if I question the matching of our red-headed stubborn personalities periodically.

I won't say I haven't searched for my oxygen mask at times.  Or that I haven't wanted to just bury my face in the SkyMall magazine a pretend that it was all perfect.  I will say that while marriage is such an incredible blessing, and has the potential to be a blast, it is also HARD WORK.  You know, the kind that leaves you hurting the next day.  One thing I do know, anything worth having IS hard work.

I was told by a family member not long after we married that the odds were that we wouldn't make it...while I don't pretend to know everything, I do know that HE has brought us together and as long as HE is the captain of THIS ship we will keep flying the friendly and not so friendly skies.

 About a month before our 3rd anniversary....absolute babies!

Those cute aforementioned "freckled souvenirs" last summer.

A big old 8 year old in the HOUSE!!!

That sweet little red headed boy who first called me Mama is a big lanky 8-year old today!

He is the sweetest kid on the planet, such an easygoing soul, full of happiness and life.  Legos and baseball are still his primary interests and Minecraft is a love as well.  Gnocchi is his favorite food by far followed up by pizza.  Fall baseball starts soon and it will be fun watching him in his element.

His hair, pictured here got EXTREMELY LONG over the summer, Willie made a deal with the guy he is working with that they would not cut their hair until they met a specific milestone and Matthew jumped right on board with them.  I think he secretly enjoyed all the attention I gave to him DAILY....asking is he was ready for a haircut yet??? 
We finally trimmed it a few weeks ago so the crazy hair is gone and my clean cut little man is back! 

Willie has been working an insane amount of hours over the past 3-4 months so we have seen very little of him, so for Matthew's birthday he took the ENTIRE day off.  I am not sure there is any THING we could have gotten Matthew that was a better gift than that.  Riggle U offers your birthday off so we had an easy morning with a few presents and game playing and then Willie took him on a special trip to the shooting range. 

Those that know this little quiet guy well know that he has
become quite adept at his little 22 rifle and having Papa all
to himself for a teaching and practice session was right up his
alley.  He even qualified and got his youth shooter card, which he thought was the icing on the cake.

We ended the day with dinner out at his favorite restaurant, MELLOW MUSHROOM! 

Our last ICE CREAM as a 7-year old!!!!

Moral of the story....DON'T BLINK!