Allison’s summer was supposed to be full of gymnastics and cheerleading. When she broke her arm the first day of summer her main two activities were cancelled until further notice. Of course, she was a little bummed. Not having a water proof cast the first 6 weeks put a big damper on her main third summer activity-swimming-as well.
My parents were moving to Florida in June and between the move they decided to spend a month visiting us in Kansas, spending the 4th in Florida, then going to Utah to see DeAnna, my dad’s family, and Idaho to see my mom’s family. Then finishing their trip off with our bi-annual Jones Family reunion in Colorado. They invited Allison to come along with them when they left our house. She thought about it for about two seconds when I asked her and said she was in. She was thrilled to have her own thing to do for the summer. Right before she left she got a new cast that was below her elbow and water proof. She was pretty pumped.
My mom flew from my house to Florida and my dad drove with the last of their stuff in the car. Allison went with him to keep him company and they had a fun little road trip together. After the Fourth of July in Florida with the French’s they all flew out to Utah and drove to the rest of the places they went from there. Allison had a great time. She loved being the ‘only child’ for a change and having Grandma and Grandpa to herself a lot. She also loved getting to see her cousins and spend a little more time than usual with them. She became pretty good buddies with Hannah especially. She loved helping out with her little cousins too. She played with Aubry a lot in Florida and became pals with her. She got really good at carrying Joseph around and loved a chance to help out with a baby. She had a very fun time and was glad that she went with her Grandparents. She got a little home sick sometimes but snuggles with Grandma, or a hug from her Aunts helped fight it off. We called each other often as well. The amount of witty comments dropped drastically at our house with her gone. We missed her and were glad to get her back with us.
Swimming with Cazier’s
On the plane from Florida to Utah. It was very early in the morning.
Hannah and Allison
Hannah, Peter, Allison, Tyler, and Michael.
She lost a tooth while she was gone but saved it for the tooth fairy at her own house.
We headed up to Lincoln for the Fourth of July as usual this year. Everyone was at the Terry Grandparents house, except for Allison. She gets to go on a three week adventure with Grandma and Grandpa Jones and visit Florida, Utah, and Idaho before meeting us in Colorado for the reunion later this month. For the 4th, she was in Florida and had a fun day swimming, grilling, having a bonfire and ending the day off with fireworks. Early the next morning she flew to Utah with them and will spend the next two weeks there playing with more cousins and family.
The rest of us were in Lincoln. The kids had a blast playing with cousins. Lauren, Leah and I got our toes done. We had yummy food, set off tons of fireworks, and watched even more. It was a fun holiday. July 4th is one of my favorite holidays. It is low key and doesn’t require a lot of fuss and it’s fun to do summer activities.
After the fourth we were in Lincoln a few more days. I had a stomach bug one of them. Everyone else went on a scavenger hunt at the Mall. Aunt Becky put together a list and divided everyone into teams and they raced to see who could find everything first. Everyone loved it and had a fun time. That night they had a firepit and roasted smores. Everyone was healthy the next day. We played games, got our fingernails painted, and watched a movie together.
On Sunday, after church we headed back home. Emilee and Ethan switched spots in our cars for the drive back. We stopped at their house and traded back kids. I decided to ride in the back with Emilee the last little bit to our house. Matthew was playing around with the Tesla computer and turned on the whoopee cushion feature. There are different options but he set it to go off anytime Ryan used the turn signal. About 30 seconds from our house Emilee says, “I think I’m hungry.” In my head I think, “That’s weird she said she thinks she is hungry. Wait…that is what I thought right before I got sick and threw…” I turn to check her just in time to see her puke all over herself and the car. The new car. The same car I was told I had to wait until I got out to eat my granola bar so I didn’t get crumbs on the floor. The same car we are asked to take our shoes off once we get in so they don’t accidently scuff something. The same care Ryan has cleaned more times then days we have had it so far. After she puked, everyone kind of held their breath for a second. Then Ryan let a little swear word out of his mouth. I guess I should say I think he did. By the look on his face, I’m guessing it was something along those lines. I didn’t actually hear it though because at the exact same time he said it he turned into our neighborhood and the whoopee cushion went off so all we heard was a loud farting noise. Then there are three more quick turns basically back to back to get to our house so the whoopee cushion sounds kept coming. By the time we got to the house we were all laughing…except for Ryan but he was smiling and not swearing so that is something. We got Emilee out and cleaned up and were happy to discover that the carpet in the car was treated with stain protector so it cleaned up pretty easily. Yay for road trips!!
My parents are moving from South Dakota to Tampa Florida this summer. They finished selling the house and finalizing things and drove to our house and stayed for a week on their way to Florida. There are pros and cons for them moving to Tampa. I am not a huge fan of the general climate of South Dakota so I am not sad that I won’t have to go there anymore. It is a lot easier and quicker for us to get to South Dakota then Florida though, so we won’t get to see them as often. We can get some good flights to Florida if we watch, and it’s Florida so it is always a nice place to travel too. They will be living by my sister so I can see twice the family when we see them too.
We had a really nice week with them. I worked the first day they were here so they watched the kids for me. Ryan and I are really awesome parents and they love being around us and eating up our wisdom (heavy sarcasm there if you can’t tell) but one-on-one time with Grandma and Grandpa while Ryan and I aren’t around is pretty fun and doesn’t happen very often so they were looking forward to it. They had a fun day playing games, making cookies, competing with each other at Wii games, telling jokes, going swimming, and enjoying each others company.
The week went by really fast. Allison and Grandma kept us stocked in yummy cookies all week. We watched a couple movies together (some of us took naps while we did that-me and Grandpa). My mom and I went and did a little shopping together and went to lunch. She found some sandals and summer shirts to add to her ward robe for Florida. Matthew had regular, makeup, and state tournament baseball games throughout the week. My parents have never seen him play so it was a good week for them to be here. They got to watch 6 of his 7 games. They were troopers. The first two games had nice weather, after that is was ridiculously and miserably hot and humid. Yuck! One afternoon we made a trip to Sam’s Club so my dad could enjoy walking around and looking at everything. We also had a fun afternoon at the pool a few times.
Sunday morning my mom flew to Florida so her back and neck wouldn’t have problems. My dad left that morning in their car to drive it to Florida. They invited Allison to go with them for a few weeks until we see them later this month in Colorado. She was pretty excited. It will be a fun time for her and help redeem her summer a little bit so it’s not just remembered as the summer she couldn’t do anything because she broke her arm.
It was a really nice week having them here. I am glad they came to visit. They are great Grandparents for my kids. They have endless patience with my kids, especially the girls. They teach and correct them without them realize they are doing it. They have endless patience with them. Watching them reminded me to stop and take the time to talk with my kids more about what they want to talk about and less of what I want to tell them.
Our first month of summer has buzzed by. It has been a fun month.
Emilee had a birthday party with Jovee and went to a birthday party with her friend from school Stella. They are two little peas in a pod. It was actually Stella’s older sisters birthday and her mom let Stella invite a friend so she would have someone to play with. Mission accomplished. They had a fun time together.
Allison got her full arm plaster cast off and switched it for a half arm water proof cast. She is loving having more use of her arm back and being able to swim and shower without a big plastic bag.
Matthew’s team played in the State Tournament for baseball. They played really well and ended up making it into the top 8. The game we lost they were fighting the whole time to win and never gave up. It was a great game. One of the games Matthew was nominated for the State All Star game. He was pretty pumped about that. We are going to be in Colorado during the tournament so he won’t make it this year though. Hopefully next.
It is about time for Ryan to get a new car. He has been working out how to get a Tesla for the past 6 months. The original plan wasn’t fast enough so he kept working on it and doing the math and got one a week ago. He loves it.
These pictures were sent to me from Emilee’s old preschool teacher. She was organizing her photos and found a bunch with Emilee in them from preschool. They are from 2 or 3 years ago but I’m putting them in here anyways because she is stinking cute.
Plaster project
Playing in the leaves.
Making volcanoes
Painting her whale
Princesses riding on their horse
First day of 2nd year of preschool
Bug catching
Play time.
Dress up time.
Playtime.
Emilee’s birthday cookies she brought for the class.
We did a traveling baseball tournament for the first time this summer. We made a fun family trip out of it. We went up to Omaha Nebraska for the Slumpbuster Tournament, which is at the same time as the College World Series (CWS) for baseball.
We drove up on a Wednesday afternoon. There has been a lot of flooding between here and Omaha this summer. The freeway was actually closed until the day before we went up. It saved us a lot of time to not have to go around it. The flooding was really sad to see though. Lots of homes and farms and towns still underwater or damaged from being underwater. We checked into the hotel and the first item of business the kids wanted to do was go swimming. They thought it was a great kickoff for the long weekend. There were a few other families from the team that came up that night. A group of them went to watch a CWS game. The rest of us ordered pizza’s and spent a few more hours swimming in the pool.
On their way to CWS
They found princesses at CWS!?!
The next day everyone met at the Omaha Zoo. The kids loved walking around as a big group and looking at the animals together. We saw a lot of cute little baby animals-including a seal, giraffe, gorilla, and some other kind of monkey. When we finished exploring the zoo the kids decided to play a game of wiffle ball at the wiffle ball park in the zoo parking lot. Then is was back to the hotel to play card games and cool off in the pool. Coach Jimmy had a little meeting to kick of the weekend before we all headed over to the opening activities for the Slumpbuster Tournament the boys were playing in. At the Tournament Kick-off they had a lot of activities and baseball equipment to try or buy. The main attraction was giant bonfire with wooden bats and some fireworks.
Wiffle Ball at the Zoo
Emi and Anna
The Cheetah taking a picture with a cheetah.
Emi, Lexi, and Anna
They thought it looked like they were swimming with the fish!
Jake and Matt
Lunch at the zoo
Bonfire
Friday was the day we started playing games…but the weather didn’t cooperate. We had a lot of rain all night long and into the morning. We were supposed to play two games a day on Friday and Saturday. Friday our 8 am game was postponed until 10 then 11. Everyone started going their own way and exploring different shopping areas. At 12:15 we got a text saying we had to be in Lincoln (one hour away) because they had playable fields to start a game at 2. Everyone made it and we had our first game. Ryan’s parents came and watched and were glad they had to drive 10 minutes because they live in Lincoln, instead of an hour. The game did not go well. We tell Matthew all the time he can’t blame an umpire for loosing a game, it’s a poor excuse. However, this time it really was the umpire. Ugg, I won’t waste time explaining but, he was awful.
Playing spoons.
Our second game that day was cancelled so we went to Grandma and Grandpa Terry’s house. Grandma had made a spice cake for Ryan’s birthday so we had cake and ice cream together. The girls stayed at their house that night. Allison and Grandma went to the craft store together and made rainbow loom bracelets and slime. Emilee and grandpa played with the stuffed animals beanie baby collection all night. They were pretty happy.
Matthew, Ryan, and I went back to Omaha and went to the Omaha Storm Chasers (AAA Baseball) game that night with the rest of the team. Coach Jimmy arranged for the boys to go down on the field and meet the team and make a high five tunnel for them to run through. It was a fun experience for them.
Storm Chaser’s
Storm Chaser’s
Storm Chaser’s
Storm Chaser’s
Storm Chaser’s
Storm Chaser’s
Storm Chaser’s
Storm Chaser’s
Storm Chaser’s
Storm Chaser’s
Saturday we only ended up having one game as well in the morning. Grandma and Grandpa brought the girls back to us and watched us beat a team 20 to 0 in 2 innings. It took about 40 minutes from start to finish and was not a satisfying game obviously. We were done with baseball by 11 on Saturday. We went to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa before they headed home, then we joined the rest of the team in downtown Omaha for some sight seeing, shopping, and Ted and Wally’s Ice cream. It was very good ice cream but they were out of a lot of flavors we were willing to try (no one was willing to try banana/peanut butter/bacon flavor) when we ordered so we ended up with vanilla or a root beer freeze. The rest of the team continues to make fun of us for getting ‘just vanilla,’ the jokes on them though because we all liked our ice cream, everyone else couldn’t say that. After we finished in downtown there was another giant swimming party at the hotel for a few hours. Then we ate dinner and had another impromptu game of wiffle ball behind the hotel in a parking lot with anyone that wanted to play. We made it to bracket play on Sunday and had a game at 8am. We must have had too much fun all weekend while we killed time waiting for the rain to stop. The boys were not jiving. We ended up getting run ruled! I don’t think we have ever been run ruled in the two years we have played with this team. We packed up and were home by early afternoon.
Emi opted for a sucker instead of ice cream.
Coach Jimmy coaching ‘Matty Baseball”
Wiffle Ball
This sign was up in the pool area.
My two little boogers.
Allison got her driver’s license
The baseball was a little disappointing with how things worked out with the weather. It was a fun weekend in every other aspect though. We got to know the baseball families a lot better. The kids loved the zoo and all the swimming. It was a different vacation then we have done before. It was a nice change of pace and all of us had a good time. Hopefully the next time we travel for a baseball tournament we get to play more baseball though.
As summer is getting started and we are all adjusting to being around each other for most of our day. I have had the thought cross my mind a couple times one thing or another just drives me crazy. As I have thought about these things, sometimes they legitimately drive me crazy and I want to pull my hair out. Somethings that drive me crazy though I think I will miss someday so I should quit my complaining and enjoy it while it lasts.
The first thing that came to my mind was our family seating arrangements for church on Sunday. This has changed a lot over the years as the kids go through different ages, we have had assigned seating, rotating seating, and occasionally ‘you pick’ seating. Currently ‘first come, first serve’ is the way seats are chosen unless people get rowdy then Ryan and I start making them play musical chairs. The whole thing is quite ridiculous. It is just sitting and listening for 45 minutes but they act like they are making a life altering choice.
Whatever the seating arrangement is, there seems to also be some unspoken rule that says everyone has to get as close to me as possible and take up as little space on the bench as possible. Every Sunday I feel like I am being smothered during Sacrament. I have one or two people trying to sit on my lap or lay their head on my lap, hold my arm or hand, lay on my shoulder, wedge their body underneath me for warmth. Aaahhh, sometimes I just want to sit by myself and stretch out. I know someday they will sit in their own space though or not be there at all and I will miss it, so I just try to enjoy if for now.
I’ve always had a rule that my kids can come get me at night if they need me or have a bad dream but they can not sleep in my bed. They can snuggle a minute, or sleep on our couch in our room, or I will even lay by them in their bed until they fall back asleep but they are not supposed to sleep in my bed because I like to sleep without being kicked or squished or wake up with a kink in my neck because someone wedged themselves underneath me. Matthew and Allison follow this rule very well. Matthew has already outgrown needing me at night for a few years now. Allison occasionally will come poke me for a hug but not very often. Emilee has been the hardest to enforce this rule with. Partly my fault because she has always been a little cuddler from day one so if she comes for a snuggle, before you know it I’m waking up and its morning time. She has also mastered crawling into my bed without waking me up when she crawls in so I wake up in the morning with a sore back and her mouth breathing in my face. It is getting better but Emilee’s approach to disobeying has always been ignore or act like you don’t hear and smile cute when you get caught. That is really hard to combat at two in the morning when you are not conscious and want nothing more than to stay that way for the rest of the night.
Shortly after Ryan’s 30th birthday I decided that for his 40th birthday I was going to do a surprise party for him. He struggles with turning a new decade so I thought it would be a fun way to help him welcome in his 40’s and be something different.
As it got closer I decided that instead of a surprise party I would just do a party for him so I talked to him about it and he kind of poo-hooed the idea because he isn’t excited about turning 40 like I figured. So I let it go and tried to come up with other ideas. He didn’t really have any suggestions of what to do either. I came up with having one of his best friends from his mission come for the weekend. I thought that would be a fun surprise for him, and it was, but I also had lots of people asking me when his party was or what the plan for his birthday was. A few weeks before his birthday I decided that I was going to do the surprise party anyway. So I rented our neighborhood clubhouse, invited about 100 of his closest friends, got a giant cake, balloons, and some yummy BBQ and we had a party! I had about 150 pictures of Ryan displayed as part of the decorations from when he was a baby up to now.
His buddy Mike Johnson flew in from Arizona and got to our house about 3:15 on Friday, the day of the party. I had told Ryan he had an appointment to get his car detailed (that was something he wanted for his birthday) at 4pm so he would be home. Johnson decided he wanted to hide somewhere and jump out and scare him. I ended up telling Ryan that I needed the A/C filter changed and when he went to change it Johnson jumped out. I was a little worried Ryan might take a swing at him when he got startled but he didn’t and he was very excited to see his buddy and find out they had the weekend to hang out.
As soon as Mike surprised Ryan, I took the kids to sleepover at their cousins house and then I was going to meet Ryan for dinner a little later. What actually happened is the kids and I all went to the clubhouse to wait for Ryan. A few minutes before they were supposed to leave I called Ryan and told him that Emilee had left her mermaid toy at the pool so I needed him to go to the clubhouse and check the lost and found on his way to dinner. He came to check but instead of finding a lost and found when he arrived, he found a surprise party! He had no idea. I thought he might have been a little suspicious but he said he didn’t really have any idea.
We had Joe’s KC BBQ for dinner and the adults visited, Ryan made the rounds to everyone to talk for a bit. The kids swam in the pool and drank way to much soda and blew the noise makers that I made the mistake of providing. We of course sang happy birthday and blew out candles. I think everyone had a fun time. It was a good night.
After the party Ryan and Mike spent the rest of the weekend golfing, eating out at their favorite places, getting massages, shopping, watching golf, enjoying having no responsibilities. They are quite the pair.
Sunday morning was Father’s Day. Johnson headed home to spend it with his family and we celebrated Ryan. We had Ross and Lauren over for dinner to help us eat some of our BBQ leftovers. Then Lauren and I played a game with Ross and Ryan because it was Father’s Day and they said we had too. Playing a game with Ross and Ryan is a 2-3 hour commitment so we often opt to do something else and let them play themselves. On Father’s Day and birthdays they say we have to play though.
It was a nice weekend. I am very grateful for the great dad’s we have in our lives. Ryan and I were both raised by great dads. Ryan is an amazing dad. I took a mental picture today of him skipping across the parking lot to the car after church with a daughter on each arm because they thought it would be fun and silly. I am grateful for all the friends and Uncle’s and other family members that are good examples of dads to my kids too. It takes a village.
Sometimes as I am going about my day I come across things that bring a smile to my face. Usually it is something sweet and child like that my kids do. As my kids have gotten older I realize that these situations are happening less and less often so I have tried to start taking a picture when these moments happen to remember them for later… or when they are driving me crazy and I need to focus on their more endearing qualities. First up, in no particular order is a few of Emilee sleeping.
Before I go to bed each night I peak in on each kiddo to make sure they are sleeping happily. This night when I checked on Emilee she had decided to wear sunglasses to bed. She woke up with them in the morning too, they stayed on all night much to her delight.This is Emilee sleeping in the car. When I looked at her something caught my eye. When I looked closer I found a little toy frog tucked under the edge of her shorts for safe keeping during her nap.This is Wrinkles the puppy and Froggy the frog. They are Allison’s favorite stuffed animals. She left them hugging in her bean bag one day.
Ryan was saying something to Matthew about how he used to hold him when he was a baby. Matthew jumped in his arms to goof around and said he would let Ryan hold him like a baby if he sang a lullaby. Ryan started singing ‘Sweet Baby James’. They were being silly but Matthew was a little embarrassed when he saw I had gotten my camera out.
It is hard for Allison to brush the back of her hair with her broken arm so Matthew was helping her brush her hair. It made me smile so I snuck a picture.
We have played Nerf Dodge Ball since Matthew was 4 or 5 years old. It is hard to say if the kids or Ryan and I love it more. Most of the time its the kids run through the kitchen and Ryan and I sit in the living room and try and shoot them with Nerf guns. Sometimes we will switch spots and let the kids shoot at us. It is a pretty therapeutic game. 🙂
We have started our trips to Harvesters again this Summer. The kids really like it. They would like to go every week so we try to fit it in when we can. They each invite a friend or two to come. I think 4-5 kids is the magic number. Everyone has a job and can keep busy and it’s not too many for me to wrangle and keep focused. The minimum age is 8 years old. I debated on passing Emilee off as an 8 year old because she is the only one that can’t come. I asked her if she was interested in going to sort food with us, she said, “Umm working is not really my thing so I will let you guys do that. I will stay and play.” After our first trip I figured that was probably best. So I get a babysitter for her or she plays at a friends house and we are all happy.
Hailey Hinton, Aliya and Cambrie McDonald came with us. We sorted and boxed 1,850 pounds of canned goods in 2 hours. They worked hard!Allison, Matthew and Reece. We shucked and bagged a few hundred ears of corn.
Ha! I didn’t mean to make that pun in the title, I realized it after I typed it.
Anyway, it is true. We are in the meat of our Spring Baseball season. We have had a lot of rainouts which is crappy, but in return the games we have played have been in gorgeous weather or cold weather which I will take any day over heat. The Summer temps have finally arrived so now it will get a little less pleasant to watch them play. The team has been doing great though. Matthew started out strong, had a bit of a hitting slump (still one of the best hitters on the team though) and this past weekend finally came out of it and it doing great now. He has had some pretty awesome fielding plays too. Diving and rolling catches, huge leaps through the air to catch it, double plays, and some impressive catches off of hard hits or crazy bounces. He is a fun person to watch play. The last two tournaments we played in were on turf which we have never done. The boys had fun sliding and diving on it. They also took 2nd in one and 1st in one. They played well.
