Family – Page 2 – Terry Family Shenanigans

October Has Arrived

If it doesn’t feel like time is flying by in September, by the time October gets here is really picks up the pace. School, activities, holidays, more birthdays, and all the things that go with those make it hard to stop and enjoy everything that is going on.

Matthew’s last baseball season with his FBC competitive team was in full swing for September and October. They played pretty much every weekend. There was a weekend in October that off and that was it. I have a lot of good pictures from this season. I will share them in another post.

The biggest event for October was our family trip we have been planning for a while. Unless something changes it is our last big family vacation together before Matt graduates and goes on his mission and the family dynamic shifts into a new era. We talked about what we should do and asked Matt for his input a lot because it was also over his 18th birthday so we wanted to celebrate that too. Matt loves beaches, sunshine, warm places, fishing and food. After tossing a few ideas around like Hawaii, Alaska, cruise, and all inclusive beach resorts, we decided that a cruise would check the most boxes on the wish list. When we went on a cruise in 2019 for Christmas with the kids we had a great time but we thought it would be fun if they each had a buddy. Since then we have tossed the idea around with Ross and Lauren to come on a cruise with us. Matt asked if that could happen with this trip so we invited them too. Each pair of people ended up with their own room.

We settled on a cruise in October that was the week of Matthew’s actual birthday. A few weeks before the cruise there was some issues with Ross and Lauren not realizing they had other priorities the same week. I don’t really want to get into all the details but I was pretty upset about it. They were going to send Ethan and Leah home alone half way through the cruise, but luckily the cruise required them to have an adult accompany them. So Ethan, Leah and Lauren left half way through the cruise which was dumb. Allison and Matthew were on their own the last two days but we had a great time still.

A few days before we left all the girls went to the nails salon together and got a manicure for the cruise.

Matthew felt left out so he showed us his nails to take a picture.

To include Matthew’s love of fishing and for part of his birthday present, our family drove down to Galveston Texas a few days before the cruise left. We drove to Dallas and stayed night with Kenny and Sherri. Then next day we drove the rest of the way to Galveston and that afternoon we Ryan booked us a deep sea fishing boat.

Our traditional family picture to start a trip off.

Matthew and Ryan went ocean fishing a few years ago in Florida for Matt’s birthday. They caught probably 40 fish in a few hours. This time…we caught one fish…in five hours. It was a good one though. Matt caught a 4 1/2 foot long black tip shark. Once we got it on the hook Matthew wrestled it until we got it up to our boat. He did a good job, he said it was a little awkward because the pole the shark bit was right handed and he usually fishes left handed. I was the video/picture person. I tried to get fancy and take photos while I was videoing and at the point when he pulled it out of the water the most instead of taking a picture I stopped and started the video. 😢 Total mom fail. I still got some video and pictures though. The captain asked us if we wanted to keep it but we had no where to store it because we were getting on the boat the next day. So we let it go. It was a fun experience to watch him real in the shark. Pretty exciting. The other 4 hours and 50 minutes was a little slow, that is the lot of a fisher. I thought just relaxing and floating on the waves was great. The others had occasional waves of sea sickness but everyone kept everything in their stomachs.

After a day of fishing we went to dinner and checked into our hotel for the night. The next morning we headed to the boat! We didn’t realize it at the time we booked the cruise but the ship we were on was the same one we went on with the kids in 2019. Mariner of The Seas. The kids were all paired up and had their own rooms. Allison and Leah’s room ended up being the hangout spot for cousins when they weren’t doing other things. They mentioned a few times the room was pretty hot. A few days into the cruise we realized their AC wasn’t working. We called maintenance and 30 minutes later it was much cooler in their room. The first day we explored the ship and got settled in our rooms. We discovered the ice cream cone dispensary and snack areas, soda refills, all the important things.🤣 For dinner we ate at the Hibachi grill. It was a fun kick off to the cruise.

It seemed like the kids really enjoyed having a buddy and doing whatever they wanted together. We all got a lot of activities in on the ship. We had two days at sea, plus the embarking day. Some of the favorite things we did were shows, trivia games, dance parties, swimming, the flow rider, water aerobics, mini golf, rock climbing, napkin folding, working out, finding and hiding ducks, napping on the deck, watching movies at the pool, ice skating, board games, a sushi making class and eating lots of yummy food. Our waiters names each night were April and Jozie. They were really nice and took great care of us. They had been on the boat for 7 months and were getting off to go home for the holidays the same day we did. The only picture Matthew asked for the whole time was with them. They always brought him extra food. I have never seen someone eat so much, he was like a food vacuum. He started keeping track of how many ice cream cones he ate but lost track after 34. The girls decorated their doors and I decorated Matthew’s room for his birthday.

We had two days at Ports. The first was Costa Maya. We all went to a beach and the kids played keep away and we did some souvenir shopping. The second was Cozumel. It was raining pretty good in the morning. Our family had an excursion booked. Jovee came with us and everyone else went to the airport to fly most of their family home. We were debating on canceling the excursion due to rain. When we were checking in they told us we needed two drivers with a drivers license. Ryan didn’t have his so Matthew and I were the drivers for our group. They asked us a bunch of health questions and when they asked about asthma I said yes but not who had it. They said Matthew couldn’t drive if he had asthma (how dumb is that btw) so Allison immediately said it was her. We went along with it (not the best example, I know) and I told them it wasn’t bad at all and we weren’t concerned about it. Then they said that Allison could not only not snorkel but she couldn’t go on the boat to snorkel because if she needed medicine they couldn’t help her. I told them it was fine and I had her medicine if she needed it, which she wouldn’t. Then they were really freaking out because I had medicine. It was a disaster. We decided to just cancel the excursion and rented our own car. We drove ourselves to the cenote that was on our excursion and it was closed anyway because of the rain. We drove for a bit until we found a nice beach that it wasn’t raining at. We had an almost empty beach with chairs and a restaurant. We rented some boogie boards for the kids and they enjoyed the pretty big waves for several hours. It was a great afternoon and I was happy that it wasn’t ruined by rain or asthma. It is so fun to see new places and make new memories.

We got off the boat early in the morning on a Saturday and drove the whole way home. Matthew had a baseball tournament that weekend and we were able to get back so he could play on Sunday and help them win. It is going to be very different and feel weird when Matthew and then the girls start leaving the house. I have enjoyed this phase of our lives. I still am but it is getting alarmingly close to it coming to an end.

Family Pictures 2024

Since we were doing Matthew’s senior pictures it was a good time to update our family pictures too. The ones I had hanging on my wall were a few years old. Kids getting older and going through puberty make it looks like even longer. So we got everyone’s pictures taken. I think they turned out pretty wonderfully. I love my sweet family.

Summer Float Trip

We didn’t do a big vacation this Summer because we are going on vacation in October together-more about that later- but we wanted to have a mini-cation together at some point this Summer. We have been wanting to do a float trip with the kids for a while so we decided it was time to do it. Ryan had a friend from work that lives by the Current river in Missouri. They have people come stay with them a lot and they have all the stuff you need to float the river. They have invited us several times and it hasn’t worked out so we decided it was a good time to do it.

The week of our trip Allison went to girls came Monday through Thursday. She was actually pretty close to were we were going to be so instead of having her drive home and then all the way back to the same place, we left on Thursday and picked her up at the camp she was at before they left to come home. She was actually at camp for her birthday. We had lots of little celebrations to celebrate her this year. Becky made her a cake and we celebrated with the rest of the KC Terry’s on Sunday before she left for camp. I sent a surprise gift bag for her to open on her actual birthday at camp. Her main gift this year was a new bed and mattress for her room. She wanted a queen bed instead of a twin. She also wanted to but some board and baton on one wall in her room and make an accent wall. We got that put up for her and painted it the blue color she wanted. Then we let her pick a place to eat out for her birthday dinner when we were on our float trip and Matthew and Emilee were back.

Matthew and Emilee came home from their Florida trip late Wednesday night and we left to get Allison Thursday morning and then go straight to the river. On Tuesday Ryan’s work buddy that was going to take us to the river and let us stay with him called and said that his wife was pretty sick with COVID and he would still let us use stuff and take us to the river but it might be best if we don’t stay at their house so we didn’t get sick. I would always rather stay at our own place than with someone so I thought it worked out great. Ryan decided to see if he could find a VRBO even though it was last minute. There were literally two options available. One was a definite no and the second was pretty new but had a handful of decent reviews. Once we gathered our kids from Florida and girls camp we headed to the Current river. We had some time to pass before we could check into our place so we stopped and watched the new movie Twisters on the way. It was pretty good. It still makes me feel old to watch ‘new movies’ that are remakes of movies that came out when I was young. After the movie stop we finished making our way to our little VRBO that the kids quickly nick named the “Crack Shack”. We were a little concerned when we pulled up. It looked a little rough from the outside. Luckily it was clean and not as bad on the inside, and had good door locks. It was literally 30 feet from a Dollar General store which is a little ghetto but very convenient. We settled in and went to dinner at an outdoor burger and ice cream stand. We watched the Olympics and played games the rest of the evening.

The next day we met Ryan’s friend and he hooked us up with all kinds of floating options. Ryan decided to get a kayak and the rest of us went with a tube. He drove us to a spot on the river to get in at and planned to meet us about 4-5 hours later at the pick up spot. Allison was a little tired from her week at girls camp and was a little less than excited about the whole trip. It took some convincing to get her to come out of her room and do anything with us the first night. With a little bit of help from us, mostly her brother Matthew, we loaded up and headed to the water. Once we got on the river it was much better. All of us loved it. The weather was great, the water was clean and a perfect temperature. It was so relaxing. We had the river to ourselves most of the time too because we went early instead of in the evening. We stopped to swim and play in the water a few times. We caught a baby turtle, saw some fun animals, got tan, and enjoyed each others company. I love float trips. It was the perfect length too. About the time we were getting tired and had run out of snacks we saw the pick up point.

After we dropped off the equipment we went home and showered and went to a pizza place that was recommended. It had potential…but they must have been short staffed and had a new cook, and something. It was comical how ridiculous it was. They only had half the items on the menu available…no pizza, which is what we went there for. Once we ordered the waitress (who had to go ask someone else about everything because she was brand new) said it would be about 45 minutes before the food was ready. We decided to try some of the games they had…the only one that worked was the dart board. That after asking almost everyone that worked there only had two working darts. They had axe throwing-another reason we went there… but it wasn’t available. When the food finally arrived it was ok. Nothing great. We decided to see if we could save the meal with shakes for dessert. After what seemed like forever waiting for the shakes we asked if they were coming and our waitress said they were almost ready. Then we watched her walk over to check on them and they must have told her to do it herself because she then went over and made them by herself one at a time. It took a while and we think it was her first time handling ice cream ever. By the time we got the shakes, the first three were liquid, two were the wrong flavor, mine was only half full and tasted like thick milk. It was so ridiculous from start to finish we just all laughed about it. We left and went back to our crack shack. The Dollar Store was still open so we got some junk food and played games the rest of the night. The next day we headed home.

It was a short but sweet vacation. Lots of little hiccups but I will still probably remember it as one of my favorite vacations with the kids. Our season of life is getting ready to change after this year. I have loved this season. I love the kids being older and a little more independent and watching their personalities develop. It is a time they are developing themselves and trying things but it is still a little bubble that their lives don’t have to much craziness or stress. They are all awesome people and I love spending time with them.

Family Visits

Last December, DeAnna called and said that her family was going to go on a trip and see some of the church history sites and asked if she could come and stay with us for a few days since we live by them. We said yes, of course.

When it got a little closer Sherri and Kenny decided they wanted to join in the fun so they asked to come visit too. So we had a party with the Terry, Cazier, and French families for a week in July. There were 11 kids and 6 adults. I am hosting Thanksgiving in November so it was a good practice run for when I have 14 kids and 10 adults here.

We had a good time. I was again a little nervous about the weather. July in Kansas does not usually encourage one to be outdoors due to the ridiculous heat and humidity so I was trying to think of good indoor things to do around here. The weather ended up being pretty awesome the whole time though. Seriously gorgeous 80 degree temps and low humidity. Everyone arrived on Thursday and Friday. Saturday we went to a park and played pickle ball for a few hours. There was a playground and baseball field that some of us played kick ball on too. Sunday we went to church and played games, jumped on the trampoline and hung out at the house. Ryan squeezed in as many games with John and sushi runs with Kenny as he could before he had to leave for a conference Sunday night. Monday we went to Liberty Missouri to see the Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith and a few others were put in jail for false charges for several months. That night we went to a Royals game. It was a pretty exciting game. I think there were 4 maybe 5 home runs, a little drama with people getting hit by pitches that resulted in coaches getting kicked out. Between that and the stadium food it was a pretty fun night. Tuesday we went to the Spring Hill Aquatic center and spent a few hours at the pool. There was lots of games and activities at the house. I am glad we had the trampoline, it was a big hit. Hannah had a birthday while she was here too. We made her a cake and she picked what we had for dinner. It was a fun couple of days. I enjoy the chaos of big family gatherings. My kids do too. They love having cousins to play with from the time they wake up until they go to bed. The Cazier’s left Wednesday to go to Nauvoo Illinois and then home. The French’s left the next day.

Jake and Becky came that same week and were at Grandma Terry’s house. We saw them a little bit. The Bourne’s, grandparents, and Terry’s came to our house on Saturday and Sunday to hangout together. Ryan and I had Allison to ourselves for a week because Matthew and Emilee left the same day the Cazier’s did to spend a week with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. It will probably be the last time Matthew goes to spend a week with them since he will graduate and move on to other things this year. He loves going there. Grandma cooks him tons of good food, grandpa tells him funny stories, and he can walk out the door and fish in the ponds around them anytime he wants.

4th of July

The city of Olathe doesn’t allow fireworks. People still do, but it limits the fun a bit. That’s why we loved going to Nebraska and having a huge firework display and doing our own right from Grandpa’s drive way. Ever since Grandma and Grandpa Terry moved to Olathe we have been anticipating a July 4th celebration at our new house! Our house is not considered inside city limits so we can light off whatever we want. Last year we lit of fireworks on the road but we didn’t have a house yet. This year we had the house!

It is always such an awesome holiday. It really is one of my favorites. It is low key and minimal prep. The point is to just relax, eat and light off fireworks. For the past few years at some point during the summer we go with Terry cousins and spend the day at World’s and Ocean’s of Fun Amusement park. Last year we didn’t go because we had a family reunion at Branson and everyone went to Silver Dollar City together instead. This year my kids were really looking forward to it and the day that worked out was July 3rd. I was a little nervous in anticipation of the heat but it ended up being a great day. It was overcast so not blistering sun and humidity but still warm enough to swim. Everyone was tall enough to go on every single ride if they wanted too for the first time too! Jovee is one of the biggest roller coaster junkies in the group and up until this year there was always one or two off limits due to height for her. Emilee has had a little anxiety about a few roller coasters since going on one when she was really young that she probably shouldn’t have. Height wise she has always been as tall as kids several years older than her. She was trying to talk herself into doing the Patriot. We got in line the first time and then when it was our turn she couldn’t do it. We watched everyone else go and then she decided she would give it another shot and the second time it was our turn she did it. She loved it and was much more relaxed about going on the rest of the rides after that. Leah is not a big roller coaster fan but for Allison’s birthday she said she would go on any ride Allison wanted her to go on with her. It was a great day. We hit all the rides we wanted then ate lunch and went to the water park side. After they were all done there we headed home with a stop at chick-fil-a on the way.

The next day we had a BBQ at our place with all the KC family and my friend Dani came with her son Ethan. We played games, ate food, went and got fireworks, set of the day time ones and then repeated it all until it was dark enough to do the night time ones. We had one small incident. The kids were lighting off smoke bombs and bottle rockets and things like that. The three youngest kids like to light smoke bombs and run through the smoke. They lit what they thought was a smoke bomb and it was but it had some firework stuff in it too. So they were all standing around it and ready to start running in the smoke and it started shooting out whistlers at them. They ran pretty quick. Luckily no one was hurt. It was a good lesson to read the entire description and always stand back even if you think it is just a smoke bomb. Other than that is was just a fun time. We topped the day off with strawberry short cake and it was another successful Fourth of July!

Random…but Noteworthy

These are pictures I have that I like but didn’t really need a full post about them, or didn’t go with pictures taken at the same time that I put in other posts. So I thought I would just do a collection of them here.

This is our one and only picture from Easter 2024. As much as I love pictures and documenting events, I sometimes am horrible at taking the pictures. This was the end of the day and everyone was headed to take off their Easter clothes and I insisted on one family photo. Some of us were more willing participants than others.

Sherrie and Dave came to visit us for a weekend to watch some of Matthew’s games. We had some time to pass before a game and were right by Liberty Jail. So we went to the jail and still had time to pass. There happened to be a bazaar across the street from Liberty Jail so we walked around. They had this little selfie spot so I had them hope in for a picture.

Both of these pictures are in Utah when we were staying with DeAnna for my Grandpa’s funeral. I thought 6 people brushing their teeth in the bathroom was pretty cute. DeAnna made lots of good food while we were there too, Sherri wanted to document that ‘she can cook but chooses not to’. While we were in Utah, dad took Emilee and Matthew to their softball and baseball tournaments they had going on that weekend. They love it so much they decided to go watch a Royals game one of the nights we were gone.

I am not sure where we were coming back from…maybe the eclipse, but the girls were being a little grumpy to each other but when they fell asleep they snuggled right up to each other.

This is one of the many times we have had to rent a skid loader to do some lawn stuff. It won’t be the last either. Ryan and I take turns between freaking out about why we have so much land to take care of and someday it will be awesome.

We try and do an annual amusement park day with our cousins each year. Sometimes it ends up being in Branson and Silver Dollar City, sometimes Worlds/Oceans of Fun. It was a great time this year. Everyone is tall enough for all the rides. Jovee is the biggest adrenaline junky and finally hit the tallest minimum requirement for the rides she had been waiting to go on for years. We went on July 3rd which was begging for heat stroke, but the weather was cloudy and perfect so it was a great day.

We have had typical so hot and humid days you can barely go outside this Summer for sure but there have been a lot more than usual gorgeous beautiful weather days. This hammock is one of our favorite spots to hangout on those days.

Grandpa Jones Funeral

My sweet Grandpa Jones passed away at the end of April. He was a pretty awesome person. I wasn’t as close with him as my grandma but I loved him and know he loved me and his family. I remember lots of stories about him but you always learn and hear knew things about someone when they pass away. Everyone except two cousins were able to come to his funeral so there was a lot of memories and stories shared. He was a good example. He lead by example on how to work hard, try hard, love those around you, and do what is right. He had a witty sense of humor, loved sports and was an amazing Gardner. He hasn’t been able to keep his yard up the past few years like he used to and it was a little sad to see over grown bushes and no flowers and immaculate landscaping everywhere.

My grandma passed away two years before he did. They are my first set of grandparents to pass away. It was a bit of a different feeling at his funeral having neither of them there. It was sad when Grandma Jones died but he was still there and around. When he passed too it felt heavier because it is like the closing of their generation. More finality to it. I walked around their house and took a lot of pictures because I will probably never see it again and up to this point in my life they have always been there and been a consistent, happy, familiar, predictable piece in my life. It is like a chapter closing. I don’t know how often or if I will see a lot of the cousins and aunts and uncles again. Grandma and Grandpa were the connecting piece for us. They were both amazing people and I miss them.

This is the eulogy for my Grandpa, written by my uncle Jared and edited by all his siblings.

A few days before he passed he told his kids that he thought he was dying and wanted to say goodbye to them. They are in Utah so I didn’t get to see him but i was thinking about him a lot that week. The day he passed I was planting plants in one of our flower beds. I had been doing it long enough it was starting to be more exhausting then enjoyable and I stopped for a minute and he came to my mind and I thought about a time we went to visit and when I got out of the car he and my grandma were planting dozens of petunias together in one of their flower beds and I helped them finish. Then all of the sudden I had a distinct feeling that they were both there watching me for a minute. I felt love and concern for me from them and then it was gone. I thought it was a memory but a few hours later I got the message that he had passed earlier that day. Maybe not, but I think that after he passed grandma was waiting for him and before she took him to wherever they were going they stopped by to visit me and probably other family members that weren’t able to be there when he passed. It was definitely a unique and special feeling.

His funeral wasn’t until mid May because one of his daughters was in another country after he passed for a few weeks. I went out to his funeral and brought Allison with me. It was nice to see family and talk about grandpa. His funeral was very nice. It was a lot like grandma’s but his had a little more somber note to it like I mentioned because now they were both gone. I know we get to see them again someday and they are together now which makes me happy. Besides grandma he had four brother and both his parents waiting for him that he hadn’t see for a long time. His mom passed away pretty young so it had been over 60 years since he had seen her. I bet that was a very happy reunion. He was in the military and got a 21 gun salute at his graveside and an American flag to honor his service. That was a touching experience to witness as well. You will be missed by a lot of people Grandpa. Thank you for being a good example and good leader for your family for many generations.

This is a poem that my uncle Jared read at my Grandpa’s funeral that my grandpa wrote.

These are pictures I took of pictures that were displayed at his viewing. Several of my cousins put together 7-8 picture boards of different parts of his life. They did really good job.

The glare is a little hard but he posed for the wizard in this stain glass.

These are pictures from his funeral, the graveside service and his viewing. My aunt Kristin takes the pictures for everyone to have.

Before Allison and I left to come back to Kansas we went and spent some time at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I don’t think I will ever see it again so I wanted to walk around and sit and take pictures of things that I have always associated with their house to remember. The yard pictures don’t do it justice compared to how beautiful my grandpa kept it until he wasn’t able to anymore. Whenever we stayed at his house, he would come to the breakfast table dressed and ready to go out to the yard to work after eating a bowl of Wheaties, fresh home grown fruit and fruit juice and a slice or two of raisin bread with a healthy dab of butter spread across it.

We had many sleepouts in sleeping bags in the back yard. Grandpa often forgot to turn the sprinklers off so I remember many an early morning waking up and relocating to the living room floor soaking wet to finish the nights sleep.

This is the program that was handed out at his funeral. I put several paper copies in my kids memory folders too.

Ready for Spring

Once Spring started making its appearance we did a few projects on the outside of the house. We put in the flower beds, lined them and filled them with rocks. We got the front flower beds planted. We will keep working on them a each year. We have a plan but it is a few year plan before it will be all done. We got some patio furniture so we can enjoy our deck and the patio. One of my favorite things we did was hang patio lights from the ceiling and hung up a hammock. It is so relaxing. We love it! For our house warming gift Ryan’s parents gave us a blackstone grill. We have family gatherings and do cookouts with it a lot. The kids have been requesting a trampoline and we got that so there would be more to do outside. Fall and Spring will be really nice to use outside. Once it gets hot it gets a little buggy and is not so great but I love having some outdoor spaces to enjoy!

This is pictures of out patio lights and a rainbow we saw from our deck one night.

Mother’s Day this year was nice. Ryan and the kids made me dinner and spoiled me on Sunday. The day before we did a family service project for the local food pantry. It has been a while since we have done it and Ryan and I felt like we were due for some service. This time we went to one in Lawrence Kansas. The Harvester truck brought a bunch of food to a local church and unloaded it. The volunteers divided it up and got ready to disperse it, then a line of cars came through and we loaded it into each car. We all enjoyed it. We need to get back into it as a regular thing that we do. We went to lunch together after that and then the kids helped me plant another flower bed for part of their Mother’s Day to me. It is so nice having grown children to help with projects. It saves my back a lot!

Of course with Spring the kids started their Spring sports. Allison is finishing up her gymnastic season about the time school ends. She had sever meets and got a personal best on the bar 9.5. It was pretty awesome to see her! She added a few new flips to her floor routine that she learned as well. In the Fall she thought this might be her last season for gymnastics, but as it got closer to the end she decided she wasn’t quite ready to be done. She has at least one more year in her! After the last meet they did the end of the year banquet. They had Mexican food and cake for dessert. The girls all dressed up and seemed to have a fun time. She got the “Tootsie Roll” reward for being able to roll with whatever she is doing at the gym. She was also voted by her team to win the Spirit Award because she is always positive and helps keep everyone focused during practice and meets. She is pretty awesome. Allison excels and puts full effort into whatever she does. She is a great leader and her dad and I were proud of her for showing that this year in gymnastics. It made us happy that her team recognized it in her too.

Matthew played for his High School team this year during the Spring. He played for JV as the short stop, and the coaches also took him to varsity games to help and fill in where they needed him. The varsity team made it to state again this year. Matthew went with them. Last year they lost the first game but this year they made it to the final game and ended up taking second. Matt loves baseball and loves to play as much as he can. There is some school politics that make the high school season not as fun but he had a good time. He was really excited to get into the competitive season with his regular team. His arm was back to full mobility in February and he worked on the strength side of it through the last semester. He was hitting well but his strength really started coming back and he started hitting some bombs at the beginning of his competitive season. His strength isn’t 100% yet but it coming back quick. He is consistently hitting doubles and triples and even got a home run during one of his HS games. It is fun to watch your kids do something they love.

High school baseball pictures

Emilee played softball again this Spring. Her team last year split in half and some stayed rec and some tried competitive. Emilee decided to try competitive. She decided to pick the same number as Matthew and she loved doing batting practice and playing catch with him. If he was able to come to her games she always came up to say hi and was super excited he was there. She played mostly short stop, center field or 1st base. She improved a lot and had a good time. Her team ended up getting 4th in the division they played in.

Eclipse

In April of this year there was a total lunar eclipse crossing the united states. It was similar to the one that was about 7 years ago that we went up to Lincoln Nebraska to see. Sherrie and Dave Torgerson’s house in Dardenelle Arkansas was in the direct path and they were going to have totality for almost 5 full minutes. We decided to take a very quick mini-cation and drive down Sunday afternoon to see it with them on Monday and then come home Monday afternoon. There were lots of family there which meant lots of cousins to play with. The weather was great so the kids got out water balloons and played a lot of games outside.

Allison and one of her besties Allie Sluga went on a little trip together. Allie invited her to go to the Ozarks with her and her grandparents took them for a few days. They had lots of girl time and did lots of shopping together.

I thought this was a good spot to put this picture showing Allison’t makeup talents. She is the Lorax, keeper of the trees.

Allison got one of her best scores on the beam at her last gymnastic meet this year. She got a 9.5!!

Matthew had his Junior Prom this year. He went with Campbell. They both looked great! It was a little crazy helping him get measured for a tux and getting the flowers and plans ready. Time really does fly when your kids grow up. They went in a group with his friends Ramey and Nick. They took pictures at a winery before they went to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Then they stopped by our house for a few minutes before they went to the dance. When the dance was over they came home and changed then went to the after party. It was at Chicken and Pickle. It was a great place for the afterparty. Unlimited chicken fingers and pickleball to play. Matthew won a few rounds and got some of the prizes for pickle ball.

This is a side by side of their first dance together- Freshman year Homecoming dance, and Junior Prom.

Spring Break

Spring Break was a week earlier than it usually is for us. That might not seem like a big difference but in Kansas in the Spring that makes a big difference as far as temperature. For the first part of our Spring Break, Kenny and Sherri came to stay with us for a few days. It wasn’t quite warm enough to do a lot of yard things but Sherri helped me make a plan, and we picked out the rocks and plants to put in when it got warm enough a few weeks later. A house surrounded by three acres of mud gets messy really quick so we were anxious to get some landscaping in.

We did some shopping and visiting and went to dinner a few times while they were here too. Allison is great at babysitting and her and Emilee both enjoy spending time with cousins. KJ showed us real quick how un-baby proof our house is now.

Ryan had to go to a conference in Omaha for work for the last part of our Spring Break. On the last day of his conference, the kids and I drove up and we had a fun mini-cation in Omaha Nebraska. We stayed in a hotel for two nights. When we got there and checked in the first thing we did was an escape room. One of the family Christmas gifts we got was a “family escape room night” and we hadn’t done it yet. We picked a room with a batman theme that had a 17% success rate. I thought is was a lot of fun. Each of us picked a piece of the puzzle and worked on it. Allison solved hers then jumped to someone else and helped them finish. She could have easily finished it by herself. It is fun to see how her brain works through things. By the end the puzzle Matthew had was the last one and tricky because it seemed like we didn’t have all the info we needed but we had found all the clues. Someone finally came on the intercom and told us that we were missing half of his puzzle because one of the keys we found accidently opened two things instead of just one and we used it to open the one it shouldn’t have been able to open, so we thought we had found all the clues but had missed one. Once we figured that out and found the other half we solved it with time to spare. Technically they said since they had to help us we didn’t get a free t-shirt. I think since it was an error in their puzzles that required them to help us that shouldn’t have counted. Ryan and I didn’t debate with them though so our kids didn’t have to crawl under a table and die from embarrassment. We went and got dinner then tried out an ice cream place right by our hotel that turned out to be delightfully delicious. Later that night we went and saw Kung-Fu Panda in the movie theater together.

The next day we went to the Omaha Zoo. The last time we went to the zoo as a family we were still in the stroller, carrying snacks and hungry, hot, or need to use the bathroom every five minute stage. It was a fun time and we saw lots of animals but after a full day at the zoo, there was still a lot of zoo left to see and everyone was exhausted. Let me tell you, going to the zoo with three grown children is A-MAZ-ING! If anyone wanted to carry something they carried it themselves. We ate breakfast before we went and planned on getting lunch there. However, we were able to walk through the entire zoo and see everything we wanted to see in a few hours. By the time we were hungry we were done and went and found a restaurant outside the zoo. We picked a Mexican restaurant called Mexicity. It was a local restaurant and we could barely understand the owner because of his accent but he made delightful authentic Mexican food. It was so good. All of us practically licked our plates clean. A few months later we still talk about how good it was. A little hidden gem in Omaha Nebraska. Who would have guessed!?

After dinner we headed back to our hotel and stopped at the ice cream place on the way again. They had some different flavors than the day before so we each got something different to try and share. We played games at the hotel lobby that night, then headed home the next morning. We usually get two rooms when we stay in hotels now. The kids share a room and Ryan and I get our own. Everyone get a bed and everyone is happy. It was a pretty fun trip.