On the Pontoon...

 We ended our 4 week whirlwind with a trip to Lake of the Ozarks with our lake buddies, the Harrises. We moms drove up early with all 6 kids and "set up camp". We even took all the kids out for an afternoon boat ride...I was quite proud of us for keeping everyone alive! The dads arrived later that night and the party began. The next day the kids had a blast swimming in the pool,  jumping off the boat, rocking out to their VBS songs, and eventually riding the ski trainer and jet ski.

 

One of the days we went to a restaurant that was on a sandy beach; we ordered food and watched the kiddos swim and play in the sand. We all made a big sand castle with a moat around it, and we took turns burying kids and turning them into mermaids/mermen. I hung out in the shade as mush as I could because I fried my back the day before. At least I got the kids covered in sunscreen...

 The evenings were fun as we ate good food and watched the kiddos run out every last ounce of crazy before bed. Bath time and getting them all in a bed was a long but entertaining process.

 On our way home our family stopped at the highly advertised Redmon's Candy store. The kids weren't super happy that I made them take this picture (you can see it clearly on their faces!), but getting to pick out some candy made up for it.

Thanks, Harrises, for another amazing weekend at the lake! We had a blast and made such fun memories. We're so thankful for your family!

College Buds

After Kobie's visit, the following weekend I drove to OKC to see her again with 3 other of our college friends. Man, I love these ladies! We had a wonderful time going to the pool, eating amazing food, sleeping in till 9 (!!!), shopping, and having late night talks. Even with 13 kids between us all and 16 years (gulp) since we all joined the Theta house together, it was so easy to catch back up and enjoy the time together. I feel very blessed to have such fabulous women in my life! We've already started talking about the next trip together (a beach?!), but those 13 kids I mentioned earlier may need to grow up just a tad more...

Kobie

My dear friend, Kobie, came to visit with one of her sweet boys at the beginning of June; we all loved having them here. Kobie is one of those friends that you can not see for a long time and then once you're together it's like we were never apart. We've been roommates, stood in each others weddings, walked through some hard stuff together, spent many late nights talking together, cried together and laughed a ton together. It was almost a little surreal seeing our kids play with each other this visit because we generally get together without kids. My boys adored her son and fought for his attention. And Harper loved Miss Kobie and soaked up all the time she could get from her. She is still telling people that "Kobie painted her toe nails"! Thanks, Kob, for visiting! My soul needed it...looking forward to our next time together!

Kansas City

Chris and I celebrated our anniversary (nine years, baby!) by going to Kansas City for the weekend. Mimi and Papi came and watched our kiddos, and we were able to soak up some uninteruppted time together. We saw a movie, ate some wonderful food, did some shopping, and to top it off we saw the Lumineers in concert. They were fantastic and surprised their fans half way through the show by coming into the audience to play a few songs. They were about 2 rows behind us. Very cool. It was a wonderful weekend spent with my best friend and favorite person in the whole world!

Thanks, Mimi and Papi, for loving on our kiddos while we were gone! I am fairly certain they didn't miss us at all!

Mimi's Birthday

We were able to surprise Mimi for her birthday this year, and it was so fun seeing her shocked face when we all showed up at her door one Saturday morning! (It was a really, really quick trip and I somehow managed to not get any pics but this one...) My dad did a great job of distracting her while we all arrived, and all 8 grandkids were waiting for her on the driveway. It was a fun day of eating Pei Wei, sitting on their back porch and watching the kids run all over the place, and celebrating how wonderful Mimi is! Here's to 60 more years of spending time with this beautiful and godly matron of our family!

Busy, Busy

We have managed to cram a TON in during the last several weeks. We've been to OKC twice, camping, Kansas City, and Lake of the Ozarks. I just downloaded over 200 pictures from my phone...I have some catching up to do!

The boys went camping with Papi, Uncle Jon and Jack at the end of May. I don't have any pictures from this trip, but I hear they all had a blast! I think they all got a little more sleep than the year before. Baby steps. Harper and I enjoyed spending the weekend doing "girl stuff". I took her shopping at Build-A-Bear, and she left with a pink Hello Kitty the size of her. We ate crepes, sushi, and shared several smoothies. She's fun to hang out with!

Ethan has become quite obsessed with puzzles lately. It's been fun watching him focus intently on each one till they're completed.

Owen is still my "project" man. Give him a job to do, and he's all over it. I really need to utilize this desire a little more! He's been quite helpful cleaning my van and helping water our plants. 

 This sweet and sassy girl is getting more and more opinionated about her clothing and shoes. I don't know why this would surprise me considering her brothers are extremely opinionated too. This is the response I got one more morning when I asked her to put a particular pair of shoes on.

Chris built the kids a fantastic sandbox that they have loved playing in. We were all impressed by his mad carpentry skills! Now I'm working at talking him into building a bunk bed for the boys... (I don't know why Ethan is posing like this....)

We finally broke down and got a seat for Harper on Chris' bike so we could start taking bike rides as a family. She is in heaven riding with him, and she has only argued a few times on who actually gets to steer it.

Our sweet neighbor, Emma, has now imparted the "duck face" pose onto Harper. Between that and some cheer moves, Harper is pretty sure she's 13.