Nostalgic for Summer Pt 4 (this is the last one, promise)

I know, it's December. Time to stop talking about Summer 2014. After this I'm done, but there were just too many good memories not to get on here. Like going to Lake of the Ozarks for our 5th (?) year with our buddies the Harrises. Several other of our other buddies joined throughout the weekend, and it made for so much fun in the sun. One of my favorite memories was all of us adults tracking the storms that moved in and out that weekend on our phones. We spent one perfect, sunny morning on the lake managing to dodge the rain. As we pulled into the docks it started to pour. Hard. All of us (really fun) moms decided that shouldn't stop us from swimming, so we all jumped in and swam in the rain. Such fun memories!!

 Another fun memory was swimming with our friends the Taylors at their pool as the sun set. The boys had a blast jumping off the life guard stands!

 Of course we spent a lot of time at the pool we join, and we even were able to swim with some friends from "the past", the Lutzs, as they were in town!

Harper learned to dive in the Harrises pool. It was our last time to swim there before they moved, so it seemed fitting.

 An non-water related, we got to go to Chris' cousin's wedding, and the Hoyles all had fun cutting a rug at the reception!

Nostalgic for Summer Pt 3

Here's some more randomness from our summer... 

We took lots of walks around the pond behind Chris' work since the weather was so amazing. There's a fun swing and lots of trees to climb...

Our good friends, the Moores, who usually live in Ethiopia, Africa are in the States on furlough this year. We were fortunate enough to be one of their many stops on their cross-country travels this summer. Our kids have helped buy them gifts we send over to them, and they've been praying for them for as long as they can remember, so it was really fun seeing them get to play with the kids and ask all sorts of questions about life in Africa. Jake and Erin also spoke to our small group from church, and I think it was one of the best groups we've had to date. 

One of my favorite memories from this summer was taking a few friends to Paw Paw's to see the animals, play in the hay and swim in the creek. All of us had a blast. I'm not sure who had more fun on the hay bales - the adults or the kids. I don't have pictures of the dads having races jumping across them, but it was definitely memorable. Swimming was quite the adventure as the creek was running a little faster than normal, but that didn't stop the kids from swinging on the rope swing and jumping in till their parents were worn out! 

Somehow we managed to see two Naturals baseball games this summer too. And both in the boxes up top...that's the way to see a baseball game! Chris' company sponsored one of the games and was nominated by his office to throw out one of the opening pitches. He looked like a "natural" (pun intended) out there. 

We also let the kids try out a "sports" camp through our local YMCA. The boys played baseball and Harper took a dance class. They all had a great time.

Nostalgic for Summer Pt 2 - 4th of July

We all went to OKC for 4th of July weekend, and then the kids and I stayed a little longer to see my friend, Kobie. It was such a fun extended stay in OK and it was really hard to leave...

 There's something pretty special about seeing your kids play with their cousins. We didn't get to see ours very often, so I'm so thankful that our kids get to see each other pretty regularly.

 I don't get to see this lady nearly enough. Even though we average seeing each other once a year, we pick right back up where we left off. She's such an encouragement to my soul, and I'm already ready to see her again... Love ya, Kob!

Nostalgic for Summer Pt 1

As the first "arctic blast" is about to hit us, I have really started missing summer life... Since I did a horrible job of keeping up with the things we did this summer, I decided I should take a look back to Summer 2014. It may or may not be healthy for my mental state as we move into winter! Regardless, here's to summer and lots of pictures documenting what we did...

We never made it to an actual camp ground, but Chris and the kids camped out in our backyard. It was pretty perfect as I got to hang out with them and then walk inside to my own bed!

We attempted a community garden in our back yard. The first part of the summer was fun as we had radishes coming out of our ears, but as the summer when on it got a little out of control and we let it go. We're hoping maybe next summer will go better?!

 We made a trip to OK to see my NM cousins, and we had a blast spending time with the kids and also getting an adult's night out on the town.

 Summer was also the time of light pole climbing. Strange, yes. Ethan discovered that he could make it to the top (while I sat and watched with sweating palms). Of course Chris decided he should try as well.

Our downtown square was always a source of fun over the summer. This particular summer they had a whole "city" built out of boxes for the kids to build up and then defend from evil doers.

 Mimi and Grandma came to visit, and as always we loved having them both around.

This was the summer that Ethan realized reading could be fun. He stayed up late many of nights reading in his bed. I loved it.

Happy Halloween!

We had another memorable Halloween this year as we celebrated with good friends and good food while attempting to stay warm! (it was COLD this year) We grilled out over 100 hot dogs and overwhelmed our neighbors with the mass of kids we had hit each house. The boys, per the usual, changed costumes multiple times... Ethan was The Human Torch for Halloween party we went to in the morning while Owen was an OU football player. By the evening, Ethan became Captain America and Owen was Bumblebee. Harper stayed true to being Queen Elsa the whole day. Chris embraced being Wayne from Wayne's World...not nearly as attractive as last years Maverick!

Last Week of School

Ethan is now a 2nd grader! I feel like I blinked and the year was over...life is going way too fast. It's been a great year. We've loved Mrs. Temple, and Ethan has made new friendships and learned a ton. His favorite subject has been English, but Math has come very easily too. We're still working at reading. He is able to do it, but the "switch" hasn't flipped to where it's second nature yet. He still loves drawing and writing stories. At Ethan's end of year awards ceremony, he won "the honesty" award. (mom fail - I didn't get any pictures)

 One of his last assignments was a report on a missionary. He wrote about our friends, the Moores, in Ethiopia. He even typed out his report on my computer...that was a little crazy to see!

Our last homeschool day we decided it would be way more fun to finish our homework while eating ice cream, so we went to the Spark Ice Cream Shop down the street.  Harper and Owen thought it was great homeschool day too!

To celebrate the year being over, we went for (more) ice cream with a few of our buddies. (please note Miss Amy's photo bomb) We're so thankful to have made it another year with these friends alongside us!

Now on to SUMMER!!!

The Sunshine Gala

We had the opportunity to attend The Sunshine Gala to support a local school that helps children with disabilities. It's a fantastic organization that has provided so much help for our community. It was a "cowboy chic" themed night filled with auctions, dancing, and a live band. 

After dinner they had the live-auction portion of the benefit, and a trip to Florida came up. The starting price was reasonable considering that you got $1,000 worth of spending cash to go along with it. After it quickly going up to $5,000, Chris decided to jump in and see what happened. As soon as he placed his bid all the other bids stopped. Crickets. The auctioneer started saying, "Going once...going twice..."

...And then someone else raised their hand. Chris was off the hook but it took about 5 minutes of the auctioneer trying to get Chris to raise his price with everyone's eyes on us. We had our whole table telling him to go a little higher, a lady behind us telling Chris this was the most excitement she'd had in awhile, and Chris was sweating bullets. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. Chris' face was priceless... The other person ended up winning the trip, but we enjoyed the laughs. The auctioneer came up to Chris afterwards and apologized for all the pressure he put him on him. It was pretty priceless.