Summer 2016 in Review

Though I enjoyed teaching Caleb last school year, this summer was such a breath of fresh air as we all got to just slow down and enjoy one each other.

At the beginning, I felt a little overwhelmed as I thought about all the things I'd like to get in and the places we'd like to try over those two and half short months. As the first couple weeks slid by, I almost felt a since of grief at how quickly we'd be back to the grind again. We didn't fill up our summer as much as I'd anticipated though. Sure, we did plenty, but mostly local things that were inexpensive and just what I remember my summers being all about as a kid.

We hit the pool for starters. From the little plastic one set up on our deck to the town pool, we tried out quite a few.

Some friends invited us over for a play date. We enjoyed a couple get togethers this summer and decided to form a little co-op for homeschooling this fall, which you'll see more about soon!

Thanks to Courtney and my mom for going with us, we made it to the pool at Bing Crosby in town some too.

We even tried out the Marriott Ranch Resort for the first time after hearing so much about it.

Anabella and Dan invited us to their community pool a couple times as well and as always we love any chance we have to get together with these guys.

We also spent quite a few days playing outside - sometimes at home and sometimes at local parks. We had a momma bear and two cubs coming around our house so I was a bit nervous to be out too much in the yard without Dave there to help me with the kids, but they still got out quite a bit to enjoy the sunshine.

Caleb finally learned how to do it this year...all that handwriting must have strengthened those muscles!

In the evenings, we spent a few nights down by the gazebo on Main Street. Early on in June we went to hear the American Legion Band's concert. Caleb was interested in talking about the instruments and the little two enjoyed dancing. 

We also went to a few of the town's "drive-in" movies there on the lawn. The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, and Monsters, Inc. were the ones we were able to catch before the season was over. We also drove over to Stephen City to the real drive in to watch Finding Dory one night.

We went to library quite a few times too. Once again the kids participated in the summer reading club, so we stopped by every other week to claim our prizes and pick up more books. For Caleb, I thought it would be a good motivator. My goal was for him to read a book every day this summer to keep up his skills. Well, that didn't happen...We just couldn't keep up the consistency. Some days we'd skip and some days he'd just pick up several and go off and read them to himself. He was much more motivated that way since he was choosing his own books and he still read somewhere between 30-40 books, so I'd call that a win! For Hadley and Reid, the program was great for keeping me accountable to keep reading to them as well. We'd gone through well over 70 reads by the end of the summer.

Caleb's favorite section is the Easy Reader Nonfiction books.

Showing off their prizes. Reid with his dragon book, Hadley a sock monkey duckie toy, and Caleb's light up bouncy ball...

Mom bought the kids these head lights, which everyone had fun with. It made reading that much better.

They had a pretty cool dinosaur event one day that we checked out too.

Caleb got chosen as a volunteer to do a little digging.

We did the usual when it came to celebrating the 4th...

...and getting together with family for reunions.

Alger reunion

Riley reunion, which I missed because I was sick but Dave took the kids too anyway. He's a good ole' guy.

Between NaNa's and Grandma Nora Ann's and Granddaddy's, we spent plenty of time country living as well. Berry picking, riding back on the hill to check out the cows, feeding the chickens...sweet summer time!

We didn't get to pick nearly as many wild raspberries this year before the season was over and missed our blackberries entirely!

This booger got a hold of key, turned on the golf cart, and took off. He gave us the scare of our lives until I was able to run and jump on the thing to hit the brakes. Crazy thing!...No more leaving keys anywhere where he's nearby.

Uh-oh....what happens at NaNa's stays at NaNa's!

Visiting with Grandma

Wait! Who's driving the truck?

NaNa's new baby calf!

We also spent plenty of time at Granny's - the best days for the kids being when there cousins were there too!

 

We even did a little babysitting for a church friend, and both Hadley and Reid loved having a baby in the house. 

Sometimes we wore ourselves out, but I'd say we got in a pretty good summer.