Memphis!

Mark surprised me with a trip to Memphis to celebrate our anniversary.  We had a blast! It was so relaxing.  We had absolutely no schedule, we stayed out late, we slept in.... sooooo great!

The kids stayed with Mimi and Papa and had so much fun (pictures to come).

Kids were dropped off, and we were headed out.

We went down to Beale Street both nights we were there. It was so much fun just walking around, listening to music, eating yummy barbeque, and just being together.

Whenever we go somewhere just the two of us, there are a lot of pictures like this one. ha! Mark will take a picture of me, I'll take a picture of just him, or there's always the famous outstretched arm picture of ourselves. We took a couple of those in some dark bars and restaurants, but they didn't turn out so good.

It was SOOOOO nice to get away, but we were ready to see our babies when we got home Sunday night. They were super excited to see us, too. They had a total blast, though, while we were gone. Stay tuned for pictures...

Pictures from the Fourth

We tried to get a good picture of the cousins in their red, white, and blue.

It started okay, at least.

Oh, poor Ruckus.

And then, there's crazy Jack Man.

There were no fireworks to watch anywhere since we are in the middle of a huge drought and every town canceled them.

We did go to Uncle Brad's, though, and do sparklers and a few small fireworks.

Jack was so worn out that he just slept on a blanket in the front yard.

What's Been Going On

This kinda sums it up. It's been one HOT summer!!!

We've been swimming as much as we can.

We've been playing with the neighbors in the evenings.

We go the Y almost everyday so Mommy can workout and the kiddos can play.

We've been to some birthday parties.

We've gotten crafty.

This is my pool noodle turned 4th of July wreath. Thank you, pinterest!

We've enjoyed The Magic House a couple more times for some indoor, air conditioned, fun. We have made GOOD use of our membership this year!!!

We had a "Glow in the Dark" bath night.

The kids have been sleeping in, which has been nice. I'll either sleep in, too, or get up and have some quiet time.

Hard to believe July is almost halfway over with!

Swim Lessons

Kate took swim lessons the last week of June.  She did awesome!! It built up her confidence so fast.  We would go swimming at Mimi and Papa's pool afterwards and she would show us everything she learned.

Now, she swims with a swim belt and is all over the pool.  She loves to put a mask and snorkel on and put her head in the water.  She has gotten so much better about going under the water. On the 4th of July and the day after, she wanted to take her swim belt off and swim to us.  She is doing so well and is swimming farther and farther on her own. 

At swim lessons, her teacher had them jump in the water (with their belts on) on their own, and then come up and swim to the other side of the pool.  Kate was so much braver than I expected.  She asked her teacher to hold her hand, but jumped in and went all the way under (she's not a big fan of that).  I was SOOOOOO proud of her!!

We have spent a lot of this summer in the pool.  That's about all you can do when it's over 100 degrees everyday! I love that she can swim independently.  That frees me up to deal with the fearless Jack Man!

VIDEOS!

I have all these videos on my phone and every now and then, I'll go through  and upload them to our youtube channel.  Here are some recent videos. (Notice the only one that looks "right" is the one of Jack in the pool... that's because Mark was there to remind me to turn my phone wide.... when will I learn??)

Kate woke up one morning, asked to play Mark's guitar, and whipped out this little ditty. (i.e.- the reason I always have a headache).

This next one was on the way home from her recital. Remember, her mascara was all smeared from crying.

This is a couple months old, but here are some of Jack's moves.

Here are our goofballs at Mimi and Papa's.

Here's Jack in the pool.

And, I'll leave you with this one.

High Hill

A couple of weeks ago, Mark went out to High Hill Christian camp to play in the band.  We tagged along with him.  We used to go to camp there for a week out of the summer when we were in high school.  I think Mark went when he was little, too.  Mark and I were there together the summer we started dating (1999... how crazy is that??).  We took a group there the week before we were married when Mark was a youth minister.  Lots of good memories there. 

It was fun to take the kids there and show them the lake, "The Blob", the dorms, the dining hall...

They had fun playing on the playground, playing ping pong and carpet ball, and dancing while the band practiced. 

Kate danced and sang all through the evening session, while Jack spilled his snack and yelled to go to the pool. ha!

It was a fun little outing and it's crazy to think that our kids might be little campers there one day. 

In Honor of Poppy

On Father's Day, in honor of our sweet Poppy, who we lost on Christmas Eve, Mark's whole family went miniature golfing. It was our first Father's Day without him and Poppy loved to golf.  I know Mark has some great memories of playing golf with him. 

We all had lunch together and then made our way to Swing Around Fun Town for a new tradition of miniature golf on Father's Day in honor of Poppy.  It was soooooo hot that day, but everyone had a good time. 



It made a day that could have been really really sad, a little less sad.

 

We went inside and played some of the arcade games.



Kate and I did the go-karts. 






That guy was smiling because I turned to smile for the camera and ran into the go-kart in front of me as we were parking. He told Kate that I should have let her drive instead. ha!



Kate even did the little kid go-karts by herself, without hitting the wall once!

After that, we went to Mimi and Papa's to celebrate Father's Day with Papa. We ate yummy food, swam, and just hung out.

Mark wasn't feeling well (Kate got everyone sick... except me... eek!), so he was even able to take a nap, which I would say equals success on Father's Day.