Swim Day at Ashley's

Swim Days at Ashley's. I was so lucky to have made dear friends while I taught at Bussey. Even after being home for the last 6 years, I have stayed close to several of the girls I used to teach with and still see them regularly. When I met these girls, we were all single, not married and of course had no children. It has been nice to go thru many of lifes biggest moments and share and grow with each one of them. It has been a joy to be able to watch our children grow together and to watch us all change and become parents. Love my Bussey friends!

Park Day

It is summer, and with that, brings lazy mornings, open calendar and fun-filled days. We go to the park, swim, movies, McDonald's for lunch and play...all kinds of things. We have had so much fun just enjoying ourselves and filling our days with nothing but EXACTLY what WE want to do. This day, we went to the park and played for a while and then headed down to the creek area to explore. We found rocks, sticks, bugs and filled our buckets with nature's greatest treasures! After, we climbed rocks up the creek bed walls, tried to climb a fallen log across the creek and even FELL into the creek. Such a fun day with your cousins! Here is to hoping summer will slow down and be filled with many exciting adventures.

Memorial Day 2010

Amy and Brian had us over for Memorial Day! What was a perfect and fun day for most there, was misery for me. My tooth hurt, BADLY, and I ended up getting a root canal the next day. Jeff and the kids had a great time hanging out and playing with The Squiers (Julie, Larry & Cole), Allison, The Devlin's and Jason and his boys. Thank you so much Amy and Brian for lots of fun and so many good times at the pool--we love yall!!

Pool Party at The Dowd's

On Sunday (of Memorial Day weekend, May 30), the Dowd's had us over. We got to see their beautiful new pool, landscaping and grass, not too mention their built in grill. Such a beautiful set-up!! The Dowd's have the "party house", it seems we end up there for most summer holidays. They have a lot of land, now they have a pool and they have a gorgeous house. We are so thankful they include us in on all the fun. We had a great time breaking in the pool and spending time with GREAT friends!

First Family Camping Trip

We finally had a weekend with no soccer or baseball, so Jeff and I decided it would be a fun time to take the kids camping. I have never camped with the kids and Reese has never camped, so we thought it would be fun for some family bonding and good times spend outdoors. I was a little nervous, I am the total outdoorsy, sleep in a tent type of person, but we had a GREAT time. When it cools off, we will definitely do it again. We did all kinds of stuff, set up camp, rode the 4-wheeler, cooked hotdogs, beans and s'mores on the camp fire. We hike, rode on the barge, caught butterflies and dragonflies in nets, hiked and just enjoyed the outdoors. We also saw/pet the horses, played with Wilbur, saw "Nappy" and fished a little. When asking the kids what their favorite part was, the overwhelmingly popular answer, "Hiking in the woods". They found sticks, rocks, bug, leaves, and an abandoned turtle shell--this just goes to show it really is the simple things in life!

At the last minute, Aunt AC, Uncle Russ and baby Brooks decided to join us--Brooks was such a trooper and did great! They slept in the house, not tents, but we enjoyed them and were glad they could come along.

Swim Lessons with Ms. Pat

This is our 3rd summer with Ms. Pat and I think she is the best at what she does. My kids learned to swim when they were 3 1/2, from her, and we keep going back. I like to do a "refresher" at the beginning of the summer so my kids (and myself) are confident and remember to swim with good technique. They both are great swimmers and I attribute it totally to Ms. Pat. We only did one week this summer, much to my kids disappointment, because they love her and love going to her pool. They are both swimming wonderfully, side-breathing and doing the back stroke. So, looking forward to many pool days and lots of fun swimming this summer!