July Highlights

July was a fantastic month!  We spent as much time as we could at the pool.  When Nate had the chance, he came with us.  The boys love to be launched!

 The boys and their friend Robin celebrated the 4th of July with special glowing masks.

The boys played 8 and under baseball this year, and their team won the championship!  What a fun season!

The second week of July, Cooper attended golf camp at a local golf course.  He LOVED it.

Meanwhile, Miles and I enjoyed our time together very much.  We got soda's together to help us survive a Walmart shopping trip.

The second weekend of July, the boys went to stay with Aunt Jenn and Uncle Matt.  Nate and I decided to ride our bikes to Springfield and back. (Actually, I decided and Nate very kindly obliged.)  It was a fantastic experience!  But also, it hurt pretty bad.

After the ride, we thought we needed some Chicago style pizza.

Sometime in there, we got a cat.  "Smokey" adopted us and just fits right in to our family.  We have really enjoyed having him around!

The last weekend in July, we headed up to Kansas City for a mini family vacation.   We attended the Chief's training camp (twice!) and got to meet Dustin Colquett!  Cooper loves Dustin, so that was a pretty big deal.

 Friday night we took the boys to their first professional baseball game.  My mom came up and joined us, even though it was really hot.  (Thanks, Mom!)  The Royals won!

On Saturday, we went back to the Chief's training camp with the Harader boys.  There were way too many people there and the rain chased us all away.  Next year, we'll definitely go on a weekday morning!

June Highlights

June started with Vacation Bible School!  It is such a privilege to be part of VBS at First Baptist because they do it so well.  Cooper (and Miles a little...) learned about and I attempted to teach 4th and 5th graders about God.  The theme this year was Agency D3, and it was so neat!  We talked through hard questions that people (we) ask about God and discovered answers.

VBS was cut short for Miles because of a wrestling incident.  Cooper took him out, football tackle style and broke his collar bone on Wednesday morning that week.  Thankfully, Nate was in town and handled the injury.  Miles stayed home with Nate while Coop and I finished out the week.  (You'll notice throughout the pictures that follow that Miles' sling was often pushed up so he could continue to use his arm.  It was super effective. :)  Thankfully, the pain only lasted a few days.)

In the midst of that, Miles lost his first tooth.

And Nate built me this AMAZING shoe shelf for our garage.  No more pile of shoes to greet me every time I get home!

In May we did some landscaping, and in June we enjoyed hydrangeas across the front of our house.  Beautiful!

The second week of June, my nephews joined our family for the week.  The boys played together so well!  Miles' "enjoyed" having someone younger than him in the house.  (Read - he bossed him around every chance he had.) We swam, ran around and screamed in the basement, played in dirt/mud, and ate ice cream.

Our family visited a local pool every chance we had this summer.  Both boys have improved in the water so much!  This is Cooper running and jumping in.  At the beginning of the summer, both boys were wary to put their heads in the water.

The last week of June, Nate headed to Canada with his dad and brother.  This has been a dream of Tom's, and so it was really important to make it happen.  It did mean no communication for 8 days and no husband for 10 days.  But we made it!

We passed some time without Nate visiting cousins.  The Enid cousins took a trip with us to Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Wichita.  They got to hold lemurs!
                                              

Here is Grandma with all the grandkids!

We spent the following weekend with my mom.  She treated us to frozen yogurt.

Miles and Nana played some mean solitaire.

We visited the campus of KU in Lawrence during our time with Nana. We enjoyed the Natural History Museum as well as a game of bowling in the Union.

May Highlights

WE FINISHED SCHOOL!!!  I'm no good at action shots, but I had to include these photos anyway because this was such a great day!!!!!

Our summer started with a weekend trip to St. Louis with my sister and her family.  We visited the Botanical Gardens (BEAUTIFUL!!), City Museum, and Grant's Farm.  These cousins can't get enough of each other!

We returned home in time to celebrate Miles' 6th Birthday.  I told him he could invite one friend to go swimming with him for his birthday, so he decided on "SilasCaleMyaOlivia."  He's good at following directions.  The day we went to the pool, a rain storm moved in just as we were sticking our toes in.  So, here are the kids getting their feet wet just before we ran like mad back to the vans.  Our "pool" party transformed to a "play" party, followed by dinner at Wendy's and a Chief's DQ cake.  That's a pretty good day, if you asked me.