July Shenanigans

We got home from my parent's house, just in time to celebrate the 4th of July with John. We started the day off at the beach. Luckily, we got their early enough to beat the crowds, but we didn't have the energy to stay all day till the fireworks.

We went to the beach just as a family, but we ended up running into people we know. It's a small town and you basically see someone you know everywhere you go. This time we ran into the Fors family and they happen to have a paddle board that they let EZ have a go on. This was his second paddle board adventure this summer and he is definitely hooked.

It stays light way late here in the summer, so the fireworks weren't set to start till after 10:30. We were way to tired for that so we EZ and Netta amused us with some fireworks made on Minecraft.

John had a 4 day weekend for the holiday, so we used one day to go to South Bend and explore the South Bend Chocolate Factory. It is a short tour, but that was good for the kids and we all had a great time except for King who almost missed the tour because he refused to put on the hair net.

The hair nets are not the coolest thing, but I think Netta and EZ rocked them. The kids loved the free samples and I loved the discount chocolate they were selling.

We decided it was time to start potty training Conrad. I thought it would be a breeze, since he is so articulate and he has 3 older siblings to follow. Well that was not the case. Here is a picture of one failed attempt. I was getting really desperate and doing whatever I could to get him to sit on the potty. We tried for a day or 2 and then quit for a week and then tried again and then quit again. I was really ready to be done, but he is going to preschool in the fall, so I couldn't really avoid it much longer. For some reason he just refused to pee on the potty, like he was scared to. So finally, when I knew he had to go I held him down on the potty for 10 minutes. He was crying and I was thinking I might be crossing the line and scarring him, but then all of a sudden he couldn't hold it anymore and so he peed and he just started laughing when he realized how easy it was and that he wasn't going to die and then that was it. It was pretty easy from there on out.

We went to visit our friends JJ and Bridget one day. They have an awesome pool in their backyard and some awesome pool toys. My kids were in heaven and I found myself really jealous of their pool. I know pool season isn't long here, but our town has no public pools, so they only real place for us to swim outside is the beach, but that lake is so shallow that it just isn't the same.

One of the highlights of summer here is the berry picking. We picked blueberries for the first time and while they were absolutely delicious, they were a pain to pick and King in particular did not last very long. Then I realized that you can basically get the already picked ones from local growers for the same price, if you buy in bulk and that was the end of picking for me. Maybe next year we will try again. 

Every July, Chick Fil A has a day where you can eat for free if you dress up like a cow. Well I am all over that, but I was sad to think that we might miss it now, since we don't live close to one. Luckily, we had a new trampoline we needed to pick up that was only in stock in South Bend, so I had my excuse to head to Chick fil A for free food. It's my happy place.

I decided that this year I wanted to try out a sprint triathlon, so I signed up for one in Sister Lakes. When I told my dad about it, he said he wanted to do it to and so did Meghan and Jared, so they came up for the weekend it was a big fun family affair. When we got their and checked in, I found out that my race number was 666. Not the best sign for your first triathlon. Haha

They also wrote your age on your leg, which I didn't know was a thing and I could have done without it, since it wasn't all that fun to watch way way older people flying past me on their bikes. I made the mistake of racing on a mountain bike and I will never make that mistake again.

Despite getting killed on the bike portion, I really enjoyed the race. I was afraid I would be in trouble for the open water swim, because my ear infection and then the pink eye I got basically kept me from training for the swim at all, but I survived and actually found a good rhythm about half way through. Then on the bike portion, my saint of a father had passed me and then felt bad for my lame self and he turned around and rode with me. He said when he saw me he just flashed back to when I was maybe 11 years old and he took me on my first long bike ride and it was way too long and it kind of killed my desire to ride much more. He said he has always regretted that and when he saw me struggling this time he couldn't leave me there alone. He is one awesome dad.

Since Meghan and Jared were there, we had little cousins to play with. Sammy may not look super excited, but King sure was.

Towards the end of the month, EZ, Netta and King all went to a week of summer camp at the Y. EZ and Netta were really excited, but King was a harder sell. He had a lot of fun once he got there, but like always he is not a big fan of new things. They were outside playing all day everyday and they even got to go to the beach. Conrad and I were able to make the most of some time alone. I felt a little guilty for enjoying it so much. I gotta admit I am excited to have 3 in school in the fall. I don't know what this thing is that Conrad is standing next to in this first pic, but I love his cheesy smile.

At the end of the month EZ got to go to cub scout camp. I have a love-hate relationship with scouts. I love how much fun EZ has and all the things he learns, but I hate how expensive it can get and all the bureaucracy. The first day of camp I got to go with him.

The second day of camp I stayed home and Netta, King and I had fun downtown. We went to the Discovery Center and Netta made this beautiful sculpture that she wanted me to immediately post on Facebook.

She also insisted I take a pic of her making this silly face. She kills me.

My kids are all such hams.

I still have a hard time here and there, living in this small town, but it sure is beautiful in the summer.

Good Old Moon

I made my annual summer pilgrimage home to Moon Township with the kids the end of June. Once of the reasons we went when we did was so we could go to my niece Carol's graduation party. I can't believe I have another niece in college! I also can't believe EZ has such creepy eyes in this picture. HaHa

Of course that meant my grandpa and Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tom were in town and we had so much fun visiting with them. Getting a group picture is never easy and this time King made it extra hard because he was either cover my Aunt Nancy's face or playing dead.

The cousins always have so much fun together and I love this pic of my brother-in-law Robert being such a great uncle.

Of course we had to go to Kennywood while I was home. We picked a day that my dad had off work and we brought Ellie and Grace along for the ride. We actually sat down and ate lunch at Johnny Rocket's. That might not seem like a big deal, but in my 34 years of going to Kennywood we never once went to one of the sit down restaurants. We are big time now ;)

We all had a blast, but for some reason King did everything in his power to ruin every pic he was in.

Another splurge this year, was getting digital prints of some of the roller coaster pics. It was just $30 for all the pictures you took that day. I wish I had realized and bought the deal earlier in the day, but we still got some good ones. 

I love Katie trying to help Noah stay in his seat and the terrified look on my dad's face. I swear he likes roller coasters, but he always looks like this in the pics. 

Conrad was on this ride with me, but he is hidden in the pic. He was so brave to go on such a big coaster.

I love this one of Ellie and Netta on the Phantom, because Netta has this "It's no big deal" look on her face.

It was great having Ellie and Grace there to run around with EZ and Netta. I was a little nervous to let them run around without an actual adult, but they did great and Ellie is definitely old enough and responsible enough. 

Netta and Grace have a ton of fun together. There is a 5 year age difference, but you can't tell looking at them. HaHa

Aunt Meghan had a bunch of water balloons, so we set up an epic boys vs. girls water balloon fight. It ended up not quite as epic as we thought and it took 5 times as long fill the balloons as it did to have the fight.

We took Ellie for her traditional birthday trip to the Drive In. I am glad she still likes doing this, because we love it. We saw Inside Out and it was awesome.

The people who live across from my parents have a pool and they said that we were welcome to come us it. So one day, while my niece Sarah was there babysitting so the mom couldwork from home, we went over to swim. We were all have a great time, but then the daughter swam too close to the slide while King was going down it and she ended up getting hit in the face and started bleeding. Of course it was a total accident. It was a tiny pool and it was really easy for something like this to happen, but when the mom heard the crying she came running out and went crazy. She was yelling at Sarah and never even bothered to ask me what happened or acknowledge that I was there. It was really weird and traumatic for Sarah and I think it's safe to say we won't be swimming there anymore.

On a lighter note, King was in baby heaven this trip. He spent a lot of time following Kaelyn around.

Then Sarah and Casey arrived and King was even more excited! We loved Austin, but unfortunately, things did not work out as well for Sarah and Casey there and it got to the point where they just couldn't afford to live there anymore, so they moved up to live with my parents while Casey job hunts and they happened to arrive a couple days before we left. King was SO excited to see Casey again. King kept petting Casey's leg while he was talking to him. It was pretty hilarious and then insisted they had to have a picture together.

The arrival of Sarah and Casey, meant the arrival of baby Hazel and you know King was all over that.

Netta got in on the baby action as well. Thank heaven my sisters are still having kids!

Grandpa gave everyone rides on the motorcycle. All my kids were in except for King, which is exactly what happened last year! Conrad was killing me, because he insisted on holding on to the handle bars, even though he couldn't really reach them. I love that we used to ride on this motorcycle as kids when we would go visit my Grandpa E. and now my kids are getting do the same thing.

It was fun to be able to have the 4 boys all born the same year together, but there was A LOT of fighting. It is just a few too many toddlers. Luckily, we got one nice shot of Noah and Conrad not trying to kill each other.

We also managed to get a pic of the 4 of them together, but it was not easy and it was not a great picture.

Having all those kids in the house also meant that disease spread like wild fire. When we got there Meghan and her kids had pink eye and then at some point someone started barfing and there was a fever going around and when it was time to leave King and I both had diarrhea and Conrad had pink eye. We almost didn't leave when we planned, but luckily we survived the journey and no one pooped their pants. Within days of getting home, I got a nasty case of pink eye, which was way worse then what Conrad had had. That just doesn't seem fair, especially since I was supposed to be training for a triathalon, but no swimming for me! Despite all the disease the trip was still totally worth it. I love my family!