Vidalia Invitational

On Saturday morning, we were up at at 'em by 5AM to hit the road for our last summer swim meet. I have lots of updating to do about summer since this is my first update in a while, but James hurt his arm at church camp and was out of swim about two weeks and missed his first two meets. We have one more coming up in July, but both boys will be on a mission trip. So it was either make the trek to Vidalia or James didn't have a summer meet at all! (And meets are the fun part of swim!) It was a HOT one, but both boys dropped a little time and had a great day!

James' relay team was SO excited going into the week because one of the teams they swim against during the school year was coming and we really enjoy watching them compete! Sadly, that team didn't have enough for a 13-14 boys' relay team and no one else brought any 13-14 boys either so as long as they didn't DQ their two relays, they got automatic 1st place points! We'll take it!

Will didn't have enough his age for a relay team, but he swam 5 individual events and got two 4th places, two 3rd places, and one 2nd place! He beat another kid on his team that has been swimming for a while and he was SO tickled with that - a win for him!

Sharing a blurry picture of James' dive because it has come SO FAR. I'll include his dive two years ago below (he's closest to the camera - this is from 1.5 years ago). He's made SO much progress. He is pretty bored with the monotony of swim right now, but does really enjoy school meets so I'm ready for that season - his first HIGH SCHOOL SEASON - to get rolling.

James wound up taking Points Runner Up in his age group and we think will get a medal. We didn't realize they had awards and left before they were distributed. Whoops!

The boys have a few more practices this week and next week and then will have a few weeks off. James will continue to swim in August and September, but Will has a break until October. They're ready for a little break!

Summer Bucket List

Every year for the past 8 years we have made and marked off our little summer bucket lists. The first ones were a little primitive, but they've expanded and gotten better each year. This was the year that it almost all ended. Y'all. To come up with this many things was a CHALLENGE in and of itself. I love to add new things and not try to list the same things over and over each year, but this one was hard to do without using previous lists' items. We have "out to eat" on it for crying out loud. In years past we went out to eat multiple times a week and NEVER put that on our list, but there it is! HAHAHA! Here's hoping that this list will keep us entertained until we are able to venture out again. And may that darn virus be gone SOON.

Summer 2019!

Well, as of Monday morning at 8:00AM, our summer will be officially over. (Unofficially, we will continue to work on our summer goals list. Will pointed out yesterday that we aren't nearly done so we will keep it taped to our backdoor for a while longer.)

School starts on Monday and we are both excited and sad. I was going through pictures this morning and I realized I hadn't shared here in this spot in SO long that there is nothing documenting our summer of fun!

This summer, I didn't hire a babysitter like the two previous summers. Will's history with babysitters is often peppered with poor behavior and he asked to go to Y Camp instead. However, instead of that I signed them up for several church camps and sports camps in our area and they LOVED it. There was only one week this summer that they really weren't into. So that may be our new summer normal.

Here we go...picture OVERLOAD!

Starting WAY back at the middle of May...

Preschool Graduation night! This was my second full year as preschool director and it's been so fun!

I got to go with a cutie little first grader on his field trip to the dairy!

{The milking parlor was a little stinky and yucky.}

We finished up another baseball season! (This one was a little tougher than fall ball was. We played UP this season at a lot of our tournaments. Hoping it will make us better overall!)

Field Day at school!

The last week of school was full of fun like awards ceremonies and parties. James got Reader of the Year for 3rd grade and 3rd-5th grade at his school. It's all of my elementary school dreams realized!

For Memorial Day weekend we went to Lake Oconee.

We spent a TON of time at the Y pool this summer. 

Disney World for Will and me with some SWEET friends!

{This was AMAZING. We walked into Festival of the Lion LATE and got a front row seat and then the kiddos got picked for the show! It was amazing! Mine and Christen's phones were DEAD so the sweet family behind us took and texted pictures.}

{Slinky Dog Dash was AMAZING. This was our first visit to Toy Story Land.}

{Will and I went to a passholder event at Typhoon Lagoon and we really enjoyed it!}

{Meanwhile, this kiddo participated in the first camp of the summer - Baseball Camp! He loved it, but it was HOT.}

We headed up to Lake Blackshear the second weekend in June for a little fishing. It rained almost the whole time we were there, but we sat on the screen porch, played games, and read.

The next week brought Basketball Camp! This one was SO FUN. The boys LOVED it. Will got to snag a picture with one of his favorite high schoolers! Eat your veggies, Will!

{The Conners are one of our favorite families EVER. Coach Conner is just the nicest, kindest human being.}

We knocked off "Pick Berries" from our summer goals.

And then later that afternoon, we had a little accident. Will was on his top bunk and was pulling an elastic band up from the bottom when it snapped and popped him in the face. Screaming. Crying. Blood everywhere. We headed to the pediatrician's office and got glued up good as new!

That weekend, we headed to Palm Coast for a few days. It was SO FUN!

On our way home, we stopped in Jacksonville for a Jumbo Shrimp game. It was also SO FUN. We got to throw on the field, hug LOTS of mascots, and participate in a contest on the field between innings! We won tickets to come back so we're hoping we will be able to make it down in August.

We took a cake decorating class!

{Super Hero themed!}

The last week of June we had VBS and Softball Camp (Camp #3!)

We saw Toy Story 4!

We read ALL THE BOOKS. I have a long post about reading coming up soon!

Water Balloon fight!

We headed to Lake Blackshear again the weekend after July 4th. Less rain, more fun!

We bumped into our sweet baby cousin at the pool one afternoon which made for LOTS of fun. Sweet Liam loves to play with the big boys!

Baseball practice has begun again!

MORE pool time. {I told y'all. We've spent HOURS there this summer.}

This kid rebels against uniforms and when he dresses himself, he chooses some interesting get-ups!

Last week, we got haircuts and cupcakes one afternoon!

Found in my bed...

Which brings us to Open House at school last Thursday. We met our teachers, saw our class rosters (HOORAY FOR FRIENDS THIS YEAR FOR WILL!), and got a little more excited about 2nd and 4th grade! It will be here before we know it!

We hope y'all have also had an amazing summer!