So Jackson and Ellie spent this past week at K-Kountry down in Branson. And then Lincoln spent a few days in St. Louis hanging out with Lissy and a few of his cousins. The twins got to hang out here with me and Andrew spent most of his time at the office. He did take the twins out to see his cows one night which they always have fun with. I had so many things I wanted to get done and I got quite a bit accomplished. I started down in the storage area. We had a plumber here the previous week working on some stuff and had left a little bit of a mess down there cutting pipes so I cleaned all that up and used the shop vac around the whole area. Then I reorganized some areas and eventually got to the totes of old clothes to find stuff for Lincoln and the twins. I was able to get quite a bit for Lincoln but was not as successful with the twins. After I got the clothes through the laundry, then it was time to clean out the kids' rooms including dressers and closets. I walked away with a bag of trash, some clothes to donate, and some clothes to put way for later. My dad spent his evenings working on our cubbies for the new office/mudroom area, so I took some shake to he and Caroline one night. Then I also got the itch to start organizing stuff for that. I had a bunch of baskets from holding baby stuff in the closet since we never had a dresser for the nursery. So I gathered all of the office supplies and also took advantage of the back-to-school prices to get some more and divided it all up in the baskets in the closet. I was also able to design labels while we were driving down to Branson and hope to get those on the baskets sometime this week. So all in all it was a successful week on that part.
Lincoln had a great time in St. Louis. He got to go to the zoo and Powder Valley Park along with some other fun adventures with Lissy. Caroline rode with the twins and I on Wednesday to pick up my mom and Lincoln. We met Lissy about half-way and then ordered some AJ's on the way home to pick up and take home to eat. And before you knew it, it was time to load up again and head down to Branson to pick up Jackson and Ellie. We left Friday morning but it took us a little longer to get down there. For some reason, Lincoln had to pee quite a bit and ended up peeing his pants twice. I have no idea why, but we banned him from drinking for a while. When we got to the hotel, we checked in and Andrew had Lincoln take a bath while I struggled with getting the car seat cover off, put it and Lincoln's two sets of wet clothes in the washer (so thankful our hotel had laundry and even sold little boxes of detergent), clean out the car and then ran to Target to get Lincoln another pair of shorts. By this time I had totally sweated through my shirt, so I got a new one too. The washer was done when I got back so I was able to put the clothes in the dryer and set the cover by the air conditioner to dry. I quickly changed and freshened up because we had to head over to Shell Knob to meet Andrew's family for dinner. Lincoln had to use Ellie's booster which he was totally fine with. The road to Shell Knob is very windy so Andrew had to take it slower than he wanted to (we were of course a little late at this point) and we had to have the windows open most of the time. Thankfully Lincoln and Miles eventually fell asleep, but Bennett stayed awake the whole time. I spent the last little bit of the ride trying to distract him and being ready to catch vomit as it looked like he was close. But we finally made it and enjoyed dinner with Andrew's parents, his aunt, uncle, great uncle and Matthew and Kristin's family. Then we met up with my parents, Caroline and Molly (she got a 24 while we were down there) as they were coming out of Big Cedar and got some frozen yogurt together. I'm never in much of a hurry to get back to hotel rooms with the kids since I know it will take them a while to settle down. I let Andrew take a bed to himself, while Lincoln was on the fold-out and I had the twins with me in the other bed. I turned on Thomas for them and they eventually went to sleep after it was done. It was a little bit of a rough night but definitely could have been worse. I got up early to make sure I had time to get the car seat cover back on and then we headed to kamp. The Vincents got there about the same time we did and the LaBeths were just a little behind us. It was a much nicer wait than it was last year (in the rain) or when we dropped them off (100 degrees) as it was a little overcast and in the 70s. We finally got in, grabbed some coffee cake (yum!) and then headed down to find Jackson and Ellie. It was so great to see them! After a few announcements they broke up into barns to do barn awards. So we had to go back and forth between the two but we did get to see both. Here is what they had to say about each of them...the two character qualities they chose for Jackson were respectful and considerate and they said, "Jackson always shows respect for authority and is kind towards others." He received the Pacesetter/Spark ribbon for his barn, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1 Tim. 4:12. And for Ellie, her counselors chose compassionate and discerning and said, "Ellie is a servant to those around her showing her heart to follow Christ. She consistently looks for the right thing to do." Ellie was given the Heart ribbon in her barn, "God see not as man sees. The Lord looks upon the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7. After they did barn awards they did some overall kamp awards followed by a great talk and video of highlights from the week. Miles and Bennett weren't the most cooperative so I was so thankful my dad was willing to take them to another spot around kamp while they were doing some of the activities. Jackson and Ellie had an awesome time. Jackson was ready to come home while Ellie would have stayed another week. I knew she would just love it. We loved hearing all of their stories (of course Ellie had more to say :-)) as we drove to Cassville for the Farwell family reunion. I am so grateful that we are able to send them to Kanakuk. They have fun, are loved on by so many people, make great memories and the emphasis and lessons on living a Godly life prepare them for the upcoming school year.
As I mentioned, we stopped by the Farwell family reunion Cassville before we headed back to Kirksville. Over the years, Jackson has become friends with one of his extended cousins, Lathan. This is the only time they see each other but they always have a good time. Then it was time to make the trek home. Once we got home it was time to start unpacking the trunks, starting laundry and cleaning out the car. Jackson headed up to play on the computer and DS while Ellie played with Faith. I finally finished up the mounds of laundry on Sunday and packed up the trunks with fresh sheets, towels and their other camp supplies. I went to throw out Jackson's soap and noticed that he hadn't used it. He said he thought the shampoo was soap too-I think I believe him :-). Andrew went for a bike ride Sunday morning and then we headed to church. That was after another poop incident of course. I went upstairs to get the twins ready and Miles had his diaper off. Then I noticed a lovely turd laying on the floor by his bed. Thankfully it wasn't smeared around this time but Andrew came to my rescue and took care of it. Then we were off to church. After that I did some grocery shopping. When I got home Jackson was helping Andrew bring up our desk from the basement. I was very impressed he was able to do that. Our friend, Sarah, from church just started a teaching job so we gave her the desk. Her husband picked it up a little after lunch and I got a text from her that evening with a picture of it already repainted. She did a great job with it! Then I decided to make a quick trip to Compton's to see if they had a night stand that would work to set the printer on in the new office. I had one on order but then it got backordered. I was able to find one that was the perfect size but not exactly the style I was wanting. It was a little more modern than I wanted. But I was able to get the price down $10 to $65 so I thought it was worth it. So once I got it home I brought the printer upstairs and organized all of my paper, etc. with it. Then I rearranged the old office downstairs-moving the bed and file cabinets around. I brought one file cabinet upstairs and set it in the closet in the office. I was happy to get that all done. But then it was time to work on dinner. We ate dinner kind of late so it had cooled down a bit and we were able to eat outside. After we cleaned up I took Jackson and Ellie with me to get some Dairy Queen. We promised them it after the triathlon and never got around to it. They didn't forget though!
So now it is time to get another week started. It is hard to believe we only have two more weeks of summer left. It went by way too quickly. I was nervous to start the summer but I feel like it shouldn't be time to start school yet. When I look back on pictures we had a lot of fun but I still feel like there was stuff we didn't get to do. Maybe it is because we never did the schedule like we have done the last two years. I really hope to get back to that next summer. It definitely made me more intentional.
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