Hot Summer Days

Well this past week was a bit of a whirlwind. It seems like it was a busy week for a lot of people. We had several different activities that kept us busy. I started Monday morning by going out for a bike ride before I had to take Ellie to SOAR at 8. Then I came home and quickly got ready before taking Jackson to basketball camp at Truman at 9. Up next was taking Lincoln to British Soccer camp at the Y. It started at 10:30 but they wanted them there early on the first day. We got him signed in and his instructor handed him his soccer ball and called it a “futball”. I think Lincoln was thoroughly confused. Ellie was done with SOAR at 11:30 but then she had volleyball camp at 12 at the Primary School. So she and Lauren rode their bikes again and ate lunch at the bridge on the walking path before they went to camp. Lincoln and Jackson both had to be picked up at noon, so we got Lincoln first and then picked up Jackson. Then it was time to go home, get lunch and then pick up Ellie from volleyball at 1:30. They all seemed to enjoy their camps and were ready to go swimming after they were done. But the wind made it a little cooler and they ended up not swimming very long. So we went ahead and headed home so I could get dinner made before our ballgames that night. Lincoln had his game first but we had to do pictures first. So I took him while Andrew brought the others later. Even though Lincoln’s games aren’t the most exciting to watch, he is fun to watch. He doesn’t get the least bit intimidated and just goes out there and tried hard. I’ve had several people tell me that can’t believe how well his is playing. I guess he doesn’t give off that “I’m a star athlete” vibe J.

Lincoln’s game was still finishing up when Jackson’s got started. Jackson had some good plays in the field and he got to pitch. He did well but the team ended up losing 6-8. It actually got chilly and my knees were shaking when I was trying to film Jackson pitching. As we were leaving after the game my mom asked if the twins wanted to go up to Pella with her the next day. Julie was going with her and she had Baylor and Finley and Autumn was meeting them up there. I thought they would have fun and it was just for the day, so we decided to let them go. So the next morning, I took them by my parents’ house and switched out car seats after we dropped off Ellie at SOAR. The Lincoln and I took Jackson to basketball. Then I decided to take advantage of not having the twins and go for a run while Lincoln was at soccer. I dropped him off and make a quick trip to Dollar General then came back to the Y to run on the trail. I thought it would be nice to run on a fairly flat service instead of the hills around our neighborhood. I did four miles and knew that I would be finished about the time Ellie would be getting out so I planned it to finish near the bridge where they eat lunch. I wasn’t quite at 4 miles when I initially ran by them and Ellie was surprised and happy to see me and I told her I would be right back as I ran a little further and turned around to come back to them. So we got to talk about SOAR. They were divided up into groups and one of their activities was building a robot. Ellie’s was a robotic snake that she was excited about.  After they finished their lunch, they headed onto the Primary for volleyball. I noticed that they didn’t put their helmets on and when I asked them about it, they just smiled. They said they wore them last week but hadn’t been wearing them this week.

I got back to watch the last bit of Lincoln’s soccer camp and then I took he and Alex home. We picked up Jackson on our way then got some lunch and picked up Ellie. She was enjoying volleyball camp and thinks she would like to keep playing except that they don’t offer anything until 7^th grade. And she had little purple bruises on the back of her forearms. On our way back from picking up Ellie we stopped by McDonalds to get some ice cream since Dairy Queen was still closed. That evening Ellie had a ballgame. Lincoln spent most of the time at the playground with some of his friends. Ellie got a couple of hits. She seemed a little distracted on third base and then felt bad when she wasn’t quite ready for a play. But she came back after it ready to play.

The twins didn’t get back into town until 9:30 that night, so my parents called to see if it would be okay if they just stayed the night. The twins were thrilled about it, so we let them. The next day was pretty much the same of running everyone everywhere.  Ellie had her last day of volleyball camp.

Then when we were done, we went over to my parents since Autumn and her kids were going to be over there and the kids were able to swim. We didn’t have any games that night so we were able to stay for dinner. My dad got out the pitching machine and the kids had fun hitting and catching pop flys. 

The baseball continued when we got home and the three oldest got in on a baseball game in the LaBeths backyard while the twins rode their bikes. The next morning, I took Ellie to SOAR a little early so I could get to the pool and get my laps in before I needed to get back and get Jackson to basketball by 9. Then after we got Lincoln and Alex to soccer camp at 10:30, the twins and I did some pretty quick grocery shopping at Aldi and Walmart. We had to pick up Ellie from SOAR at 11:30 and then we ran home to put away the groceries before picking the soccer boys at noon. Andrew offered to pick up Jackson which helped. After lunch the kids were wanting to go swimming but we had a guy coming to see if we had bats. He checked in our attic and on the roof and determined that he thought we may so he got to work putting stuff on the vents that would allow the bats to get out but not get back in. While he was working, we went ahead and headed to my parents to swim for a little bit with their cousins. Baylor decided he needed to run the “concession stand” which was the fridge in the pool house. If you wanted something, you were supposed to go through him. We weren’t able to stay very long since Lincoln had a ball game in LaPlata that night and I needed to make dinner. Ellie ended up staying so she could play catch with Briley. Then she got in some batting practice with my dad and had Molly paint her nails. The twins kept themselves pretty busy playing at Lincoln’s game but Jackson was pretty bored. It was going to be our first hot game of the season with the temperature in the 90s but we had a good breeze so it wasn’t too bad. Lincoln was always excited to see us when he was in the on-deck circle.

Andrew and Jackson were up around 4:30 Friday morning to help work Andrew’s cattle. Andrew said Jackson did a great job and worked hard. He road hard to help gather the cattle, helped with the sorting and held tails. Buddy got in on the action too. Andrew said he stayed right by him. He did get kind of trampled by the cows a bit but he kept going. While they were gone, Ellie went to SOAR and Lincoln went to his last day of soccer camp. At the end of camp, they handed out certificates to the kids. Lincoln’s coach had wonderful things to say about him and Lincoln had fun.

That afternoon we just vegged out. It had been a busy week and we still had two games that night, plus it was hot. So the twins actually took a nap, we rented Zootopia on VidAngel and I got some laundry done and caught up on a few things. Jackson and Andrew got home around noon and Andrew went for a bike ride so he didn’t relax with us too much. Ellie had her game at 5:15 and it was warm out. We were thankful for the breeze again though. She did a great job and played with more intensity. They had their first loss though.

Jackson’s game started at 6:30 and Ellie’s still wasn’t done, so we tried to watch both of them. My parents and Mary were there braving the heat. Jackson started pitching and struck the first batter out but then had a little trouble. He had some great pitches that the hitters connected on though and the fielders had a hard time getting them back in so they scored. Then ended up taking him out pretty early but the team still struggled. He had some good plays at third but the team as a whole just wasn’t in the game. It wasn’t very pretty.

I thought they would all crash when we got home but the other kids were talking about another ballgame in the LaBeth’s backyard so they went over there. Andrew ended up taking the twins in for baths and I went to check out the game. They had a lot of fun and played until about 9:15 and then got on the trampoline and played for a bit before calling it a night.

Andrew went for another ride Saturday morning. The day before he had talked about riding out to his pasture to make sure cows weren’t getting out and I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t.

He ended up doing 53 miles. He got home just in time to tell Ellie goodbye before she went to St. Louis with my parents for Bella’s dance recital. Ellie got to check out Klondike Park outside of St. Louis with Lissy and my parents. It has a really neat look to it.

After she left I went out for my own ride. My 21 miles seemed pretty short compared to Andrew’s ride. Andrew went to the office when I got home and after lunch the boys decided to watch The Lego Movie. They were very excited when we decided to go to La Fuente for dinner. Then Andrew picked up some mineral at MFA and he took the boys out to his pasture to put it out while I did the grocery shopping. Sunday morning Andrew went to the office and then we went to church. Andrew decided it was a good day to clean out his truck-a very hot day but it definitely needed it. We went to my parents to swim for a bit and Buddy even joined in. On our way we washed the car and then I noticed that Dairy Queen didn't have a line even though it just opened up the day before so I pulled in quickly to the kids' surprise and delight. They were even pretty quick getting our order. The kids were excited though to finally get some again.

Once we got to the pool, Buddy was pretty hesitant at first to swim until Andrew threw him in. Then he decided that is was nice every now and then to cool off. And he would always try to stop Jackson from jumping in J.

My parents and Ellie got home a little after three and they brought Bella and Brady with them. So they did a little swimming but I had to leave to get ready for a dinner that evening. The kids got to stay at my parents and Andrew picked them up a little later on his way home from the office. I went home, took the car seats out of my car and cleaned it out a bit because I was driving our group out to Kristin’s for our next If:Table dinner. Kristin had a yummy dinner for us and we had some great conversation about being present and not having to “have it all together”. We got home around 9 and Andrew was just getting ready to get the kids to bed and get ready for a new week.