The Farwell Family

Things started picking up for us again this past week. Jackson and Ellie got back from St. Louis Tuesday afternoon and we jumped right back into ballgames. Ellie and Lincoln both had ballgames and Ellie’s was in LaPlata while Lincoln’s was in Kirksville. So I took Ellie to her game and Andrew offered to take all the boys to Lincoln’s game. They have the playground in Kirksville so that helped. Ellie had a good game and I heard from several people that Lincoln did a great job. He was so proud he got a hit every time he was up.

Ellie started SOAR, her reading enrichment program, and basketball camp on Wednesday. She and her friend, Lauren, came up with the plan to bring their bikes so that they could ride from camp at the Primary School to SOAR at Ray Miller. They both started at 8 so they were an hour late for SOAR but the teacher said it would be fine. And Jackson was the lucky kid who got to Sky Zone two days in a row. He got to go with a group of boys to the Sky Zone in Kansas City for one of his friend’s birthday. He left around 8 Wednesday morning too. After we dropped Ellie off the, the twins, Lincoln and I had a morning of errands. We did pretty well though and made good time. We started with a quick stop at Hy-Vee, then to Home Depot to make a return. Next up was Walmart, then the bank and finally Aldi. We got everything put away at home, played outside for a bit and then picked Ellie up at 11:30. She was excited to show me the head band she got for being the Hustler of the Day.

After lunch we went to the pool. I had bought several floats so I had the pleasure of blowing them all up. I decided it was good for my triathlon training J. After the pool we came home to get dinner and get ready for Jackson’s game. Jackson got home a little after we did. His game wasn’t until 7:45 and it was in Brashear. My parents were nice enough to take the other kids for us. Jackson’s game started off pretty shaky but they ended up pulling it out and won 12-11 in the end. It was another late night.

Thursday I got a swim in after I dropped Ellie off. Then it was time to clean all the bathrooms and the other fun house cleaning stuff. It was a nice day out so the kids spent a lot of time outside. There is a new house going up down the street from us and they are digging the basement which means the kids have a new playground. Thursday was also my parents’ anniversary and they celebrated by going to Columbia for part of the day and having dinner. We celebrated not having a ballgame by giving Andrew his Father’s Day gift early. Actually he was having a minor issue with his bike and after talking with the bike shop owner who gave him some suggestions, he decided to work on it himself. He had mentioned how it would be nice to have a bike stand to use while cleaning his bike and working on it so I already had it sitting downstairs waiting for Father’s Day. I knew it would be so useful while he was working on his bike so I went ahead and had Jackson bring it up for him. He was very excited about it. And he successfully fixed his bike which he was even more excited about.

Ellie had her last day of basketball camp on Friday. SOAR is every weekday through June, so she had that too. I got a run in outside and then got ready and took Ellie to school. As soon as I got back, Jackson was ready to go. His friends had stopped by and they were heading to the lake to look for snakes. Sounded like tons of fun. Well they were successful.

After we picked up Ellie and got lunch we headed out for an afternoon at the pool. Ellie invited Lauren, so we picked her up and took her with us. Leah and her kids met us there and we also invited John and Joe Behnen to come down and join us since they lived just up the street. It was a nice afternoon and the kids had a good time. But then we had to get home, make dinner and get ready to go to our last ballgame of the week. Jackson had a game in LaPlata at 8 so we knew it wouldn’t be done until close to 10. Andrew took Jackson and Zach early and the rest of us came later. My parents came too even though it was later. It was their toughest game yet. LaPlata’s pitcher was fast and good. But the rules only allow a pitcher to pitch so many innings so we finally scored some runs when their new pitcher came in. We came back and ended up losing 7-12, our first loss of the season. Jackson had some good plays in the field and did an awesome job base running. He slid into third and then hopped right back up to take off to home when there was an overthrow at third. The other kids did well at keeping themselves entertained during the game until things got a bit out of hand with some other kids so we had to sit them all down with us for the last bit.

Saturday morning, Andrew got a bike ride in and then I headed out for one a little after he got back. They were waiting in the truck down the street when I got back getting ready to head out to the ranch. I got ready, did some laundry and then ran a couple errands. I picked up all the tile for our new backsplash which I’m excited about. I got a call from Lissy asking if I was going to help with some renovations they were planning at my dad’s office. They had been making plans for a while but it was kind of last minute to start working on it this weekend. So my plans for the rest of the day changed. I picked up some drinks for everyone at Sonic and then met them at the office. My parents had already ripped out all the baseboard and carpet trim. They had just gotten back from getting new trim and paint and we got to work. Over the next two days we did several coats of paint in the waiting room, painted some of the trim white and my dad put in new white baseboards and started on some board and batten but wasn’t able to finish it until Home Depot got more of the boards in. My parents had already planned to make dinner Saturday night so we ate over there and then went back over to the office. Ellie joined us for some of it and managed to get my phone and take some pictures. It is all looking great and I’m glad my dad is able to update his office a bit. They want to eventually get all the rooms but it is going to take a while.

Sunday Andrew did another ride before we went to church. After church I went to Aldi and Walmart and did a big shopping trip. I went ahead and got a lot of stuff for vacation along with getting groceries for us for the week. I was thankful for the help waiting for me when I got home to unload it. Then Andrew kept the kids again while Ellie and I went back to the office. I was appreciative of him keeping the kids so I could help my parents out. I knew he had stuff he could work on at the office but he knew I should be helping my parents. Ellie and I came home around 4 so that I could start working on dinner. The kids were watching Toy Story 3 so they asked if we could just pull out the blankets to eat on for dinner, so that is what we did. Then it was outside to enjoy the evening. The twins like to ride around the block on their bikes with Andrew so we all joined them for one round. Andrew also played catch with the twins and then tried to play catch with me. I am just horrible at throwing and he keeps trying to work with me. But then it was time to head inside, do baths and get ready for the busy week we had coming up.