We filled up our time with a variety of activitites. Jackson connected his drone to his VR goggles and they all had fun playing with that. There were lots of bike rides which also included clearing out a "trail" in the brush behind our house for a little mountain biking. The derailleur on Lincoln's bike got twisted, so we got him a new bike as an early birthday gift. It was actually kind of hard finding one as they were a hot commodity along with trampolines, above-ground pools and other outdoor activity equipment. The kids played baseball, soccer and basketball and some of us did some hiking/running out on the 1000 Hills trails. Andrew, Ellie and I went one time and I decided to take some different paths to get some running in while they were walking and I ended up taking a wrong turn. My 6 mile run turned into a 9 mile run. We participated in a virtual running race and virtual triathlon (without the swimming). And I did a couple more virtual triathlons to keep motivated to train as the Des Moines Half Ironman was postponed until October 4th. I did get through the base-building phase in the training before they canceled it, so I got a few long bike rides in on the trainer which are always fun. And I just restarted the training plan again and have added swim at my parents' pool using some bungee cords to keep me in place. We also handed out flowers for May Day. It is something I've wanted to do before, but we were always so busy. I put them all together and the kids dropped them off at houses around the neighborhood. 
The end of April/beginning of May also brings turkey season. Andrew and Lincoln went out a few times and Jackson went with them once, but they didn't get anything. It wore them out though. Andrew had a friend and his family from Arkansas come to town and they all got turkeys. And since the restaurants were still closed for dine-in eating, we had them in for dinner one night.
The beginning of May also brought Mother's Day and people started getting out more. The Brawners, Lissy, and Molly and Brad came into town so we spent time over at my parents during the weekend. We had helped open up the pool and bring up patio furniture earlier, so my dad had the pool all cleared up but not heated yet. Ellie wanted to be the first in the pool, so Caroline, my dad and Brad all paid her to jump in and stay in for a minute and she made $42. And the next day, we had a Mother's Day brunch at our house with my family and Andrew's family.
The next day was a big day for Jackson. He finally got to take his driver's test. We had to go to Macon and the opened up at 8. We got there around 7:30 since we knew there would be a line with it being the first day testing was open in a couple of months. He ended up being the 4th person to go. Thankfully it was a nice day, because we had to wait outside while they tested. Once he came back from the driving portion, he had to do the parallel parking. It was tight, but he got it. And thankfully he did, because he barely passed with a 72%. He said his problem was being behind a semi when a light turned green and it took a while for the semi to get through. Then when Jackson could finally see the light, it was yellow so he went ahead and stopped but it was in a crosswalk. But he passed, so he was excited. We celebrated by going to Haymakers and getting some snacks. We found out you could make an appointment with the Macon DMV to get his license, so I did that while he was testing. The only problem was that it was still a couple hours away. So we dropped off the papers to register his truck and then just sat in a parking lot eating our snacks until it was time to go get his license. They had his paperwork done for registering the truck when we got back, so he got his license plates put on and then went in to finish the rest of the paperwork. And it has been great ever since. He has run some errands for us, gone out to the ranch to do work for Andrew and been able to take himself wherever he needs to go. He did have a bump in the road that slowed him down a bit. He has had a bump on the top of his foot since the middle of basketball season that gets red, irritated and painful with running at times. So he had an x-ray and MRI done along with seeing an orthopedic surgeon. They diagnosed it as a stress injury and he had to be off of it for 3 weeks. He was supposed to use his boot, but it hurt so he just used crutches. It did actually help and it is feeling better.
Andrew and the kids spent time out at the ranch too. They went fishing and he would take different ones out to help him get some work done and to help the others work cows. Then he took me for a "surprise date" out there and we did some gravel riding and caught the sunset :-). He really wants me to like gravel riding, but I'm still not a fan of the unsteadiness of it. It was really sweet of him to set it all up though.
As May went along, the kids started playing with their friends again. The bike course was popular and saw a lot of use. We've had some friends over for swim dates and the twins got to go tubing with a couple of their friends. And it seems like at least one of my siblings has come home for the weekend since Mother's Day. It was so nice to see everyone again and the kids love hanging out with their cousins. There has been a lot of pool time and sleepovers. The pool time was helpful for the twins who both scraped up their faces while attempting to use the long boards. It wasn't pretty, but the salt water really helped them heal up quickly.
With things opening up again a little, that also meant Ellie could get her braces. Her initial appointment was in Kirksville, but we had to go to Columbia to actually get them on and everything went smoothly with that. She will probably have them on a year and a half.
The sports have slowly started back up. Lincoln and the twins will have random soccer practices once or twice a week. They just did a scrimmage last night which was a lot of fun to watch. Lincoln has started back to baseball and has practice a couple times a week. They've only played two double-headers. The first one we got stomped but were able to pull out a couple wins on the second set. During the first double-header, they brought Lincoln up to pitch. We were pretty surprised as we didn't realize he was even thinking about pitching. He did okay, but has a lot of work to do. We'll have to see if he sticks with it. And while they haven't started any middle school sports yet, the high school is just barely getting back to it. Jackson has football workouts three times a week and basketball two times, each for just an hour. They can't have any physical contact, aren't allowed in the locker room or weight room and were just allowed in the gym this week. The conference has it broken down into phases and they review it each Friday. They are just at Phase 3 right now. The reduced workout time has given Jackson the chance to do work for Andrew (he and Ellie also scraped and painted Tom and Mary's house) and work on an online Personal Finance class he is doing. Plus he interviewed for a job at Hy-Vee, so we are really hoping he gets that.
So I think I'm kind of it for now. Not all the details but something to get caught up. We are ready to enjoy our summer with visits from families, swimming, biking, a ballgame here and there, etc. We booked a house for a quick trip to Steamboat which everyone is excited about and we are still waiting to make a decision on whether or not we will send the kids to Kanakuk.
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