All Dropped Off

It took me two days to get three trunks packed up, but yesterday morning they were off to Camp Olympia.

We decided to go all out this year. We completely skipped the car decorating and just went for a full on parade float.  

Complete with costumes, of course. (We borrowed them from the school...it pays to volunteer up there all the time). 

This is Camp Olympia's 50th anniversary, so the sign in back says "50 Years of Spartan Rule".  Thankfully Kyle and Reed's friend, Cash, is a Spartan too so that made it super easy. 

The boys were super excited about their cabin.  We found out when we got there that it's full of boys that they played baseball with this spring, so they should have a blast. 

No picture of JR in front of his cabin, he's way too cool for that! 

A Losing Season

The summer bingo season is over.

My boys never won one single game of bingo, yet Reed talked somebody in to giving him one of the left over prizes.  So now I'm the proud owner of this blow-up ridiculousness. 

The boys may not have won at bingo, but we were undefeated in the theme night costume contests...bringing their grand total of winnings to $20 bucks in iTunes gift cards. 

They had a bit of competition on 80's night, but having themselves judged as a group put them over the top.

And Kyle easily won rodeo night.

Maybe they'll have better luck next year.

Coming Home

JR comes home from "Rush Week" in Panama City tonight.  

(It's called Rush Week, but I still call it Beach Retreat.)

There are hundreds of middle school and high school kids on this trip, and they post maybe 3 or 4 pictures a day. 

 Of course, I've seen JR in pictures 2 of the days. 

He is always up for a photo-op.

I think he's working in a school or church in this one. 

This day his group was passing out snow cones to first responders.

I know this one was definitely right up his alley. 

JR will be home just long enough to get his clothes washed and leave for camp again on Sunday. Which means he'll have spent more nights in our house for the month of July than in June. 

 A total of 10. 

So Much Flipping

The flipping in this house is officially out of control! 

Kyle told me last night he wants Reed to be his "synchronized diving partner in the Olympics." 

 They look like they are off to a good start. 

Then Kyle landed a double front flip the other day.  The kids erupted into cheers like he had just scored a touchdown. 

Reed is busy teaching himself how to dive off the high dive. 

If Kyle isn't at the pool (which he begs to go nonstop) he's doing this kind of stuff.  He took my old camera and tripod, and set them up (on his own) in the front yard.

Then he videoed himself! 

I Still Haven't had a Nap

I got back on Sunday from a girls' weekend in Grapevine.

I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and recover, which is why I haven't even been blogging.

Clearly, fun was had by all.

I'm in a Pickle

So I did a really bad job of taking pictures on this vacation.

 Aunt Traci was always walking around with her fancy camera, so I just didn't take any. 

Kyle and Reed did talk me in to taking some action shots of them.

And I snapped this picture of the other set of  "twins" that were on the trip.

I documented JR's snow cone

I took 1 picture of everyone together.

And finally, proof that I was on the vacation...in the form of a picture of me in a pickle.

Pretty Sand and Water

The water and sand in Florida is some of the prettiest I've ever seen.

You'd think I would have done a better job at documenting it. 

Pretty sand

Pretty water

Yep, that's the extent of my beach pictures. 

The Yoga Ball was the Most Important Thing We Packed

We just got home from almost a week in Florida. 

 

This video is the whole, entire reason Kyle and Reed had been begging to go.

BINGO

Kyle and Reed wanted me to take them and some friends to bingo night because one of the prizes was "A GUMBALL MACHINE!"  (We have a gumball machine upstairs.)

3/4 of my group was super in to bingo

1/4 of my group was super in to dinner.

But after dinner all bets were off, it was excitement all around.

None of mine walked away winners, but they still had an awesome time. 

One More Swim

I really did think I was done writing about swim team, but turns out I've got this one more.

We were out of town for the swim team banquet so we didn't know until after the fact that Reed won most improved boy 9-10. 

They only gave out most improved and best swimmer in each age group, and it was also nice to hear that the age group coaches were the ones that picked the winners.

I picked up his medal the other day, and it was a surprising end to the season (that we thought was already over). 

East TX

Kyle and Reed tried very hard to not let JR's Minnesota trip outdo their time at Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's house.

They went fishing

 Made their yearly trip to their favorite Huntsville tourist destination. 

Spent a day at Incredible Pizza

"Helped"

Saw 3 movies- 

Here they are at 47 Meters Down.  They sent me this picture and I was texting them back to say they weren't allowed to see it, and...oh yeah, the picture was to let me know that they had just finished watching it! 

And, most importantly, got milkshakes on a daily basis

MN

JR and Granny Sherry are home from Minnesota. They had a great time and JR kept commenting on how nice everybody was to him.

He enjoyed seeing where Granny Sherry and Grandpa Gary grew up, and as he put it, "meeting all the family that looks like Reed." 

Speaking of meeting family, there was plenty of that.

He spent some time with Grandpa Gary's brother, Ronnie, who we think looks like the Duck Dynasty version of Gary.

And a handful of the many "little cousins" he has on Granny Sherry's side.  

(They are Sherry's great, great nephews so I have no idea what they would actually be called.)

He also got to go to The Mall of America  (which clearly he enjoyed).

The poor child finally got to eat at Bubba Gump's since we never take him with us, and not surprising, he answered all the trivia questions without a hesitation. 

He got to enjoy some Minnesota nature, but I think his favorite thing was playing cards every night.

I think he might have racked up quite the gambling debt...I think I owe some vikings some money.

And with him finally home, that means in the month of June he spent exactly 7 nights at home.

Must be nice to be JR. 

That's a Winner

We might not have won in the 4th of July floats, but Kyle definitely won at fishing! 

2nd on the 4th

To be fair, I actually had more decorations for this "float", but it started raining and didn't let up until about 15 minutes before the parade started so this really was the best we could pull together considering the weather!

Honestly, ours really was the best, but the VFW beat us.

Reed was furious at the injustice even with us telling him "you have to let the old, military people win".

Happy Independence Day!