Happy Birthday America!

 

With the 4th of July on a Sunday this year, we kind of made a whole weekend out of celebrating.  On Saturday the 3rd Craig went and golfed with some buddies in the morning and the wives and kids got together for a yummy breakfast.  We then met them at the Star parade.  It was crazy hot already by 10:00 am but we all had a great time and the kids got loaded, like more than Halloween loaded, with candy.  That afternoon we headed up to Craig's parents house to BBQ and swim.  We were too cheap to buy fireworks, surprise surprise, and we had the intentions of taking Brooklyn to the Star fireworks Sunday evening, but she lost that privilege with some not so great choices, so we all went to bed fairly early instead.

Since the 4th was Sunday, most of America got Monday the 5th off from work, but not Craig.  So he went off to work, but the kids and I headed up to the lake with Grandma and cousins to cool off.  We all had a blast tubing, skiing and jumping off the dock.  As my Dad would always say, "even a bad day at the lake is better than a good day at the office."  These are the days that I'm so grateful to be a stay at home mom.  It was a great weekend filled with a lot of family and friends.  Even with how divided our country seems sometimes, it's nice to have a holiday where everyone can agree that we live in the greatest country in the world.

13th Anniversary

 

To celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary we headed up to McCall with the kids and Craig's parents to spend the weekend.  Craig's parents were kind enough to watch the kids for us while we went for an 11 mile hike to Anderson Lake.  We hiked to Anderson Lake a few years ago, but decided to come into the lake a different way.  Towards the beginning of the hike we had to ford a pretty good stream.  The water was running pretty strong and I had to use a stick to help balance, but it definitely added to the adventure.  The hike was beautiful and the lake was gorgeous.  There were some fun camping spots that would be nice to backpack into.  We made it back to the cabin by mid-afternoon where Craig then spoiled me with an anniversary gift, which mind you I was not allowed to get him anything, he got me a GORGEOUS ring.  We had always talked about getting another band for my wedding ring, but because it was custom made and our jeweler is retired, the other jewelers didn't feel like they could get a great fit.  So he decided to get this ring instead and he planned this all out back in March while I was in Mexico with the kids.  It was a wonderful surprise.  We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out with the family.  The following weekend we went out to dinner just the two of us to finish off the celebration.  At dinner we got talking about how lucky we have been in our marriage.  We have had our ups and downs, but our ups are way bigger and longer lasting than our downs.  Our strengths and weakness compliment one another and over the years we have learned how to fill in each others gaps.  I couldn't have asked for a better eternal partner.

Interesting School Year

 To say that this school year was interesting might be the understatement of the year.  The kids both had a great attitude and really enjoyed the school year even with the obstacles that they faced.  McKay's year was pretty normal.  Luckily his preschool did not require masks and they just were extra cautious with hand sanitizer.  He loved Ms. Carey and all of the friends that he met. He did a great job learning his letters and their sounds.  According to Ms. Carey he was a good listener and student in general.  Brooklyn's school year was a little more up in the air.  It started with online learning and then after a few weeks went to hybrid, where she was in the classroom half the time and at home learning virtually the other half.  They then went to school fulltime for a few weeks before heading back to hybrid.  By Thanksgiving time they were back in the classroom fulltime for the rest of the school year.  Brooklyn did have to wear a mask the whole year and was a great sport about it.  By the end of the year they no longer had to wear their masks when they were in P.E. or outside at recess.  Brooklyn's teacher, Mrs. Cox, was fantastic the entire time.  She really handled everything so well, she kept the students safe but wasn't crazy about the rules.  When some of the teachers went on strike, she was still in the classroom.  She really was fantastic and Brooklyn really enjoyed her time in her class.  I wish I would have been able to go help in the class and get to know her better, but they didn't allow any volunteers in the classroom.  We've got our fingers crossed that next school year will be a little more "normal".  Brooklyn was over masks by the end of the year and really doesn't want to have to wear them again, which I don't blame her at all.  And just like that Brooklyn is done with 2nd grade and McKay has finished his first year of preschool. As a parent all you can hope for is that your kids teachers help them love to learn and look forward to going to school and both my kids teachers did that.

Spring Round Up

 Besides having a couple of super fun trips this spring to Mexico and Florida, we had a lot to keep us busy.  The kids both had soccer, we did a few hikes around the valley, went to parks and played outside as much as possible, had fires, spent time with friends and family and did I mention soccer?!  I feel like soccer kind of rules our life in the fall and spring and we only have two kids, luckily we had a lot of grandparents that were willing to help when games and practices overlapped.  The kids both had great seasons.  Brooklyn's foot skills and understanding of the game got a lot better.  McKay was still as crazy as ever but had a lot of fun and even scored a few goals at the end of the season.  Craig and I coached Brooklyn's team for their end of the season round robin tournament and they got second place and had a lot of fun doing it.  I may or may not have lost my voice.  They are both already looking forward to their fall season of soccer.  We had great weather this spring and really enjoyed all the time we got to spend outside.