July - Week 1 - 2017

Dear Mom, Dad and Susan

Happy Independence day this week!  Dad and Susan, I hope you had a great time! It was so fun to have you here, Mom!

Mom and Ty just hanging out

Monday I took Anslie to see "Beauty and the Beast" at the dollar theater.  She hadn't seen it yet, and it was a super fun girl date!

Girls wanna have fun!

While we were gone Tucker and Tyler prepared family home evening.  They gave us a lesson on our national anthem (I gave them a youtube movie to show us ;)) and made us treats.  The story of the national anthem is interesting, it makes you hear the song in a new way.

Tuesday was the 4th.  The night before we were discussing plans around the dinner table and mentioned to you, Mom, that we would be gone for a couple hours in the morning because we were going to walk in a parade.  You surprised us all and said you wanted to be in the parade in your lie-down wheelchair!  Tucker loved walking in the parade with you while you both waved flags.  And Ty and Ans loved waving to you from the side.  We enjoyed a small fair of sorts afterwards.  It's put on by the town of Flower Mound.  It was more fun as we had Bryce's girls Emma, Carly and Brynn along with us while their parents painted a room in the home they will be moving into soon.

We loved our afternoon/evening at Lewisville Lake.  Isaac reserved us a camping spot on the lake that was more private and secluded.  Elise and her family came with the Beadle family, and Isaac and Rachael with the DeVores.  The kids played non-stop on the wave runners that pulled tubes and on the floating island.

Watching the parade with cousins.

Tucker and Grandma in the parade!

Little fish

The need for speed

The island was a hit! Hours of fun!

Kids are still practicing with swim team everyday.  Someone is in the pool from 7-11 am.  They do most of their chores before swim and then we try to do something fun in the afternoon.  I've loved the routine swim team has given us, and exercise for an hour everyday helps the kids not get the summer stir-crazies!

Wednesday we invited the Carrier kids over.  They played for awhile, then we had a water-balloon fight in the back yard.   We found a new thing -- a contraption that fills 100 water balloons in 60 seconds.  It's brilliant!  I see lots of water balloon fights in our future!

Filling water balloons, get your ammo ready!

No mercy!

On Thursday night Freeman asked what we had going on this weekend.  I joked that this was the weekend that he was going to take the kids away and I was going to plow through my to-do list.  He said, "We should do that!" and he did!  He booked a hotel for two nights and left me and my to-do list.  I got so much done!  They had a blast, and thought I would have liked to be with them, I was super grateful for the chance to catch up as he traveled for more than 4 weeks in the last 8 and will be gone again next weekend.

This picture cracks me up.  So Tucker.  He had Dad take it at the hotel
and send it to me to make me happy.

Last, I have sad news.  Both of the fish we were taking care of died!  We were mortified and couldn't figure out what we had done wrong.  I knew we couldn't handle a dog, but heavens we couldn't even handle two dumb fish!  That night as I tucked Tucker in, he told me with guilty eyes that he had something to tell me.  He had been with the fish when no one was around and noticed that they looked bored.  He had a container of bubbles and a wand, so he blew bubbles into their bowls to cheer them up!  Oh dear!  They both kicked the can within a couple hours.  The poor boy was mortified to realize he'd killed them.  But it wasn't intentional.  We will be making a trip to the pet store to buy new fish!

Here's a few more happy moments:

Green smoothies for everyone!

Summer afternoon shenanigans

Love, Michelle