8 Weeks of Summer: Week 3

Week 3 of summer included soccer camp for Bryce and Sydney. Bryce is going to play soccer in the fall so I wanted him to get a little instruction before I signed him up to play. I'm so glad I did because the camp was great and Bryce did AWESOME. He seemed to pick up all the skills taught very quickly and if y'all can believe it, he did so fantastic on listening. He did so well that at the end of the camp the coach said I should think about signing him up for pre-academy instead of recreation. I know it sounds crazy, but I'm actually contemplating this. The main reason is that both of the practices are the same place and days as Sydney's practices. If I can get Jordyn placed on a team that practices on the same days it would really make my life so much easier in the fall! Jo will be playing U10 Rec, but she will have 2 practices per week so if I can get all these practices to line up on the same days I will be a happy mom. The times of course will all be different, but the days is what I'm mostly concerned with. My final decision will depend on when Jordyn's practices will be. 

 

 

Sydney had a soccer camp through Etowah High School for the week. With that said it wasn't much of a camp. We showed up to the first night and waited around for 45 minutes before we gave up and left. Two of her soccer friends came back to the house with us so the girls could play for a while in the front yard. Turns out the coach cancelled the practice and wanted everyone to meet at a restaurant to watch the World Cup. We never got that message...

The next night of camp it was boiling hot. The practice was 2 hours long so thankfully they took lots of breaks. I would like to tell you about the rest of the camp, but we ended up not having anymore play days. Wednesday night was cancelled due to rain that cleared out way before camp was supposed to start and Thursday night we were notified by a sign posted to a trash can that play was cancelled that night in order to watch the World Cup. We opted to skip Friday night play after the other cancellations so Sydney could enjoy the pool longer on Friday. Turns out it was cancelled that night as well due to the heat. To say that Sydney was disappointed would be an understatement. She had really been looking forward to this camp. To say that I was slightly annoyed and irritated about how the camp was run is pretty accurate. We didn't pay money for this camp, but we had played our entire week's evenings around the camp. The new (and young) head coach didn't make a good first impression. Since most of the camp was cancelled I never had the opportunity to take photos. 

Finally Friday rolled around and we headed to the pool early. The Pitoniak's joined us and later in the afternoon cousin Maisie stopped by for a while. Jordyn ended up going home with Honey and Maisie while the rest of us enjoyed the pool longer. I even impressed the kids by doing a few cannonballs. I rarely get in the pool and actually swim so this was fun for Syd and Bryce. 

 

We had so much stuff to do around the house on Saturday that we decided to not do it. Ha! We went to the pool instead. So Saturday was full of pool fun too. 

The kids spent-the-night with my mom on Saturday night so they could walk to church with her for a Hope To Africa fundraiser. They met up with a group of walkers and then walked 2 miles to church! Since the kids spent-the-night out Bryan and I went to dinner. We then went shopping so he could replace his Father's Day gift he took back. He ended up getting new sunglasses. 

On Sunday my mom took the kids to the pool so Bryan and I could get busy on the long list of things we have to do around the house. We knocked a few big items off of our list. I painted the front porch and the door frame to the front door. I also painted one of our Uga's that was really faded. While I was busy doing that Bryan re-sanded the stairs going upstairs and then stained them. Yep...we are still working on finishing the floor project we started in February. 

The end is in site! 

8 Weeks of Summer: Week 2

So much to say about our 2nd week of summer. 

Monday was rather uneventful. I had to work and Bryan coached in the morning. Since I go into work on Monday's the kids went with Bryan to beach practice. That night Bryan met up with all the pallbearers for Travis's service. The guys met for dinner and shopping. Yes, I said shopping. The guys went out to find their best Travis worthy outfits to wear at the funeral. Trav was known for his bright and colorful clothing so the guys wanted to do it up right for him. Bryan didn't have much luck shopping that night so on Tuesday we headed out on a mission to find him an outfit. Kids in tow. 

We were like fish out of water shopping since the style we were going for is so not Bryan. I actually laughed when he walked out of the dressing room because I have NEVER seen Bryan in such an outfit. The longer he had it on, the more I liked it though! The kids were troopers during out shopping trip, which ended up lasting longer than we expected because we had a tough time deciding on the final outfit. Props to the employees of Vineyard Vines because they were extremely helpful. Not only were they helpful in picking out an outfit, they were helpful in entertaining our kids. 

 

Here are the kids patiently waiting for us to finish our shopping mission.

Wednesday morning rolled around and we got going early. Bryan needed to be at the church by 10:00. My dad was a gem and watched the kids for us over at mom's pool for the day. 

Here we are IN FULL COLOR for #TravsArmy. No black allowed. 

I can't seem to put into words what to say about the funeral service. 

It was perfect. It was beautiful. It was Christ honoring. It was sad yes, but joyful and full of hope. There were moments where we were all laughing and not even a minute later we were all in tears. It was a true celebration of life for a guy who was completely magnetic and clearly meant so much to so many people. Our guess was there were 800 to 1000 people in attendance. 

All dressed IN FULL COLOR to honor Travis. 

Bryan and my brother Joey. 

 Bryan and his friend Matthew. They were pretty much twinkies.

 There was a reception after the service and then a grave side service. The processional it the largest I have ever seen. It was quit amazing. The below picture shows the view of the procession in front of us. I didn't get a photo of the cars behind us, but it was amazing.

I ended up taking photos for Carrie at the graveside service. I'll share only two with you because those are her pictures to share.

Here are the pallbearers. 

A good looking group of guys don't you think? 

And how about those outfits! 

Definitely Travis approved.

Aren't these flowers beautiful?

Wednesday was a long day. It was exhausting. I can only imagine how exhausted Carrie was by the end of the day. And can I just say she was the picture of grace the entire day. Please continue to pray for Carrie and the kids over the coming weeks and months. 

My mind has continually been her and those precious babes. 

Thank you again to my dad and Bryan's parents for helping us with the kids all day on Wednesday. 

This was such a huge help. 

On Thursday we got up early and headed down to Children's for Bryce's clinic. This was a make up clinic from May because he had a stomach virus on his scheduled date and they didn't want us anywhere near clinic. I wonder why? ;) 

Not too much to report from clinic. He grew a little, but didn't gain any weight. He didn't gain anything from February to June. Grr. He is still at 60% BMI and no one is overly concerned at this point, but I was really shocked he didn't gain ANY weight. I mean we did get the stomach virus around here twice only a few weeks apart so that may have had something to do with it. Him being constantly on the move and spending much more time outside may also play into it. He still doesn't fully get the whole PFT thing. His doesn't do a great blow on the machine, but he is in the 90's so his people are pleased with that.

Bryce has been complaining about headaches so I talked to them about that. We are all on the same page that we think it is sinus related so sinus rinses on the daily followed up with Flonase. I talked to his pulm doc about Kalydeco. I didn't find out anything new or exciting like I was hoping (I'm now waiting on a call from Vertex to hopefully get everything set up for his 6th birthday in July). His pulm doc wanted to stress that Kalydeco is not a cure, which we already knew. Apparently she has a patient on it that slacked off treatments and this patient got upset that they ended up sick.

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Look! Bryan got to come to a clinic with us. This doesn't happen very often these days.

We ended up having ourselves a nice Pool Friday. The Howe girls joined us and so did the Pitoniak's. It was so fun to watch all the kids swim together. It was also nice to just sit and chat with Erika and Casey. 

 

 Don't worry...Noah didn't land on Lisa's head!

 

Hannah had no time for swimming. 

She decided a long nap on the swing was the way to go. 

On the way home we stopped by the Roberts house so I could drop the CD of pictures off to Carrie. When we pulled up to the house Jordyn yelled, "Look a rainbow!" 

When we got home this truck was parked in our cul-de-sac. I thought Bryce was going to jump out of the car before we even parked it in the garage. He was VERY impressed. A friend of our neighbor just bought this truck for his tree business. He stopped by to show it off.

 

Saturday we cleaned the house for about an hour or so and then decided it was way too nice to be cleaning so we headed to...wait for it...

THE POOL!

 Syd was helping Jordyn learn how to dive.

 Bryan showing he still has excellent cannonball skills. 

 Bryce developed a little fear of the deep end of the pool this summer so Bryan helped him get over it.

 We even got him to jump in without a mask! 

Be still my heart. 

These boys...I tell ya. 

Are you guys still reading this?! 

One last day to talk about. Sunday was Father's day and it turned out to be a great day. We started off by spoiling Bryan with a few gifts before church.

 

 

 

 The kids each made the sign they are holding. How cool is that? 

 

After lunch we headed to, you guessed it, the pool. We had a Father's day cookout planned with my family and Bryan's. It was so fun. The food was delicious and everyone had a great time enjoying the pool and each other's company.

 

 

 

 

 

 Like father...like daughter. 

Love this picture.

 Papa!

Pop!

If you are still with me I appreciate it! This past week was a big one to say the least. I hope everyone has a blessed week. We will chat again next weekend. ;)