Post Olympics Blues

We are in the full swing of school. Early mornings, homework, projects and a grumpy kid here and there.  After we get all the necessary work done and we sit down to relax late in the day and flip on the TV there is nothing good on...we all miss the Olympics!  We had so much fun watching all the sporting events, seeing the best in  the athletes and the wonderful stories that give you hope in humanity!

Everyone in the family loved watching it!  It was something we could do together.  So we will highlight some of our favorites!

The iconic image that was the Symbol of the Games. 

Our favorite was the swimming!

Did you all fall in love with Missy Franklin like we did?  She is a darling girl with some great values and an amazing talent for swimming.  All the kids loved Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. I often hear Eli and Alyssa fighting..."I want to be Phelps, no I'll be Phelps and you be Lochte"

 We wanted to see them beat the French like they did in Beijing...we'll have to wait for Rio!

Girl Power!

Our guilty pleasure everyday was watching the US Swim Team do Call Me Maybe!  

 More Girl Power!

A very cocky but somehow likeable guy!

Then there was this athlete who is amazing!

And who didn't like seeing the Royals everywhere?

There were so many fun things to watch and cheer for...can't wait for Rio 2016! GO USA!

First Day of School

I woke up to the alarm this morning and heard mumblings of "I don't want to get up, just a few more minutes, groan" and realized it was all coming from me...the kids were great and got right and up got ready!!
The summer has flown by.  I know we say that every year but the last day of school seems too recent to be starting again but here we go!

Alyssa was the first one to leave this morning. She didn't have the usual first day of school jitters because she was going back to the same teacher and the same class from last year.  Her teacher looped up with them!  At sneak a peak we went and saw her new classroom and found that instead of a city theme this year they are a campground and Mrs. Huber is the Ranger, she is so creative and wonderful!

 

3rd Grade

Next came Emmy. She is usually the first one out the door but there was no seminary this morning, it starts tomorrow.  Emmy doesn't know any of her classes yet, only homeroom. She will get her schedule this morning...hopefully it's good! 

 

Sophomore

Meg was the last one out the door this morning. She too only know her homeroom teacher and will get her schedule this morning.  You may notice a new accessory in her picture. We took her in and found that she does need glasses while she is at school to see her books and to see the board. She doesn't have to wear them all the time...but she looks very cute and fashionable!

7th Grade

Whew, we did it and now we have to wait until they return to hear how everything turned out!

Florida

We returned Sunday night from a GREAT trip to the beach!! Steve and I wanted to take the kids back after we went in January and Melecia mentioned that Grayton State Park has cabins that are wonderful and very affordable.  So we mentioned it to three other families and booked our reservations in February.  August seemed like it was forever away and would never come.  Well it's here and gone and we're ready to go back!
We left Wednesday morning and were the first family there. 

We checked into our cabin, (not very rustic, more condo like) unpacked the coolers of food into the kitchen, put the suitcases in the rooms and hit the beach!  There are only 15 cabins (du-plexes) and so there can only be 30 families in this area at a time.  The cabins have their own private beach area which is amazing...not fighting crowds or trying to find a spot on the beach.  It truly is spectacular!

There was a lot of seaweed that was washing up on shore (the black stuff on the beach) but it didn't detract from the beauty that is there!
Our days consisted of getting up, eating breakfast, making camp on the beach!

The kids were very seldom under the shade...they were always on the boogie boards out in the water.  The water wasn't very deep for a long ways so the kids could just play and have fun with plenty of adults to watch! Alyssa became quite the boogie board champ!  She learned how and spent hours in the surf catchin' some waves!

All the kids minus Emmy. She was back at the cabin working on her painting.  She got really sunburned Thursday and would only stay out for a few hours at a time but she was happy painting with her new acrylic paints that she got for her birthday. 
All the bathing beauties:

Lunch...people always seemed to come back starving!!!

Playing in the sand...

Steve's club foot!

Pretty sure he thinks he is the bomb!!!

Eli and his best buddy Crew.  Our cabins were connected through the wall and these two had more fun going back and forth!  They LOVED every minute, played so hard and slept great every night!

Eli did a lot of driving back and forth from the cabin to the beach!  We lucked out and only got a few sprinkles one day...nothing major. 

We had so much fun with friends and most especially with our own cute little family!  We hope there is a next time to Grayton Beach!