August Awesomeness & Back-to-School

The end of summer always sneaks up on us.  When summer break begins for the kids, it seems as though summer will be forever long.  It's crazy how July wraps up and, BAM the kids are back in school.  Here's how we spent the last couple of weeks of the kids' summer break...

Dawn and Mark got the kids some awesome puzzles as gifts - here's the Disney one we did.  The kids did most of it with Brooklyn.  It was a cute one!

This is how they posed when I asked them to take a picture that I could send to Dawn 😜

Brooklyn took the kids to Dbat in Lewis Center to spend some time in the batting cages.

Momma had another birthday!  We had dinner at our house and had a nice fire outside.

Grandpa, Auntie Gail, and Uncle Wayne all came to visit!  Uncle just stopped by in between speaking engagements for his books, while Grandpa and Auntie stayed for almost 2 weeks.  It was nice to spend time with them.  We don't see them enough!

We spent some time at Mom & Dad's & played cornhole...

Dad convinced Colin to climb on top of the RV... 😲

Cadence had some fun taking 1,463,628 selfies with my phone...

I had to add them so they'd be here FOREVER

The kids & I ran to the outlet mall to grab a gift for Danny for our anniversary.  We saw this cool mural.

Mom and Auntie took the kids to the zoo!

Cadence made this meme of Colin during lunch. 😂

And we have a 3rd and 6th grader!  It's amazing how time flies.

Colin went to Mason's birthday party at Rockin' Jump

Top Bun

William came over to play

We had fun putting this puzzle together - Poppa helped the kids do a lot of it

Colin got hit in the eye by a baseball at practice

AJR came to Columbus for the Wonderbus music festival

Before the concert, we had dinner at Adriatico's

It was SO hot and humid that day - Colin and I enjoyed some ice cream before the show.  The yellow jackets were attacking us.

AJR put on a great show - so great, we bought tickets to see them again in May 2022!

Poor Colin couldn't see a lot of the stage because everyone was standing up

Jellystone 2021

Mom and Dad took the kids to Jellystone again - this year, they went Thursday through Sunday.  They sure are some lucky kids!  We're lucky as well - while the kids were off having fun, we went out for dinner, took a nice bike ride, grabbed ice cream, got some things done around the house, hung out in the pool, and watched a movie.

The kids went fishing...

...had fun on the water slides...

...played on the obstacle course...

...and enjoyed all of their favorite foods that Grandma makes for them, specifically homemade mac and cheese.

Poor Cadence stepped on a bee and got stung!  Her foot got pretty swollen.

I sent the kids a picture of Scarlet - they usually miss her when they're gone.

 Thanks, Mom and Dad, for spoiling the kiddos again!  Love you!

jUlY fUn

July was full of typical fun summer stuff: baseball, softball, camps, and pool time.  Read on to catch up on what we did this July...

In between an away double-header, Cadence and the 10u softball girls enjoyed a snack in the back of a teammate's pick-up truck 😀

 

Here are some shots of Cadence at bat during a tournament near Findlay, Ohio.

Her confidence, as well as her skill, has grown tremendously over the last season.

Colin enjoyed a week at Sandlot Camp with Mason & Brantley.  They spent all day at camp and played a lot of games and went on field trips.  He loved it and had a blast with his buds.

They went to the same gym where Cadence took gymnastics as a kindergartener!  Check out that flip on the trampoline!

They went to a pool in Westerville - look who they bumped into!

I'm really going to miss these pool days with the cooler weather creeping in now...

We enjoyed huge, beautiful, purplish-blue hydrangea flowers all summer. They were nice to trim and bring into the house!

Colin and Mason attended a 3-day baseball camp at Ohio State.  They had a really good time meeting the past players that were there helping out (they also got Craig Krenzel's autograph - his son participated in the camp as well).  

Erica and I went to the WNCI softball game for charity - it was nice to just kick back, watch some softball, and catch up.

That weekend, we went to Pickerington to watch Lily in her softball tournament.  It was fun to offer our support!  Their team wasn't doing so well when we were there, so Vince put on his rally cap!

We played around to pass some time in between the games.

On Sunday, the kids helped out the Blendon Woods Little League teams during their game.  The kids in the league have certain disabilities and need a little help playing the game.  Surprisingly, there were more volunteers than players, so our kids helped "catch."

My cousin, Melissa, sent us a really fun puzzle from Amazon!

The kids stopped by Addison and Landen's house with the nanny to drop off Addison's birthday gifts.  I think she likes the Log Cabin syrup the best 😂

We celebrated the end of the 8u baseball season at the Northstar golf club pool.  They were given trophies for being the league champs!

And no post is complete without a Scarlet picture!

Vaccination Station

Back in April...I got the jab.  Danny did too.  I figured I had to document it.  It was the first time, in a long time, that anything like this had ever happened.  To me, it was amazing that, in just about a year, a vaccine (offered by several different companies) was developed and being administered in droves, in an organized manner.  I was able to get an appointment shortly after we returned from Florida.  I would receive the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.  It was a little emotional pulling up to the lines of cars at the fairgrounds -- everyone, just like me, wanting to make this mess better.  Wanting to protect themselves.  Wanting to protect their families.  Wanting to go back to "normal."  Wanting to ditch the mask.  Wanting to stop being afraid.  I felt like I was actually a part of something -- something that was going to hopefully make things better.  I was proud of myself; proud of everyone there.  Thankful for all of the volunteers.  Thankful that enough vaccines were available for anyone who wanted one.  At that point, I wasn't disappointed yet.  I wasn't angry at the people who refused to receive the vaccine.  It wasn't really a political thing yet.  In April, we were all still hopeful that this would all end soon.  

There were a couple of buildings of rows of cars where we had to wait our turn.

Everyone was super friendly and helpful.  I was very pleased with how organized everything was, for such a big undertaking.  

I had to prove I was there!  I sent a selfie to Tyler.  She and Joe had gotten their first vaccine a little before I did.  

Two weeks later, I returned to the same spot, to receive my second shot.  It was much different the second time around.  There weren't any lines and the process was much quicker.  I wasn't sure if it was because people didn't return for their second shot, or maybe many of the people who were there when I was there for my first shot were there for their second?  At the time of writing this (October 10, 2021) about 53% of Ohians are fully vaccinated.  When I received my first shot, I would've thought we'd be further along than that.  I hope that in 6 more months, we're not still talking about vaccinations or counting positive COVID cases, hospitalizations, or deaths.