Colin's Trip to Hocking Hills

In mid-July, Mom and Dad took Colin camping at Hocking Hills! Cadence had to work, so they got Colin all to themselves. 😃

Before they left on their trip, I caught Colin catching some shut eye on Coopers "throne" after a sleepover 😂

They sent cute photos along the way...

...they went hiking...

...relaxed...

(we sent pics of Coop while they were away)

...and went zip lining! I was so jealous!

Colin had a great time being spoiled by his grandparents!

Wrapping Up June and 4th of July

I did not get any pictures of the fun we had during the 4th of July weekend (Mom, Cadence, and I went to the parade, we had half the Rileys over for a pool day, and we went to see the fireworks with Dad), but I have included a cute pic of our pup and the food Cadence and the boys made! Happy 250, America!

Cadence replicated the yummy charcuterie board from last year (peep the Uncle Sam toy we got from the parade). She did a great job!

Cadence wanted to make patriotic dirt cake cups -- here's the pic she took so I had a visual of it 😂

I was able to get a better photo to show how good of a job the kids did! Colin and Nolan took over while Cadence nursed a headache. I know she was proud of them for how they turned out.

June Was Fun!

There was a lot of NEW to celebrate in the Schuerman household during the month of June: raising our new pup, new cars, and a new driver!

Cooper has done well adjusting to his new home. Potty training was a little rocky at first, but he eventually got the swing of it.

We finally have a dog that loves to howl. It's not a good habit to form, but the kids think it's hilarious.

Danny took the boys after a tournament baseball game to pick up our new whips! Danny took Colin and Darren for a test drive while I was at work. It's fun to have new cars!

Danny took Cadence for her second attempt at her driving test. She passed!! She's been easing into driving on her own. She drives to/from work and school and has done some trips to the library, Kroger, and Nolan's house. It's nice having Life360 so we can track where she is and how fast she's driving. It's been helpful for her to be able to drive herself places and she's even helped with taking Colin home after his practices! We're very proud of her!

The kids took Cooper for a walk while I was at the office. This dog LOVES sticks!

...and he also LOVES grandma! Look at that face!

After another tournament baseball game, I brought Colin and Darren to work with me since the game was so close to the office. They had fun prepping bottles for a taste test, enjoyed Lion Cub's Cookies, spent over an hour at the park down the street, and rewarded themselves for a job well done at Jeni's Ice Cream.

They were wiped after a busy day of work!

Sweet 16!

Next up, we celebrated Cadence's birthday - Sweet Sixteen! In hindsight, we would've scheduled the day a little differently. At the last minute, we saw that the BMV in Marion had openings for her to take her driving test on her actual birthday (the location in Delaware closer to us was fully booked). She had all of her hours done and we felt confident that she could pass. Welp, that morning didn't turn out as we had anticipated. Cadence had an old man administer her test and he was pretty picky! She was penalized for not pausing for at least 3 seconds when turning right on red (I mean, who does?!) and while driving the agility portion, she hit the pole coming out of the cone with her mirror, which caused the cone to fall over. She was so upset when she made it back into the testing location. My heart was crushed for her. She cried the entire way home. It was pitiful and there was nothing I could say to make her feel better. 

This was the morning of her birthday - so full of happiness and hope!

When we got home, she just wanted to sleep. She had gotten up early for her driving test and she was emotionally drained. I don't blame her. My  mom also stopped over to talk to her - she felt a little better by that afternoon. After Colin's baseball games in New Albany, we picked up Tropical Smoothie for dinner (her request) and enjoyed the apple cake concoction Grandma made.

Poppa was inhaling helium and making everyone crack up.

I'm glad her special day turned out to be a good day. She deserved to have fun. She's usually a goofy kid, so it was hard to see her so down. She's a determined kid who gives her best effort no matter what she's working on. She loves to make us laugh (I'm an easy audience and laughs at everything she does) and has done really well trying new things this year. She loves freefall rides at amusement parks and even loves ice cream now! I mean, who is this kid?!

Louisville Tournament

Since the Eagle Classic tournament got rained out, this past season of travel baseball was started with an out-of-town tournament in Louisville. My dad went with Colin and Danny and made a trip of it! Colin had the best of both worlds and got to hang out with his teammates and Danny and Dad.

They started with a tour of the Louisville Slugger museum & factory.

Colin didn't drink, but tagged along on Danny and Dad's bourbon trek.

Cooper was a good boy while they were away!

Grandma and Nolan came over for some pool time and later Cadence painted Nolan's toes!

The girls and Cooper had a laid-back weekend!

Colin's a TEEN!

Not long after we adopted Cooper, Colin celebrated his 13th birthday! It's crazy to think that we're a 2-teen household now. He's definitely growing up! He got his braces, his voice is changing, he's taller than me and definitely has bigger feet than me, and he even has some dark hair on his upper lip! He's a funny kid that makes me laugh a lot. School comes to him pretty naturally, as do most sports. He's still excelling in baseball and loves to cook. He's even made some dinners following my recipes while I'm at work!

We had fun celebrating that weekend and started with birthday doughnuts.

His request for dinner was Olive Garden! I embarrassed him by telling the waitress it was his birthday, so she brought him a piece of cake!

Colin also requested ice cream cake - we went with Choco Brownie Extreme from Dairy Queen. It was so good and lasted us days! 

He's a pretty cool kid. 😀

Introducing, Cooper!

On Thursday, May 14th while Cadence was at her driving lesson with her instructor, Danny and I grabbed some dinner to kill time. Both of us felt it was kind of crazy, but we agreed that we needed another dog in our family. The loss of Oden was so abrupt and sad. He had a lot of life left to live. We started talking about the idea of a new dog as a family, and even though I thought I'd never want a puppy, we thought it was best to rescue a puppy. The kids would be out of school soon and they could help train a puppy. We would also hopefully avoid any abuse that an adopted pet could carry with them. We all started looking at rescue sites and mom sent me pictures of puppies from the Licking Co. Humane Society. One of those puppies was named: Hennesy :)

I was talking to Kim at work about the loss of Oden and she described getting another pet perfectly:

Here was the post that melted our hearts. Look at that nose!

The very next day, we all headed to the shelter, Momma included, and met Hennesy. We also met one of his littermates, but we decided Hennesy was a better fit (Scotch was black and brown and kept chewing on my shoelaces!) He also had a sister, who was mainly white with some brown, but she was already adopted. It was probably for the better or we would've come home with TWO dogs!

Unfortunately, we could not take him home with us yet - he was scheduled to get neutered the following Tuesday. We all made the trip back out to the shelter on Sunday to play with him outside. We couldn't bear the thought of him stuck in his run at the shelter. We had so much fun with him. Even as young as he was, he did a good job of playing fetch!

We kept researching puppy names and tossing around ideas.

That Tuesday, Danny and Cadence went to pick up our pup while I was at work and Colin was at baseball practice. We landed on the name: Cooper! John Cooper was head coach of the Ohio State Buckeye football team before our time, but it's an OSU nod nonetheless!

We're slowly making him a lapdog

While we ate dinner, we put him in the portacrib my mom loaned us. Even though he was in the kitchen with us, he whined a bit before falling asleep.

We're trying to teach him "get on your spot," but his default is anywhere on the coach. My mom got us this surgical suit so he'd leave his incision site alone. It was pretty cute on him!

Hanging out with me while I worked from home.

Taking him out on a leash in the backyard because he likes to eat EVERYTHING.

Grandma loves him, too! Before we even adopted him, she told us she'd watch him during the 2 weeks we'd be in Europe!

He has some cat-like tendencies 😂

He's a sweet pup and we're glad he's home with us! He's done pretty well with potty training and I think it took him literally a day to master, "sit." He fits in with us so well!