Our summer so far...

So, I guess I've been a bit lazy about writing anything lately. I've been posting lots of Flickr pictures sets though!

The last day of school for the kiddos was 6/2 and the summer seems to have flown by since then.
The boys have kept busy playing WOW, staying up late and sleeping late. Sometimes very late on both counts!

Alec did attend a 4 day band camp the week of 6/13. He will be playing the trumpet in 6th grade. It was only 2 hours each day - but I think he got some good out of it. I had an issue with how to get him there and back each day so I decided to just take the week off work. That was my first full week off since I started back in December. I kind of enjoyed it.
I did work my other 'job' that week though and took some senior pics for my niece. Jill, Michelle and I went down to the River Market to take them.

Trent & Michelle and neighbors John & Lucia each celebrated their 20th wedding anniversaries on 6/15. So nice to see people staying married in this day and age of so many divorces.
Father's Day was June 19. We went out to dinner with my dad on Friday night and stayed home the rest of the weekend.

My 30th high school reunion was on 6/25. I was a little leery about going but glad I did. Jennifer was going to go with me but something came up - so Brad went instead. That is a pretty big sacrifice for Mr. anti-social :) Out of our class of 398 - there were probably 80 there. Some I recognized right away and many I didn't. It was good thing everyone had name tags with their senior pics on them. I realized how little I really hung out with anyone in my class - except for Jennifer - and I was not in any sports or clubs - so it wasn't a big 'reunion' for me - but still enjoyed it. I guess for most of my high school career I was too wrapped up with Tony and then only went to school 1/2 days my senior year. I keep encouraging my kids to get involved and join clubs but I guess I am not a very good example.

On July we headed for South Dakota. It took us longer than usual to get there due to lots of flooding in Iowa. I-29 was closed in several places and will be most of the summer. We finally got there Friday night about 8:30. and I finally got to hold little Rowan! We had a good weekend. The kids spent a lot of it in the pool - which was great except for a few sunburns - especially Alec. He always seems to burn bad his first day out. He put on sunscreen - but I guess not often enough. Michael and Bekah dropped Autumn off on Saturday and she stayed the night. They both had to work on Saturday but came back on Sunday and spent the evening. We shot off fireworks on Sunday night and had a big fire in the fire pit. I loved that it was not icky hot up there like it was in KC. I was a great weekend. On Monday we headed back home and made it the cul-de-sac around 7:45pm - just in time for another night of fireworks with the neighbors. By 11:00 I was so ready to climb into my own bed. I was very glad I did not have to work on Tuesday.
I did however work the rest of the week - including Saturday. There were a couple of big projects going on at work and I figured I needed to make up some hours I missed taking the week off. It gave me a little taste of going back full time. Not sure I want to or not.

On Sunday 7/10 we celebrated Aunt Faye's 90th birthday. Her kids had a party for her at the Bethany Community Center. There were probably close to 150 friends and family there. Good times!

That has us about caught up on the summer. One last event was not a good one. Brad was diagnosed with Diabetes. His blood sugars having been running pretty high - so the doctor put him on medicine and he really needs to watch his carbs. He and I went to a diabetes education class on Thursday. It was very informative and helpful. We both know now what and how much he should be eating. He goes back 3 more times over the next few months to get even more info and to check his progress. I know he is not happy about having to watch everything he eats - but I will do what I can to help to keep him healthy. I want him to be around for a long time!

As you may be able to see - I am writing this pretty early in the morning. I have been waking up a lot around 4:30 and can't get back to sleep. I decided to go ahead and get up today instead of laying there tossing and turning. Updating this gave me something to do!
Probably part of the reason I couldn't go back to sleep this morning was thinking about vacation. That is next on our summer agenda. Tuesday we leave for Boston, New York and where ever else we decide to venture to in the Northeast USA. I am really looking forward to it and hope Brad, Jason, Alec and I all enjoy our 10 days of family togetherness! Next update will probably be from there.