Summer Rocks!

On Memorial Day our whole family ate lunch at Blanc Burgers and Bottles, hit the pool for the first time this year, and had a fun Spelling Bee in the evening.  Ryan was the first out of the contest, when he misspelled the word "annihilate," and Brynlie won!  We are going to do it again soon, because it was a great way for the kids to review the vocabulary words they've learned this year.  They each had words at their level, and Logan had to identify numbers and letters of the alphabet.

The week was very relaxing, yet there were some major stressors for us.  The air conditioner in our other house (the one being rented) stopped working.  Again.  Even though it was replaced with a new $3,000 unit last year.  Long story short, we were told by the manufacturer that they weren't going to honor the warranty, and we would need to spend our vacation money on an air conditioner for a house we no longer live in.  Very depressing, especially when you add that Brevan ran over a large pipe with the borrowed riding lawnmower on the same day we received the A/C news.  For most of a day, we thought we would also need to spend thousands of dollars on a new mower.  As it all worked out at the end of the week, the mower got fixed and Ryan used his amazing lawyer skills to get the manufacturer to take a look at the air conditioner and admit they needed to pay for the repairs.  Yay!  So after a long week of the kids feeling sad that they wouldn't see the ocean or their cousins, we were able to book our airplane tickets to Oregon.  We can't wait to spend time with Tiffany's family and stay at the beach house!

Another small downer this week was my leg being injured.  I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I injured a ligament in my leg, making it  painful to run.  I did what I could this week, but couldn't run more than a mile without needing to stop.  I'm trying to be patient and wait for the ligament to heal, so I've been exercising to workout videos instead of enjoying the outdoors.

A couple highlights of this past week included the KidFest, where my girls performed with the Upbeat Music Company, and spending a day on the lake.  I've sure missed riding on the tube behind the boat while Ryan does his best to launch me into the lake!  He's always successful!  Brenda's family joined us one evening, and Brenda and I had a blast riding the tube together. 

There was a great turnout at the KidFest, and the weather was perfect!

 Madelyn got to play her violin during one of the songs.  She's such a darling girl, and I'm so grateful we have the Napiers as neighbors!

 The Kearney Amphitheater is a great venue for concerts.  The KidFest was followed up by a movie for the kids once it got dark enough to show it on the screen.

 The little tykes in the group got to sing alone for one of the songs.  What brave kiddos!

 Enjoying themselves by dancing to their own music!

 And taking a final bow.

 Huddle-time after the concert.

 What an amazing choir director and cute bunch of kids.

 My two favorite girls in all the world.

 I had to include this picture of Brenda, Jorja and Jillian on the tube.  Jorja cried the entire time, even though they went slow.  At least you can tell that Brenda and Jilli are having fun!

 It's so great to see Ryan back in his element!  He thoroughly enjoys driving his boat on the beautiful lake.