I Love This!

I love that Ben loves biking. It took us so many years to find his "thing." I think his face in this picture says it all.

MaKormick and Nicole

We had a blast at MaKormick and Nicole's wedding! They had Kona Ice there. Need I say more? But there was more...there was a photo booth AND a dance floor. I could be wrong, but I think our family of 8 were the only occupiers of said dance floor. And we were not ashamed of it! What a fun night! Congrats to the happy couple!

Ha! Poor Trevor!

Biking

Ben got 2nd place again!

Girls!

I just wanted to take a picture of the 4 girls. Just one good picture!

Biking

I wonder...how many blog posts can we have titled "Biking"???? I need to come up with a more creative title! Grant took his scouts up to Beacon tonight. Ben taught them a few skills before sending them on their way. I was his 2-deep leadership that he needed. However, one boy got hurt so I sat out with him. The boys had so much fun up there! I think they all found a new hobby.

Yes!

This is one thing the kids LOVE about living in a neighborhood---Kona Ice every Wednesday night! They are so excited and they will run around the neighborhood looking for the truck.

 Another thing about being in a neighborhood is all the kids and their antics...hence the chalk all over my baby. Hmmm.

 Finding any puddle is a new thrill these days.

 The goats are down at the park that is near us right now. The kids enjoyed seeing them. I could not keep them from feeding the goats. Hopefully the goats didn't have bellyaches when we finally left them alone!

Saying Goodbye

Today was my last day up at the house. I thought for sure I would be so sad. The last house we moved from we had only lived there for 4 years and I cried and cried when we moved. This house we have lived in for one month shy of 10 years. I was sure that I would cry.

About a week ago I got teary-eyed walking through the house. Especially when I got to the girls room. It was the room that we tucked them in each night. It used to be Grant and my room and that is where Piper and Lucy were when they were tiny babies. When I started thinking about those things, I tried to think of anything else so I wouldn't lose it.

Then today rolled around and I am tired. I think it is a blessing that I am so tired of cleaning this house. I have spent weeks cleaning and being away from my kids to get the house perfect for the next people. There is not one inch that I have not cleaned and my daily step counter has been 25,000+ steps a day...sometimes passing 30,000. I've been getting up at 4:50 in the morning and staying up til midnight some nights. And so I am burnt out! I'm ready to say goodbye and move on to the next phase of our lives. I will always love this house. I love the things that we got to do here and the experiences that we have had. But the memories will come with me and stay with me always. Now we get to make new memories...in a temporary house...and then finally in our new homestead.

Saying Goodbye

We are saying goodbye to some of our favorite things around the house. This is one that Trevor doesn't want to forget. It is where several fish have been buried up by the pond.

 One I will miss--kind of--is the John Deere. He has been a source of 30 minutes of quiet solitude as I would mow. But also another thing on my to-do list. So, while I will miss the tractor, I am pretty happy that we will not have a lawn at our new house.

Solar Eclipse

The kids were so excited for the solar eclipse (one thing that I don't think our kids would have even known about if it weren't for the neighbor kids telling them how cool it was going to be). It wasn't even on my radar to think about it. Luckily, Grant's secretary, Pat, was selling some glasses as a fundraiser for her church. So Grant bought some. Phew. Once I learned how big of a deal this was to my kids, they were all sold out everywhere.
The kids loved it. Ben was up biking with his friends, so they stopped to look at it. The kids and I were at home for it. It was crazy how the lighting changed. It was bright out, but like we were in a weird shade. It also got so cold! It was a crazy experience--one I'm grateful that we got to participate in.

Weekend at the Riverhouse

Every year we like to spend 4 days at the riverhouse fishing and swimming. This year, it was a bit more rushed because we still have so much hanging over our heads with getting the house ready to be out in a week. But we still had fun. It seems that we replaced a lot of fishing with a lot of tubing. The kids were in heaven! Even Lucy LOVED being on the tube--even though it kind of freaked me out. Lydia and Piper lasted about 30 seconds before they decided that tubing is just not their thing this year!