Summer Overview

Well, I've been busy, but here's some tidbits from our summer.

We had a family reunion with my mother's family. My cousin Trina is an incredible photographer and took some cute pictures of the boys. Here they are:

This one's Gabe.

Jacob is fascinated with the balloons!

I took this one - Jonathan's in the middle of a carnival - loaded with his goods!



A couple weeks later for the 24th of July, my grandpa was honored as one of the oldest veterans in his community. This is the program. On the end is mom and my Aunt Marianna, followed by Grandma and Grandpa.

Here is Maylee - My sister Melanie's 3rd child. She was born the end of July.

And another addition to the family gatherings....Stephanie is dating Dan. They've been dating for some time and we've gotten the chance to enjoy him a lot this summer.


Here is our First Annual family triathlon. The sign is Melanie's head - representing that she was "a head" all the way. She was "unavoidably detained" in the hospital with the above baby's birth. She'll be back for next year's triathlon and will most likely cream everyone, I'm sure! This is the beginning of the 3 mile run.

This is after the run and the 14-mile bike, as we got ready for the 500 yard swim.

And here is the swim.
While I was tired at the end, it was fun to do this as a family and I believe we'll do it again next year. Also, tooting my own horn a little, I won the bike!

This is a family picture from Garrett's family's reunion. Everyone of Garrett's siblings are there and most of the rest of everyone. We're missing Amanda's husband Ben.

Garrett's dad sent us home with Garrett's sister's old car, to help out with my latest ventures (of which I will speak later). When we cleaned it out, we found this pair of glasses and Gabe claimed them...

With August full of fun, we had the triathlon the first weekend, Garrett's family's reunion the 2nd weekend, and my family's reunion two weekends later. Here's my dad with Gabe and little Emmy.

This is at the lake, as we got ready to canoe. Garrett, Brooke, and Melanie are behind, and Jacob, Jonathan, and Gabe are in front - I just love that they're holding hands!

And right before we left, we had Gabe's b-day party. He didn't ask for much, just a Wiggles cake and a yellow blanket. He was so fun - the way he'd get so excited. This is him cheering for the cake with a Wiggles car on top - thanks to his father finding one at Toys-R-Us.

Aunt Carla got a big cheer too, when he saw his new shirts.

And here is the aforementioned blanket. Pretty exciting, huh!

It is so fun to put a lot of work into something and feel that it's really appreciated, and boy! did my little Gabe make it all worth it.

Here's the lunch before we left and Garrett getting a little to eat.

Afterwards, out of tradition and because it's a blast, we went to a nearby swimming facility. Here's Gabe and Jacob with Dad.

And here's Jonathan - big eyed!

Jacob had a blast!

And the next Monday, Jonathan began school. Doesn't he look excited!

And since Jonathan started school, Gabe has decided he doesn't need naps. This is what he looked like when I went to check on him .....definitely not asleep!

Garrett was able to sell a stove that we bought last spring. He had to take some pictures of the inside and when he went to look at them - someone had popped into the back of the picture.

Well, that was our summer. I am going to school this fall - a school 2.5 hours away. So, I leave my little men with my big men Tuesday - Thursday. Then, I'm mom on the weekend. It's a lot of work and I feel like I run from one thing to the other. This weekend, I put up 14 bottles of salsa, some pickles, and some stewed tomatoes, and the fun just keeps on coming.

I am guessing that you won't hear from me again until December.