Dog Agility Class

Bryce has been wanting to do Dog Agility Class with Lucy. First, she had to pass basic obedience class. Which she did. They don't have very strict pass/fail criteria. Once she passed obedience we signed them up for Agility. This class was more fun. It was outside and you taught your dog to weave through poles, walk on a beam, go up and down an A frame structure etc. She was obnoxious and barked a lot but Bryce had fun. She didn't have any fear doing any of the obstacles. It was just a challenge getting her to figure out what we wanted her to do. She also passed dog Agility class.

Allergic to Bass

Caleb had brought home his bass to eat and was so excited for me to cook it. It had been in the fridge for 2 days and I had almost forgot about it so when I saw it that evening I knew I had to cook it that night. We had already eaten supper but I decided to bread and fry the bass up and make Caleb's day. It looked delicious and Robb, the boys and I each had a piece to eat. As the evening went on I felt really nervous. I couldn't shake the feeling of just feeling like something was off. I thought it was because the kids were driving me crazy so I got the big kids to bed and Robb was laying with Emmy. I sat down to fold clothes and still felt weird. I all of a sudden had this really dry cough and my neck was super itchy. At this point I decided I was either coming down with something or having an allergic reaction. I took a Benadryl and changed into pjs and laid down. Right away I knew that this was an allergic reaction. I couldn't breath laying down and my cough was getting worse and I could hardly talk. I told Robb, who was sound asleep by then, to get Caleb's epi pens. About the time he came back them I was changing into real clothes and I was getting ready to leave for the hospital. Robb tried to talk me out of driving myself there but I am stubborn and I promised to take the epi pens with me. I arrived at the St. Elizabeth ER and right away got a room. I guess I am at the age that if you say your chest is tight and you can't breath, they take it dead serious! I had an EKG hooked up to me in minutes. That looked okay so they gave me a shot of Epi and watched me for a while and my symptoms didn't completely go away so I got a second dose of Epi and a steroid and IV fluids. I ended up staying in the ER until around 3 am. That makes for a short night! Well the only thing we could figure out was that I was allergic to the fish that I ate. Super weird!
A month later I saw the allergist and had all the testing done for a fish allergy. Turns out I wasn't allergic to fish and he thought it may have been an algae or toxin in the water that I was allergic to. I won't be eating any bass that Caleb brings home from now on.

Fishing with Grandpa Steve

Caleb has been quite the fisherman this year and went with Grandpa Steve a couple times. They went to Eldon's pond one time and the next time they went they took Grandpa's new boat out on Grove Lake. Caleb has a blast fishing with Grandpa Steve because he "real fishes" as Caleb puts it. Which I think he means is that he uses fancy lures and not just a worm. 

He had a ton of fun! They even flayed the bass and Caleb brought it home to cook. Little did we know, that was going to be a $500 bass dinner for me.

Yankton

Yankton vacation is one of the most looked forward to weeks of the year, for the kids! They love everything about Yankton. The fact that it is a week of solid fun things to do, kids to play with and multiple adults at your disposal to do about any awesome thing you can think of. And the food! As an adult it is an exhausting week but in the best way. It is a week of seeing friends we don't see enough of, delicious food, endless activities and lots of beautiful outdoor time and NO WORK! Steve and Bob go to a lot of work every year to make sure that we get cabins reserved. While the entire world has moved on to online booking, Yankton still prefers that you pitch a tent and stand outside for about 24 hours to guarantee your spot. They don't get enough credit for the hassle they go through every year.

Emmy loved riding her bike everywhere.

We had our favorite dog sitter, Jeff, booked to take Lucy but when it came to the week we were leaving Bryce begged for her to come. Bryce had just gotten back from basketball camp when we were leaving for Yankton and he couldn't be without his dog for another week. Robb and I said yes against our better judgement with the stipulation that he had to walk her every morning when she got up super early. She ended up being really good and Bryce held up his end of the deal and took her on multiple walks and even took her on prairie dog killing sprees. Gross!

John showing us his wakeboarding skills.

Poor Robb was still out for wakeboarding since his surgery in February. He was hoping to be a 100% by summer but that just hasn't been the case. Recovery has been slower than he hoped but he isn't in constant pain at least.

Robb couldn't wakeboard but he was happy to pull the kids around on tubes and Andy and John on the wakeboard.

Bob and Susie rented a pontoon boat for the day. This is always fun because then we can have 2 boats out on the water and we can have a boat that is pulling wakeboarders and one that is cruising around pulling tubers.

They got a little adventurous and pulled 2 tubes at one time with 2 kids on each. The kids got daring and were jumping back and forth on the tubes.

Emmy agreed to ride on the tube with me this year. She looks pretty apprehensive but she did have fun.

Boating girls

Dairy Dock is a favorite. Every year the kids ride their bikes there at least once and they beg parents to take them the other days. I think John and Andy keep the place in business while we are there.

We all had fun with Harper. Abby found these matching swimming suits  on our Kansas City trip so we had to get a least one picture with them.

These boys rode the bike trail all the way to the Midway more times than I can count. It looks like all the moms are fighting a losing battle here because no one is wearing a helmet like we beg them too.

 
A little friendly game of sand volleyball.

Abby tried unsuccessfully 2 nights in a row to make the campfire popcorn. I think we concluded that those don't really work. We did have s'mores, those are never a failure.

We took the kayak out for a ride.

This hammock has lasted all the year that they have been coming to Yankton and they tell me that it is fine too put as many children on it as fit. I guess it made it another year.

I saw this on a video and I thought the lake would be a great place to try it. It's a glow party. You take a ton of glow sticks and tape them to your clothes or wear them. We had a dance party with all the glow sticks and it was a blast. John got a little crazy and started cutting the ends off the glow sticks and slinging the glow goo everywhere. It was like a rave with children as Robb described it. Not sure what a rave is like but this was pretty crazy!

As always we had a great time and I love seeing people that we don't see very often and just being able to pick up where we left off. This kind of friendship is really refreshing to have. 

Cheer Camp

Since we didn't have daycare for the older kids this year and from knowing how last year went we knew that we had to keep Abby busy. Any 2 of the kids do alright together but all three of them together make for a day of fighting and endless phone calls for us to ref fights. 

Abby and Addison did a cheer camp at Cheer Express. This is the other gym in town and we thought we would try it out. They had a lot of fun but I think we will stick with where we are at. 

Basketball Camp

Bryce went to basketball camp again this summer and this year he knew what to expect and what to pack. He spent the couple days before helping me make chex mix and shop for massive amounts of Gatorade and snack items. 

Bryce took and entire clothes basket full of food and drinks.

He went with his friends Gavin and Grady. They were well prepared for the week. Bryce loves this camp but it makes me nervous as a mom because it seems like there is a general lack of supervision. They stay in dorms like they are college kids when they are 12. I guess they do alright.

And......they are off. They spend most of the time in the gym playing basketball! Bryce ended up winning MVP for his age group and the rebounding award. 

Girl Scout Camp

Abby was super excited to go to Girl Scout camp in Grand Island. Emmy was really sad to see her go. It was a little weird for me this year. Since I wasn't a leader I didn't get to go for both of the days. One of the moms had a conflict so I got to go the second day.

This was the Glam Camp so they spent a lot of time inside doing things like making lip gloss, baking cupcakes, making face masks and painting nails.

I got there on Sat around noon and got to spend that day with them and then stay overnight. Our troop has changed over the years and some of the girls are harder to handle than others but the group of girls that went to camp were a good and they had fun.

Cupcakes were a hit! They were delicious too.

I like that they girls get put to work at camp. They have to help with all the meal prep, cooking and clean up. The food wasn't bad but it wasn't all that good either. I was wishing that I had brought some snacks.

We had campfire with sugar cones filled with marshmallows and chocolate chips.

Sleeping in the tents is always interesting. All the girls slept pretty good since it was the second night and they were tired. It was my first night staying in the cabins and they were hot and humid and you could hear all kinds of animals. Needless to say, I don't think I slept at all. Abby also had an episode of sleep talking that scared me and I went flying to the other side of the tent in the middle of the night to make sure she was ok.

The next day we did archery. This is always a favorite.

Another year of Girl Scout camp in the books. It was a lot of fun!

4th of July at the Lake

We didn't have as big of a group as most years but we still had fun! It was a nice day out and everyone had fun playing on the lake.

It always cracks me up that the hot tub is such a hit!

Andy and Hank stopped by. Hank wasn't afraid of the fireworks so he actually came outside. I told Andy he should use this picture for his Christmas card.

A lot of people left for the evening to do stuff in their neighborhood so it was just Mark and Emily and us. We decided to take the boat out and cruise around the lake for a while. The kids thought that was pretty fun.

Addison had stayed while her parents went to a neighborhood party so she ended up spending the night. The girls loved that.