Emmy Can Ride a Bike

It's funny the things that motivate kids! Robb and I had been trying to get Emmy to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels or really just to practice riding her bike with the training wheels. She had no interest, until the neighbor girl that was 2 years younger than her came over zipping around without training wheels. Then it was game on! She was going to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels if it killed her. That is a little dramatic, but she did crash straight into the house going full speed a couple of times. The chunk out of the siding is our memory of the summer Emmy learned to ride her bike. After just a couple of days of practicing she had riding without training wheels down. She would ride in circles on the driveway for hours. Thanks, Ava, for convincing her to learn! We also upgraded to this cool new big girl bike since the other bike was a Frozen bike and that is super babyish now.

 

Grimton

Grimton Cemetery was always a place that my dad talked of fondly. He had a lot of relatives buried out there and visited often. I have now come to know why he liked it so much. It is really peaceful, in the middle of nowhere and has a pretty view. I have visited more times this year than I ever have before. Like him I have come to like this place.

 

Visiting the Farm

Since we were in Orchard we had to stop and say hi to Grandma and Grandpa. We don't get up there to see them as often as we should and as they get older, they get to gatherings at mom's house less and less. It was fun to see them, and I think they were glad that we stopped. We tried to just have a few people inside at a time because all of us are an overwhelming crowd! I feel overwhelmed with all of our family in one spot sometimes. Grandpa walked around the farm with us, and we took turns visiting with Grandma inside. Emmy didn't really remember the farm, so it was fun for her to see it. 

When your grandpa has an entire grove full of old cool cars you have to do a fake senior photo shoot of course!

 

Walk Down Memory Lane

Last year, the first time we met up with Dad and Cindy after the initial scare of Covid was to go to Grove Lake. I think I speak for all of us when I say we crave family time and sibling time after my dad's death. There is just something reassuring about being with your siblings who understand what you are going through. Steph and Lester took their camper out to Pierce and the girls, and I spent the night with them. The boys could have brought our tent to sleep in, but Robb has decided that his back is past the point of sleeping on the ground and functioning the next day. The boys stayed with the Lutz's and drove down to meet us the next morning.

The next day we headed up to Grove Lake. We all have fond childhood memories of camping at Grove Lake. We stopped at the bait shop that dad always used to stop at, and it still had the same guy running it, the one that owns an alligator that he keeps in the bait shop. I know super odd! We hiked up Chalk Mountain. The first-time up Emmy and Weston were pretty nervous but after a couple times with us they were sprinting up and going down the back side and repeating this over and over again with the energy only 6&7 year old's can have!

There has been some erosion since we were children! It's crazy that this tree is still hanging on.

Showing Emmy, the place that we played all the time when we were kids. She thought the story of how the ash got there was pretty cool, but I think she also thought we were just making it up.

Lester, Caleb and Korbin took dads boat out to fish. Dad always swore that there were huge bass in this lake, but I would say that for the most part the boys have never caught much when they fished here.

We had a great day and we got to reminisce about all the funny dad and grandpa stories we had. He gave us plenty of material to talk about for the rest of our lives!

We stopped at the fish hatchery to see the trout.

We got ice cream at what used to be the Lunchbox. I think we completely overwhelmed their staff of 2 elderly ladies by ordering 13 ice cream orders.

While half the people waited for their ice cream Emmy, and I walked around Orchard. I showed her my grandma's house, the fudge shoppe (which she was super perturbed was only open 9-11 because you can't even eat fudge that early in the day) this girl cracks me up!

 

Happy 15th boys!

Happy 15th Birthday Bryce and Caleb! 

Bryce is still crazy about basketball and all things sports. He knows endless information on players, teams and stats. He loves his dogs and being outside. He still requires about 10 hours of sleep, so he isn't a giant crab. He has a current obsession with nice shoes so that was his gift this year. He doesn't have a lot of interest in driving and for the most part we have to beg him to drive. He ends every conversation on the phone with me with," Love You Mom". He tells Robb and I and the dogs goodnight every night. He is incredibly annoyed by the fact that he isn't growing as fast as he would like to play basketball. Caleb loves to make fun of him and tell him that he is the Kebbler Elf of the generation so that someone can make us cookies. He loves to go to the Y and shoot hoops and often begs me to take him to the card shop. 

Caleb is growing like a weed lately. He is forever hungry, and we struggle to get him to eat anything healthy. He loves fishing, golfing, boating and being with friends. We aren't very cool to him these days and he just barely tolerates us most days. He is a kid that can live on very little sleep and likes to stay up binge watching shows and playing video games. He is very interested in driving and jumps at the chance to drive us anywhere he can. He is excited to have Grandpa Orville's truck and has been looking at ways to improve it such as repairing the rust spots and maybe putting some speakers in it. Caleb has been fishing and has been slowly stocking our pond. He has decided that this is really interesting to him, and it might be something he would enjoy as a job someday. 

Every year we let the kids pick where they want to eat for their birthday. This year they couldn't agree so we ate at Hiro 88 for Bryce's choice, and we ate at Bourbon Street for Caleb's pick.

This restaurant does crawfish boils and they serve it in the traditional style of dumping it down the table and you eat it with your hands. We had no idea how into, "literally into" this meal Caleb would be. We really needed a shower to throw him in before we left. Although it was fun, we decided that due to the grossness factor we couldn't take Caleb there again. Sorry bud, we love you, but this was a disaster!

This is Emmy's reaction to the situation. She was a little freaked out by the crawfish still having a head on it and chose to just have a drink.

Abby was wishing she was anywhere else right now. Happy family dinner everyone.

 

Columbus Waterpark

We convinced Robb to play hookie from work for the day and we went to the Columbus Waterpark. It was horribly hot that day, so it was the perfect waterpark day. The boys went down the slides all day along with Robb. Emmy, Abby and I took turns going down the 2-person tube slide and the lazy river. I am so thankful for these family days!

 

Horse Camp

Emmy attended Pony Pals, the half day horse camp at StillWater Ranch in Hickman. This is the one thing that can get Emmy to wear pants and shoes when its 90-100 degrees outside. This is the second time that she has went and she was really looking forward to it! She got to ride Brownie for the Parent Show. She loved walking us around and telling us all the names of the horses.