Emmy gets her ears pierced

Emmy has been contemplating getting her ears pierced for many years now when it comes down to it she has trouble committing and is a bit of a DRAMA QUEEN! She has to get held down each year for her flu shot and under no circumstances was I going to hold her down for the first or the last poke so she had to be really sure she wanted this! She was still trying to decide if she could go through with it even as they marked the tiny dot on her ears. She had picked out sea turtles, butterflies and turquoise heart earrings. She managed to get through it without crying even though she will tell you the second poke, when she knew what was coming was worse. We were all very proud of her and her earrings look beautiful!

Emmy getting her ears pierced 7 years old.

 

Husker Volleyball Scrimmage

Brook and Ginger came to Lincoln for the day to find a Homecoming dress. She found one that looked absolutely adorable on her. It also happened to be the Husker Volleyball Red White Scrimmage which is always fun to watch. They didn't have in person games due to Covid last year so it has been awhile since we have got to watch them in person. Grandpa Bob took Brook and Abby to get Husker sherpas before the game. He couldn't have them not outfitted appropriately. He spoils them so much! We had a great time! We had 2 different seat groups so people switched throughout the game so we could chat with everyone. 

 

Garth Brooks (aka Barf Grooks according to Steve Mattern)

Garth Brooks did a Stadium Concert Series where he came to play at Memorial Stadium. Steph and I have been planning to go for months now. The Covid numbers have started to pick back up so we were worried that it would get cancelled. My job even contemplated making people take a couple days off and get tested before coming back to work. Luckily, this got vetoed since 1/2 of the staff was going. They would have had to close the place down. Robb and I had gone to the Garth Brooks concert 4-5 years ago and it was amazing.

We tailgated with some of my work friends before hand.

I will say, I have never seen so many people in one place at one time. The stadium was completely full and they had rows of chairs covering the field. It maybe was a little dicey becasue I only saw a handful of people wearing masks. I guess at this point we still felt fairly safe since we had the vaccine. 

It was an amazing show and a beautiful night! I got to hang out with my 2 very favorite people Robb and Steph! I love Lester too! They played the song The Dance, Steph and I held hands as we sobbed through it. Dad never really liked Garth Brooks and he called him Barf Grooks but he always had liked the song The Dance which had hit oh so close to home that night!

 

Kayaking with Tasha

Tasha had asked me if I wanted to go kayaking on the lake when the kids went back to school. I was in! Tasha and I haven't had much time to get together this summer and we have missed chatting. We went to Branched Oak Lake and rented 2 kayaks. Robb thought we were ridiculous because we have a kayak, but I wasn't quite sure how to transport it, so we just rented them. The rental guy thought we were hilarious and I'm pretty sure he thought we were going to get lost at sea in the lake. We spent all morning trolling all over the dock area and then we got brave and paddled to the beach to have snacks and some adult beverages. I will say that alcohol hits a little harder in the hot sun but it's ok, we didn't have motors we were controlling and I'm sure we were entertaining to watch trying to paddle against the current to get back. Tasha and I found each other by chance when we both worked in the NICU and we have been great friends since! Everyone needs a great non-judgmental friend like Tasha!

 

First Day of School

The kids weren't ready to go back to school yet, but the day has come. It does feel like they started really early this year.

The boys will be Freshman in High School, Abby is in 7th grade and Emmy is in 2nd grade.

Abby was excited to go back. She is a social butterfly and was ready to see her friends.

Emmy was really excited to see her friends but wasn't really ready for school to start.

Dan is the bus driver again this year. That puts my mind at ease!

This was also Robb's first day back to the office. He has been working in the basement storage area for over a year now. They have started to bring people back to the office so Robb is headed to work too. Does he look excited? I'm not going to lie; I am excited to have the house to myself on my days off again. I will however miss convincing Robb to go to lunch with me and the dogs will miss taking lunch walks with Robb.

 

Kansas City with the Fab 4

Abby has had the same friend group for a couple years now and they are all fun and sweet/sassy girls. They call themselves the Fab 4. This group has played volleyball and been friends for years. They have been talking about taking a trip to Kansas City all summer so the moms of the Fab 4 made it happen. I had my dad's golf memorial tournament, so Abby went up to KC with Maddie and I drove up early on Saturday. We shopped at the outdoor mall, the girls had trouble concentrating on anything for more than a couple seconds and it was hard to get them to commit to trying stuff on and actually purchasing school clothes. They had fun eating out together, goofing around and swimming at the hotel and putting on fashion shows for us with their new clothes.

We went downtown to all the fancier shops, and they really enjoyed looking around in the Lululemon Store and Athletica. I will admit that for the most part, I am too cheap to purchase anything from these stores. While the stuff is cute, I just can't spend $100 on leggings and $50 on shorts. I am lucky that Abby doesn't insist on only wearing these brands because she is 1 of 4 children and we don't have that kind of money! I imagine that it was probably a little tough for her because the other moms were freer with their money whether they should be or not. Abby has always been super easy going and was happy to split the cost of 1 pair of shorts from Lululemon and she was happy to just get a bag from Athleta. 

They also went to the indoor Skydiving place. This was really fun to watch, and the girls had a great time. They all put on fly suits and went through a mini class of what to do. They would fly in the tube with one of the employees holding onto them making sure they didn't hit the sides. They also got to do one high fly where they went to the top of the tube. That looked really fun!

Abby in her flight suit.

As we drove into the outdoor mall Abby pointed at this sculpture and said, "that's my nemesis". So, being the dorky mom that I am, I made here get out and take a picture by the giant stature of wheat. 

Here are the moms of the Fab 4 group. 

Allison-Claire's mom, Andrea- Addison's mom, Michelle- Maddie's mom

 

Steve Mattern Memorial Golf Tournament

Husker Ag invited all our families to the first Steve Mattern Memorial Golf Tournament this year. This has been a yearly thing that Husker Ag did, and Dad was usually the one that put it together. I remember him talking about the logistics of it and saying that without his planning it would never happen. I think the committee that put it together this year would agree that it was more work than anyone realized. It was extremely thoughtful of them to include us. Robb, Lester, Mitch and my cousin Chris were a team. The rest of us hung out for the day. They had lunch and a catered supper. They had bounce houses for the kids and the boys could hit as many buckets of balls as they wanted throughout the day. It was a hot day but enjoyable. Husker Ag also bought and dedicated this bench with Dad's name on it the golf course. 

All the grandkids but Abby. She had gone to KC for the weekend with friends and I was going to join them that next morning.