The Falls with Emmy

Before leaving Sioux Falls that morning, Emmy and I visited the falls. Emmy had never been to the falls, and it had been a long time since I have been there. We had fun walking around that morning. The weather was nice, and the falls were really full due to the storm overnight. 

Emmy is a bit of a mama's girl so having me to herself for the day was her favorite.

 

Melanie's Wedding

My cousin Melanie was getting married, and I was so excited for her! Melanie has always been such a sweetheart and I love seeing her. May happens to be one of the busiest months ever so it was just Emmy and I that were able to go. Robb stayed home to take Abby to volleyball and take care of the dogs and the boys were leaving for Florida in a couple days and needed to get things ready. Her wedding was in Sioux Falls, SD. Emmy, and I drove up and checked into our hotel and got dressed up. We were supposed to share our room with Grandma Cindy but she had just gotten her port put in the day before and wasn't feeling up to coming to a wedding so soon after surgery. 

The wedding venue was beautiful! It was at an out-of-town orchard and the reception was in a huge, beautiful barn that was designed for weddings. We did about melt at the outdoor wedding part, but they kept it short and sweet. We had gotten to the hotel at the same time as Steph and her family, so we were able to follow them to the venue. 

The food was amazing! It was all very different with the favorite thing being a huge table that was the biggest charcuterie board you have ever seen. Emmy thought this was the entire meal and went up to refill her plate multiple times. It was so fun to hang out with Steph, Lester and Draven for the night. Plus, I got to see family that I don't see very often. 

When Emmy and I got back to the hotel that night she thought it was pretty cool that she got a big bed all to herself. Oh Emmy! You have the same size bed that you get to sleep in literally every night, and not only do you not think it's cool, you want me to sleep with you. Overnight that night Sioux Falls got a terrible thunderstorm and we got woke up in the middle of the night to huge hail and wind that sounded like it was going to take the roof off. You couldn't even see across the street the rain was so bad. I started to wonder if the hotel would let us know if there was a tornado warning or not. When we left the next morning, multiple cars in the parking lot had a lot of hail damage. Steph's car had a baseball size dent in the roof. The good ole van didn't look any worse for the wear, I guess we were lucky. 

 

Happy Birthday Brook

Happy Birthday Brook! It's hard to believe that you are 17! For your birthday you wanted a girl's weekend in Omaha. The only days that worked for most people were weekdays and I wasn't able to get off work, but the girls went. They had a great time. They stayed in a hotel in Omaha, swam in the pool, ate supper, shopped and got their nails done. The girls all had a great time! I was jealous to be working while they had so much fun. 

Abby and Emmy love hanging out with Brook! She is such a great older cousin to want to spend her birthday with them!

 

Piano Recital

Emmy had her piano recital at the Hickman church. She has started to have less and less interest in piano and it has been a chore to monitor her practicing. She has decided that she isn't going to take lessons next year which makes me a little sad. Her piano teacher is moving out of state so it was decided that Emmy would take some relaxed lessons from Grandma. Susie is going to try to gain her interest in playing back by having her learn some music that she is interested in. Emmy was nervous at her recital, but she did a good job.

 

Recital 2022

 It is always fun to watch the girls perform in their recital. They work all year towards this performance. This year Abby was in Intermediate Ballet, Lyrical/Jazz and the Acro class. Her favorite is her Lyrical/Jazz class. She has been dancing with a lot of the same girls for years now, so it is fun to see how they get better every year. 

Emmy is in the Acro class this year. She started with her age group at the beginning of the year but a couple months in Aimee asked if we would be alright with her moving up to Abby's class. Emmy has had some gymnastics and the acro class for her age wasn't challenging her at all. Abby was fine with Emmy being in her class and Emmy was excited. 

The girls are always lucky to have grandparents and Steph come watch them. This year I didn't help with a particular class for recital because Abby had only 2 songs to get changed into a new outfit, so that was my job. 

If this isn't a Girl Dad moment, I don't know what is. Happy 40th Birthday Robb. Sorry you had to attend recital for your birthday.

It was nice to have the recital at the Norris auditorium again. More seating and just an overall better set up to get the kids changed and on the stage.

As always, the show was very impressive. Great job Emmy and Abby.

Spring at Our House

It has been fun to see how our landscaping has progressed over the last couple years. Robb and I put a lot of time and hard work into making our 3 acres look nice, so it's fun to see it all starting to come together. 

We are still struggling with the side yard. The soil just isn't great, and we are having a hard time getting the grass to grow over here.

We finally got all the tiers of the side landscaping completed. I finally got my hydrangeas planted and the birch tree is getting bigger.

The dangerous part of trees is that both Robb and I love buying trees and have trouble saying no to buying trees. We have bought and planted countless trees in the last 6 years. Someday someone will enjoy the forest that we planted.

 

Happy 40th Robb

Robb had a pretty uneventful 40th birthday. I felt bad that we didn't get to celebrate more than we did. We did give him the inflatable paddle board that we had bought him. Him and Abby tried it out in the bedroom. We are so lucky to have this guy in our lives! He might be 40 but he is still a child at heart. He likes to play and is always more fun than me. 

 

Dance Mom

I love watching these girls in recital, but I will say that by the last show I was done getting them ready. They had pictures on different days this year and dress rehearsal 2 different days. This meant there was multiple times that I got to/had to do their hair and makeup. Abby is getting to the age where she can do some of the makeup, but she still requests help with the eye liner and fake lashes. I don't even put these on myself so trying to apply them to someone else is not easy! I compare it to trying to apply eye makeup to a cat. 

I have gotten the ballet bun down to a science. There were 2 girls that showed up to pictures without their hair done because they didn't know pictures were that day. No problem, throw a little water on and I ballet bunned their hair in no time. 

I will say that its weird putting large amounts of eye makeup on your 8-year-old. She thinks it is fun though.

 

One Year Without HIm

I will admit that I have been dreading the one-year anniversary of my dad's death. I'm not sure why, I mean it can't be worse than a year ago right. It is just really hard to think about it being a year since I have been able to pick up the phone and chat with him, get advice, whine about life etc. There are still plenty of times that I think about reaching for the phone to tell him something funny that they kids did or something crazy that happened at work. Songs seem to be a thing that really brings back memories of different times in my life with my dad too. Working through the grief of losing a loved one is very different and so much harder than I ever would have thought. I think my nurse brain saved me the day he died and the weeks after that. When things get super crazy, I go into nurse mode, and everything slows down and I start to do all the things that I need to do in that emergency situation. This is very helpful in a hospital setting where no one wants their nurse crying and freaking out when there is an emergency. However, I have learned with lots of counseling that this mind set also made it hard to process the grief of losing my dad when it happened. It was months later when everything was slowing down and life should have been returning to normal that I felt like my life was falling apart. I guess this was the point when I finally was letting everything sink in and it was hard! Thanks to my awesome husband for putting up with me even when I wasn't very easy to be around. I will say that mental health issues are not addressed enough, and I have tried to normalize talking about these issues with my kids.  Luckily, I have a wonderful support system and was able to find a counselor that I enjoy talking to and she gives me a lot of insight. Also, you can't go wrong with a few meds to level everything out and get you through. 

Steph, Jess and I decided to go to the cemetery and see the headstone that was installed and add a few personal touches. I have never been to Grimpton cemetery as much as I have in the last year. I have learned why my dad liked this place so much. It is in the middle of nowhere and very peaceful. We paid our respects and shed a few tears but mostly we shared all the funny memories of dad! 

There had been a really bad storm recently and a tornado had touched down not too far from the farm and the cemetery. Grandma and Grandpa Walnofer had a large tree fall on their roof and lots of other storm damage. The cemetery was also hit hard. Lots of downed trees and branches. We moved some of the branches off of headstones. We left wondering who was responsible for cleaning up the cemetery. It was g0ing to be a big job!

We have all made it through one year without dad, but it hasn't been easy. I guess if they weren't so great, we wouldn't miss them so much!

 

Korbin's Graduation Party

Korbin had his graduation party at the golf course. He had a great turn out. Steph and Lester did a great job! The food was delicious, and Korbin had lots of pictures and awards displayed. He will be attending USD in Vermillion, SD. He plans to study music and education. Watching him at his graduation party has made me think of how quickly we will be doing this for the boys. I am not ready for that!

Emmy and Weston a fun together.