July

 Our summer is off to a great start!  On July 1 we drove to St. Louis, just in time for Kimball's homecoming!!  He flew directly to St. Louis so he could join us for our family vacation to eliminate an additional flight.  We met him at the airport with some signs that we had made.  It felt like we waited a LONG time for him to leave customs.  I told the kids I wanted the first hug, but as soon as Kimball was through the door the kids mobbed him. I got the first hug AFTER the four kids!  My mom was able to come to the airport with us, and that was fun.

Last year Kimball didn't join us on our family trip to St. Louis to see family so he could earn more money working.  One of Kimball's biggest fears on his exchange was that something would happen to Heather while he was away and she would die.  He was VERY glad that didn't happen (and so am I).  

My sister Sharon and two of her girls were also at Mom's.  To help with the crush of people, Chandra offered to have Lincoln, Annika and Eden spend the night with her kids for the first three nights of our trip.  The kids had a BLAST!  Chandra and Joe spoiled them with fun breakfasts!  

We had our annual Coffey/Coleman trip to the waterpark. 

If you know Kimball well, you know he LOVES The Adventures of Tintin comic book series.  This love for everything Tintin is all thanks to Heather!  She watched The Adventures of Tintin movie which combines about three of the Tintin stories and she thought nine year old Kimball would enjoy it.  He did!  He started quoting the movie and then asked for the books from the library.  He now owns all of the books.  Tintin is written by the Belgian cartoonist Herge, whose real name was Georges Remi.  While Kimball was in the Netherlands he found some Tintin books in Dutch and bought them.  He was SO excited.   

We celebrated Kimball's 18th birthday early while we were in St. Louis.

We had a fun family gathering on the 4th of July with a lot of yummy food and fun.

We went bowling and Eden led out with the win for the first game.  All three of the younger kids use bumpers, but it makes for a MUCH more enjoyable game.  I still use bumpers, too! 

Three years ago I took my family to the Arch, but we didn't reserve tickets early enough so we missed going up in the Arch.  Kimball wanted to go back so he could have the true Arch experience.  We had a good time and everyone enjoyed the view from the top.  I actually don't like heights so I didn't spend much time looking out and even the tram ride gave me a stomach ache as I could see at times how far up we were.  

Rebecah wanted some shots by the Mississippi River.

Steps leading to the Arch from the river.

We also decided to walk through the Old Courthouse since it is now part of the Arch National Park 

It's hard to see the kids in the pictures, but they are all playing different courtroom roles.  Kimball, of course, is the judge, Lincoln the attorney, Rebecah the bailiff, Eden on the jury, and Annika courtroom recorder.

Lincoln was all worn out one day and took a good nap.

The second half of our trip to Missouri was at the Coffey Family reunion in Branson, MO.  There was swimming, golfing, family activities and walking around Branson.

Movie night with cousins!

While the rest of our family was golfing, Eden and I went with Melissa, Aaron, and Grandma and Grandpa to Table Rock State Park.  We walked around a little and then Eden joined Grandma and Melissa on a kayak.

Kimball was very glad to get back to New York.  He enjoyed seeing family, but he was VERY eager to get back home and get settled in.  Kimball's adjustment has gone really smoothly.  His first few weeks he spoke slower trying to find the right English word, and to make sure he got his English sentence structure correct.  He speaks more formally now because that is how the Dutch speak.  Before he left for the Netherlands he received an email from his first host family with some introductory information.  Kimball and I had a little laugh at how formal the email sounded, and now Kimball sounds just as formal. He sometimes still struggles with that, especially if he is anticipating a conversation or if he has just woken up.  Kimball is settled in his room now and has all of the flags he bought and the Frisian flag up on the walls in his room. 

Kimball participated in a bike race the first weekend he was home.  

Rebecah went to Young Women Camp.  We all missed her while she was gone, but she had a good time.

The rest of the month has been filled with tennis camp for Eden, golf camp for Lincoln and Annika, the start of swimming lessons, golf outings with Joseph, Kimball working again, and friends and appointments.