August

 August was filled with activities so each day flew by, but the month seemed a little long.  The three little ones did a three week swimming lesson session.  All of them improved their technique and enjoyed having these lessons with friends.  It was our first time having lessons outside and while the mornings were chilly for swimming, only one lesson was canceled because of weather.  

The kids played a lot with their friends this month.  Kelsey and Maddy are either at our house or my kids are at their house.  It's fun having friends in the neighborhood.

Movie night with friends.

A one-on-one conversation at swimming lessons.

I had my first experience tie dying shirts.  In all my years I had never done it before.  I think all of the shirts turned out well.  Eden's shirt needed more dye, but she didn't want to put on more.

Eden finally learned to ride a bike.  She was so excited.  She isn't a risk taker so it took her a little longer to learn.  At first she rode as fast as I could walk and then she got faster and faster and I can't keep up with her anymore! 

Kimball rode in the New York State Time Trial.  For his age group he went 20km.  It took him just over 36 minutes and he came in second place.  He rode really well. This was the first race I have taken him to and it was fun spending the day with him.  He would like me to devote all of my weekends to cycling races, but I told him I couldn't do that to the other kids.  The weather was perfect so that helped the day be extra wonderful.

Kimball turned 16 on the 23rd.  He wasn't very excited about his birthday this year and didn't really care much about presents.  He did like the 'I 💝Russellville' shirt.  He has mentioned so many times how our quick trip to Russellville was the highlight of his year.  Kimball has no desire to drive or get his permit.  In NY state you can't get a permit until you are 16.  He'll get his permit eventually.  Kimball loves cycling, the Cleveland Guardians (baseball), and walking with ME!  He is on the cross country team this fall.  

A trip to the zoo.

My mornings were very busy dropping off and picking up the older kids so my friend Jenny took her kids and my three younger kids to the zoo.  They had a great time together!  It was such a nice day I was disappointed I couldn't go with them.  

For the summer, our zoo had two koalas visiting from San Diego.  On the day my kids went the first 100 kids to enter the zoo received a little koala stuffed animal that strapped to their wrist.  My kids and their friends were numbers 94-99 so they just made the cut.  They are wearing their koalas in all of the pictures.

At the park that hosted swimming lessons they had free crafts and activities daily.  That is where we did the tie dye.  One of their crafts were perler beads.  My kids loved that activity. We had some perler beads at home and when those were gone I bought more.  Eden had a play date with two friends and they spent a long time on perler creations.

We made our annual trip to the State Fair.  Rebecah's back has been hurting and she has been gong to physical therapy for the last two months so she stayed home.  

Kimball and I walked around while the rest of the family went to the circus. Kimball and I found out that traffic lights are HUGE!  

There was a nice dinosaur exhibit in the Expo Center.  It was fun to see all of the moving dinos and their sounds.

Lincoln and Joseph went to the Oswego Speedway speed way for some car racing.

Rebecah had school soccer tryouts the last week in August.  She was VERY excited to make the freshman soccer team.  

School starts in four days.  We have teacher assignments and schedules, school supplies and snacks, so we are just about ready.  

July

 What a month!  It was full of fun adventures!

Joseph took the three little ones to the beach to celebrate the end of school.  (The big kids no longer enjoy the beach so they stayed home.)

The Fourth of July--We attended the Dolson's annual party and had a lot of fun.

Rebecah stayed later than the rest of us to hang out with Melanie and watch the fireworks.

Rock Climbing with the Young Women.

Lincoln created a baseball game by using baseball cards.  I'm not sure how the game works, but he plays it all of the time.

Camping at Robert Treman State Park, Ithaca NY

The little ones really wanted an overnight camping trip so Joseph took them to a nice camp site in Ithaca.  They had a lot of fun playing in the water at the base of the waterfall, hiking, and playing on the playground.

After 10 years of living in this house we finally bought new carpet for the living and family rooms.  We have needed new carpet for a while and over the years the carpet has just gotten worse and worse. We finally took the plunge and I love the new carpet.

Everyone helped rip out the old carpet and pad.

The new carpet is so soft and squishy!  We love it.  I even made a carpet angel!

The kids had a round of swimming lessons.  A friend told us about a new place for lessons so we are excited to try a new facility in August.

A goose flew into Joseph's windshield on the way to church.  Who knew a goose could do so much damage!

We made our annual trip to St. Louis this year.  In conjunction with that trip we decided to take a two-day trip to Arkansas. Kimball has been asking to return to Russellville the last few years so he could see how accurate his memories were of our time there.  We drove down on Saturday and back on Sunday.  We were in Russellville about 24 hours.

It was such a fun trip.  I didn't think it would bring so much joy to Joseph, Kimball and me, but it did.  Rebecah was too young to really remember anything from her time in Arkansas.

My Arkansas babies back in Arkansas!

One of Kimball's bucket list items for our trip was to ride up to Mt. Nebo State Park.  In my mind it is super dangerous and scary, but he wanted the challenge of riding up 9 switch backs at 18% grade.  Joseph and I didn't think Kimball would be able to do it.  But, do it, he did, and much faster than we anticipated, too!

There are a lot of Mexican restaurants in Russellville because a lot of Hispanics live in the area so we ate Mexican food for dinner.

Our old house!  I loved that house!

Visiting with Ms. Bonnie.  Bonnie was a surrogate grandma to Kimball when we lived in Russellville.  We would visit her and she would pull out all of her toys for Kimball.  We originally met when I was out walking with Kimball.  Bonnie saw me and pulled me into a conversation.  I was pregnant with Rebecah at the time and I hadn't eaten anything before my walk and I had to ask Bonnie for a glass of water because I was close to passing out.  After she rescued me, our friendship was sealed!

The hospital where Joseph worked and the kids were born.

Dr. Allison's office where Joseph worked.

The Methodist church where Kimball attended preschool.

The library where we went for story time.  

After a few visits and dinner the younger kids were bored, so I dropped them and Joseph off at our Airbnb and Kimball and I continued the Russellville tour.

Lake Dardanelle

We visited Julie Huffine.  She hadn't gotten my message that we were visiting, so I almost gave her a heart attack when she opened the door.  I seriously thought she might collapse!  It was so good to visit with her though.

Before church on Sunday we visited Lake Dardanelle State Park.  Kimball enjoyed visiting "the fish park" when we lived here.

A highlight of our trip was going to church and connecting with our friends who feel like family.  I could have spent all day visiting with people and catching up.  I was happy to see so many unfamiliar families and see how the ward has grown over the last 10 years.

My dear friend Eva!

A group shot of some of our "family."

Joseph with two hermanos he worked with closely in the Spanish Branch.

St. Louis Vacation:

We had our annual trip to the waterpark with the Colemans.  We really lucked out the day of our visit.  There were strong thunderstorms in the morning, but the skies cleared, so we went in the afternoon.  The rain cooled things down and kept the crowds away, so it was a double win!

Chandra and me in our "old lady sun hats."

Annika made brownies with Grammy.  Mom and I decided to wear pink for the opening day of the Barbie movie even though we didn't go see the movie. 

My kids always like going bowling when we visit.

We met up with some of our extended Coffey family for a tour of Fisher Cave.  I love caves!  They are so fascinating and it helps that they are cool and out of the sun!

Joseph and Kimball went to the velodrome in St. Louis to ride their bikes.

Lincoln climbing Grammy's tree.

Lincoln helped David grill one night.

Rebecah with Grammy

With our Coleman cousins.

Adding in Grammy and cousin Kate.

Rebecah holding Rosie!  Everyone wanted snuggles with Rosie!

More Rosie snuggles!

We always have to document that Ruby is no longer afraid of Kimball!

The weather was really hot and stormy during our visit.  We decided to spend a few hours at TopGolf.  Everyone enjoyed it more than I thought they would, especially the girls.

Katie hosted all of the extended Coffey family in the area one night for dinner.  It was fun to visit with them and let the kids play together.

Getting golf tips from Spencer.

Joseph and Kimball met up with Spencer and Jonathan for some golf.  It was very hot when they were golfing.  Better them than me!

One last outing with the Colemans to get ice cream from Bob's Drive-In. 

The boys met up with our Coffey family for the Cardinals game against the Cubs.

Driving back home: exhausted after a fun week and a half.

I sent my family home on Friday and I stayed an extra four days so I could have extra time with my family.  We just hung out and ate good food, but it was worth all of the complaints from my kids about me leaving them.