Summer Happenings

I absolutely adore summertime, and so far it's been wonderful! Although, Mason and I both did summer school, which was pretty painful at the time, given how nice it was outside. It was full days this year which was a big switch from the half-days we are normally used to for summer school. But, it was only four weeks and we managed to survive!

Luckily, right before summer school started (the first week in June), my best friend Lindsey (and Baby Klocke) were able to make a trip down to visit us. It was a pretty laid back visit, but we got to catch up, eat some yummy food, and do some retail therapy down at the outlets at the lake. I wasn't feeling so hot, but I was bound and determined to go shopping and not spend the entire time in bed! Because of some bad weather, we had to spend one evening over at Billy and Brittany's house (some friends of ours) to ensure we didn't get blown away since we don't have a basement! Fortunately, nothing happened, but we figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Lindsey with Eli and the sweet jammies she bought him for an early birthday gift!

I also forgot to mention that we made a trip to Iowa prior to Lindsey coming down. My step-sister Leeann graduated high school, and her graduation party was over Memorial weekend. It was a fast trip because we had to be back to school Tuesday for the last two days, but it was very nice to see everyone and catch up. Eli also got his first haircut from his great Aunt Donna after the party. He did a pretty good job and only squirmed minimally!  Daddy's cell phone helped significantly with the squirming! ;)

As you can see, Eli is getting huge! He has had a lot of firsts over the past month, including actual crawling, waving, climbing/pulling himself up on things, walking behind his walker, eating dog food (oops), and falling and getting his first bruise over his eye right before church (he only cried for a couple minutes)! I think I'm forgetting a couple things, but those are the main ones! He still eats like a horse and we have yet to find anything he won't eat. The daycare people at church mentioned just today actually that they are convinced we feed him lead! He is a pretty solid little boy! :)

The second full weekend in June, my brother, Bailey, Ben, and Jay came down for a visit. The boys brought down their four wheelers and went to a park to go four wheeling with Mason. They had a blast! Mason actually sold his four wheeler a while back and had forgotten how much fun they were. So, he recently traded his AR for a new four wheeler. He is very eager for Eli to get bigger so we can get him one as well. He says Eli will be getting one for his third birthday, but we will see. I'm not completely convinced! ;) Anyway, we had a blast with them, like always, and hated to see them go!

Getting ready to make the trip home-- aren't they precious?! Shockingly, JJ actually smiled!

Luckily, the very next weekend we made another trip to Iowa. This time we went because it was my ten year class reunion (Yikes!), Father's Day, and because Mason and I signed up to run the suicide awareness 5K in Dunkerton. I mentioned before that I was sick when Lindsey was down visiting. Well, the week school got out I had allergies and it gradually turned into a very miserable sinus infection. Shortly after, I developed a pretty nasty cough. So the day summer school started (about a week after having all that nasty crud) I sucked it up and went to the doctor, where I was informed I had bronchitis. Lovely, huh? However, I was more than happy to pick up the antibiotic, and I started feeling much better within a couple of days. Because of that, I wasn't able to train very well for the last couple of weeks prior to the 5K, so my time was pretty pathetic. But, it was still fun!

Right before the race-- Mason, me, Jay, JJ, Bailey, and Leeann

After a short nap, we were feeling slightly more refreshed following the 5K, and Mason and I got ready for my class reunion. It was held at Bourbon Street in Cedar Falls (fabulous food, by the way). It was really great to see and catch up with everyone that could attend, and see where everyone's lives have taken them so far! It's still hard to fathom that it has been ten years; it has gone so fast! Mason still thinks it's funny to mention that when I graduated high school, he was graduating 8th grade...*sigh*

Mason and I before heading to my reunion.

Anyway, the next morning was Father's Day, and though my dad had to work, he was able to escape for a couple of hours to have breakfast with us at the truck stop before we headed back, which was nice!

Eli was not being very cooperative with taking pictures, so this is the best I got.

Aside from all our travels, we have finally gotten our flower beds somewhat put together. We will probably continue to add plants here and there in the coming years, but for right now, we are going to leave them as they are. Last summer, Mason did a great job of tearing out the bushes and other weeds that were by the house, and put in flower beds. Because we ended up putting in an additional flower bed we weren't originally planning on, we decided that it would be a bit expensive to also put in flowers last summer. So instead we planted a few tomato plants and waited until this year to do any flower planting. I think they're looking good so far and we are hopeful everything survives!

This is on the left side of the house.

Right in front of the kitchen.

This is my favorite flower. Don't ask me what it is, but it's pretty! ;)

This is on the right side of the house, obviously by the garage.

We've really been enjoying our summer so far! Mason and I were even able to go to the river for part of the day about a week or so ago, thanks to his cousin Laura who watched Eli. We went with a couple of our friends. It was great to relax and soak up some sun! We will be going again here in a couple of weeks so we are really looking forward to that. Otherwise, we've just been preparing for Eli's FIRST birthday party!! We can't believe he will be one in less than a week! Ahh!! Anyway, I'll be posting some of our Fourth of July fun here in a day or two (maybe even today, though it's not likely!) because it's time to enjoy this weather! :)