Birthday #11

Mason turned 11 on the third day of school, and he decided the best way to ring in his new year would be with a weekend trip to our land to show some of his favorite buddies his favorite things. So we took off to Iowa right after school to spend a few days shooting guns, playing paintball, going fishing, jumping in the pond, starting fires, riding recreational vehicles, and roughing it in the camper. And the guest of honor cooked up no less than a dozen s’mores for the partygoers. A successful birthday! 

{Birthday morning. Going shirtless because he was certain he was going to get a jersey he had his sights set on. Ding. Ding. Ding!}

{We arrived to our campsite after dark, but with plenty of time to sing to the birthday boy! A big thanks to Grandma for making this cake so I didn't have to!}

{Wasting no time getting after it on Saturday morning. Papa rigged up the most redneck diving board this girl has ever seen. A very long board covered in what appeared to be shingles held in place by our tractor. Plenty of spring and hours of entertainment. Bonus that it never snapped in half!}

{Caught this big fella on a jug that Braden had to track down in the boat!}

{Still not good at paintball.}

{Testing out the shooting range. And probably not hitting any of the targets.}

{The crew. We were also lucky to have the cousins join us for this birthday adventure!}

Happy birthday to my favorite suburban redneck boy!

Back at it!

And so begins the kids’ third year of school with Covid. Masks are mandatory, but in-person learning is game on, so off they go! 

Because we moved within our district, we were able to request permission to continue attending school where we once were. It’s not ideal, and nearly a 20-25 minute one-way commute, but it keeps the kids with friends so we sacrifice the time and mileage.

{Shirts are looking a little less ball gown!}

{Poor Mason. He went to the water park the day before school started, and I insisted he wear sunscreen on his face (mostly to make me feel like a better mom). And then he had an allergic reaction, and his eyes swelled shut for the first day of school. Mom fail.}

Camryn starts an hour later than the boys, so she wakes up after they leave. I think she enjoys the single child life! 

Camryn has the best teacher for third grade (not an opinion). Jacob is ready to roll through 7th grade. And I just hope Mason can remember to change classes when the bell rings. Cheers to a solid 6 hours of child-free time each weekday! 

Molly Photo Dump

 Molly up until now. And in no particular order. 

July Bits

 The pieces of our July puzzle.

Pool day with buddies! 

 

Cruise Nights with buddies.

Taking in nature. We spotted this beauty in my mom’s garden. 

Picking blackberries in our prairie one last time before we moved out. 

Taking the truck for a spin. The girl needed hot cakes and this vehicle was our only option. So we hijacked it. 

Lunch with the bestie. And picking seats right next to one another in the 8-passenger vehicle. 

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Smoky Mountains Adventure: Day 7

And our last day in Tennessee. We had planned to either go white water rafting or ziplining, but the kids were dying to try out this ridiculous ropes course, so we did that instead. And by we, I mean the kids did that while Caleb and I sat under the shade in rocking chairs. And 20 minutes later they had enough, so we spent the rest of the morning walking around the downtown strip of Gatlinburg buying an unnecessary amount of souvenirs. 

{The ropes course. Mason claimed heat stroke about 20 minutes in. Good grief.}

We spent the afternoon swimming at our site, roasting weenies over the campfire, killing murder hornets--probably not murder hornets--and relaxing. We hit the hay when it started pouring outside, and we woke up super early when Molly barfed. Not the wake up call we planned, but it got us on the road in good time and home for dinner. A great trip and the perfect way for us to break in our camper. Already planning our next adventure!

 

Smoky Mountains Adventure : Day 6

The day we did NOTHING. And maybe the best day of the trip! So maybe not nothing, we did eat s'mores (before and after dinner), swim at the pool all afternoon, sit by the campfire all night (while watching the Field of Dreams game. Yep, we have cable!), and nap when it felt necessary.

 

Smoky Mountains Adventure: Day 5

Today we spent the day melting at Dollywood. The kids--boys especially--are suckers for rollercoasters, so this was a perfect way to spend our day!

{Lucky for me, Camryn is not tall enough (or gutsy enough) for all of the crazy flippy rides, so her and I hung out waiting in lines for some coasters that were more our speed while the boys did all the flippy rides.}

{The boys caught up to us just in time for us to hop on this forward and backward running ride. What lucky guys to have a couple of human fast passes with them...}

{Camryn enjoyed going on this indoor ride. I enjoyed the complimentary AC that came with this ride.}

So, in true Dolly parks fashion, everything shut down due to weather, which had me believing that this is their middle-of-the-day-make-everyone-overspend-on-concessions marketing plan. We were just about to step on a water ride, so we held our ground and waited through the lightning so we wouldn't lose our spot. By the time we had gotten off the ride, at least three of us were next level hungry but with several concessions shut down due to Covid (in Tennessee--seems weird, I know) the wait to get food exceeded two hours. Yeah, no thanks, so we left the park and drove around the corner to Burger King for a quick food refuel. And because crazy flippy rides aren't my thing, I volunteered to go back to the campsite to take care of Molly while Caleb stayed with the others.  

{Camryn had been asking for Dippin Dots for days, and she finally got some. Maybe the most genuine smile I have ever seen on that girl.}

{In line for a coaster.}

And this is what Cam had to say when she got off that coaster...

While the rest were roller coastering, I was at the camper cleaning up, preparing dinner, and backing Caleb's truck into a tree. Whoops. I picked the crew up about 10 minutes after actual rain closed down the park and had to listen to the sad story of how the boys were next in line on what could have been the best ride ever when the rain rolled in. Better luck next time!