Summertime!

Its time to catch up on all our summertime activities! So this post will be somewhat merciless with photo's. We did a lot this summer. :)

First after arriving was sending Jackie to Girls Camp. She was very excited to get to go and meet everyone. What it meant for me was searching through 1000 boxes (maybe a slight exaggeration) to find the camping gear. Not usually the first boxes unpacked. We didn't find everything she needed in time, but we found the most important. Jackie had a great time. She came back with a best friend. :) And she only found 3 ticks the entire week!

The following week was the first of our Regional Meetings which was held in San Antonio Texas. It was interesting to be at a resort with 4 regions there at the same time. I dragged everyone to see the Alamo. It was a lot smaller than we thought it would be.

The next week was our second regional in Georgia. We opted to drive to this one as it was only an 8 hour drive, and we'd never been to any of the states we passed through. So we left MO and travelled through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. Another of the reasons we drove was so we could find the grave of John's Grandma Allen. She grew up in Georgia and was buried there. The cemetery is tiny, and out in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately Google knows exactly where it is! It was a good thing the cemetery was so small, because there was no map to the gravestones so we just had to search for it.

Found it!

We stayed at Barnsley Resort. it was originally the residence of Godfrey Barnsley and his family. After the Civil War the family built another house somewhere else. But a lot of the family is still buried there. I took the kids to see the family cemetery. It was kind of interesting. The family is all buried together, but the servants are scattered in graves throughout the woods. The original house Godfrey Barnsley build still has the shell standing, so the resort but in a new floor and lighting and we had dinner there one night.

After Georgia John Jr flew by himself to Boston. We dropped him off at the Nashville Airport on our way home. He had 3 days of a medical leaders conference. He seemed to have a good time, only got queasy once during the live surgery. He loves medical technology, but would prefer to create it, not use it!

The week after John came home we flew to Oregon for a quick visit to see Grandma and Grandpa for a quick visit. It was great so see them again, and I'm glad we were able to find the time. We spent 4th of July together again, just like our old tradition.

2 days after getting back from OR we were off to the Dominican Republic. This was a service project we were doing through the Albert Pujols Family Foundation. Albert Pujols is a major league baseball player from the DR and his foundation does a lot of work helping to lift the people there out of poverty. We worked on renovating the baseball field there, helped build some bathrooms and did some other work around the Batey. It was an incredible experience that we will never forget. And the kids gained a new appreciation for the things they have. Jackie in particular was pretty shocked to see entire families that live in a house made of tin and cardboard that is smaller than her bedroom. The kids there are sooo cute, and so excited to see us.

All the kids also learned how hard they are capable of working. yay!

After that we got a 2 week break to finish unpacking stuff.

Our last trip of the summer was hosting the EJ TAP trip to the Canadian Rockies. It is soooo beautiful there! I think it might also be my favorite trip we've hosted. Everyone gets a rental car and goes off and does there own thing, so John didn't feel the need to stay at the hotel and be sociable. We went out every day and hiked around. We saw elk, big horn sheep, mountain goats, a fox, a black bear and a grizzly! We touched an iceberg, and Jackie climbed a mountain. And the hotel we stayed at remined me of Hogwarts. Fun fact, the hotel was built by a railroad tycoon as a way of getting more people to travel by rail. Somewhere along the line the plans were read incorrectly and the hotel ended up getting built backwards, so the rooms faced into the mountain and the kitchens had a great view over the valley. Haha! It's had several renovations over the last century though, so I think they got it figured out.

 Fun in Calgary

 Giant crow we saw. It was literally the size of a car tire

 Jackie got to hold some owls!

The backwards Hogwarts!

School has started now! Justin is doing Cross Country, so he has a 12 hour day. he's doing good though. Everyone is settling into classes and routines and getting homework done again.

Some pictures of other stuff we did this summer:

 Kensie's first experience with a deer! Jasper has been having a great time catching the local wildlife. Soon we will be vole free.

 Justin won his first chess tournament in St Louis!

Spent a Saturday at the Illinois State Fair where Web was working doing the Timber Show. Father taught his son how to throw an axe. Also the giant butter cow which is an IL State Fair tradition. i took the kids on some rides while John and Web caught up. I think I haven't been to the fair since high school! Still like them though! I have a pretty good bruise on one shoulder from the tilt-a-whirl, but otherwise in good shape.

I think this is a good catch up. I honestly wanted to break it up into smaller posts, but just didn't have the time. Painters are here today removing wallpaper and starting to paint so it's a good chance to get lots of stuff done that I've been putting off.