Jelly Stone Park

My side of the family tries to have an annual get together every year, since we don't see each other often. Last year we went to Jelly Stone park in Fredericksburg and LOVED it, so we decided to do it again. We went at the end of June and everyone was able to make (except brent, who was back home on-call.) My grandma, her brother and his wife, AND my aunt and her husband were even able to make it. It was so fun. It was hot out, but the water was great. There was plenty of shade, good food, fellowship and playing. 

Ezra turns 7!

I still can't get over my 1st born being SEVEN!! OH how it makes me sad and happy all at the same time. I love the age he is at. I love the little boy he is turning in to. He is such a helper and so tender. He still loves to love and cuddle but is active as all get out! He LOVES anything GOD and SPORTS! He has such a heart for God and his faith. I love all the questions he has and the desire to always read God's word. For a while now, he has been asking for a big kid bible. I just couldn't find one that I really liked and that I thought would be good for him. Well, not kidding, the day of his birthday, Lifeway had the Adventures Bible on sale, with an extra 15% off AND a leather bond cover on it! I LOVE IT and he does too! He LOVES to build Legos and will sit for HOURS on end building Lego sets. He lost his 1st tooth right before his 7th birthday!! The tooth next to it is now wiggly!
Funny story: The other day he was talking about owning a big ranch in Colorado and Brady (so he can be close to us) and how he was going to take people hunting. He has always said he is not going to get married.. so we were talking about that and he said, 'wait, do you have to be a priest if you aren't married?' and I said, "no." He said, "Oh, okay, good. Then I'm not getting married." Ha

Here is his birthday interview:

1. What is your fave color? Red
2. What is your fave toy? Legos
3. What is your fave thing to eat for lunch? Pizza
4. What is your fave TV show? Ninjago
5. What is your fave outfit?  Athletic shorts/shirt
6. What is your fave fruit? Apple
7. What is your fave game? Basketball
8. What is your fave snack? Fig bar
9. What is your fave song?
10. What is your fave animal? Lion
11. What is your fave book? Bible
12. Who is your best friend? Daddy
13. What is your fave cereal? Granola
14. What is your fave drink? Rootbeer
15. What is your fave holiday? Christmas (because it's Jesus' birthday)
16. What is your fave thing to do outside? Anything sports
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Blanket and puppy dog
18. What is your fave thing to eat for breakfast? Poptarts
19. What is your fave dessert?
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a hunter with a big ranch in Colorado and Brady

Here are his stats from his Well Visit:
Height: 49 3/4 inc (76%)
Weight: 52 1/2 lbs (55%)

He was at cousin camp on his bday so we brought cupcakes to them.

His new bible

He loves Legos

We had a pool party at our neighborhood pool

Our favorite lifeguard, Michael

His 1st lost tooth before his 7th birthday

Swim Team and Baseball (June)

Our June was SUPER busy this summer. We were finishing off baseball season, which was 'supposed' to end in May. However, Ezra's team made it to playoffs, which was fun! They ended up getting 4th place I believe. Had we gotten 3rd place of above in playoffs, we would have then had to play in City. I am thankful we got 4th! Ha! On top of ending our baseball season, which we had practice 2x a week and weekend games, we had started up our swim team practices. The practices were every evening until school let out, then they were every morning at 9am. This really wasn't bad because our pool is really at the end of the street we live on. So, we would just pack up our swim bag and walk to the pool. It gave us something to do each morning and then the kids would swim for a little bit after, also. We basically LIVE at the pool. The kids ask to go every day, and it really is something easy and relaxing for me to do with them! We love our neighborhood and enjoy being at the pool.
Ezra and Emersyn ROCKED swim team this year. I wasn't quite sure how Emersyn would do. She can swim, but at the beginning of the season it wasn't on her 'favorite' list. Last summer, she could not swim and didn't even want to try and do it. She was TERRIFIED of the deep end and basically clutched on with a death grip to me whenever we were in the pool. Meanwhile, little Elynn, who was 2 at the time, would freely jump in with no one watching! So, this summer, I was excited when Emersyn said she wanted to give swim team a try. We did a 'trial' week with the team for her and she LOVED it. I think it helps having friends swim with her. One of her preschool classmates was also on the team, and that really helped. Well, it turns out, our little Emersyn is a really good swimmer! She got first in backstroke a number of times and would either place 3rd or above in her freestyle stroke. The coaches even put her on an 8 and under relay with all 7-8 year olds. She did great and LOVED every second of it!! She ended up being MVP of our swim team in her age category. That means, she earned the most points for our team in her age group. I cannot wait to see how she does next year!
Ezra, also ROCKED it this year. He was still in the 6 and under group this summer because his birthday falls after the season is over. He got 1st in freestyle and backstroke almost every time he swam. He even rocked the Championship meet and got 1st in freestyle and backstroke over the whole division in his age group, which sent him to AllStars! In the middle of the season, they decided to try Ezra in the butterfly stroke. This is such a hard stroke to learn and you usually start swimming it around 7 or 8. So, we had him take 3 lessons with one of the coaches to help him get the technique down. He picked it up so fast! He even placed 3rd overall in butterfly at our Championship meet! He too brought home the MVP award for our swim team, bringing in the most points for our team in his age group! I was super proud of him. He loves swimming too.
Our litte Elynn can SWIM all by herself this summer too! She is 3 and loves it! She so badly wanted to be on the swim team, and I kept telling her she couldn't because she had to be able to swim all by herself..well, I am sure that is what motivated her to learn to swim. One day at the pool swimming and I didn't have her float on her because I was right next to her. She just started swimming all by herself. So I signed her up for 6 lessons and she got it right away and took off swimming. She has not looked back. She can even swim the backstroke! I am pretty sure she will be ready for swim team next year!
As for me, I was busy with our church summer bible study. I facilitated the study again this summer, with the help of my friend Elizabeth. It was a great study!

Elynn also did gymnastics and loved it!

These two! Such great swimmers!!

Love this picture

Ezra and Parker at all stars

My girls favorite part of swim team

MVP's for their age group

Our swim team coaches. We LOVE THEM. My children's favorite people. 

After they finished the baseball season..they came in 4th

My Big Guy graduated from Kinder!!

Young chef's cooking class.

Ezra and Coach Dylla 

This picture makes me sad. He had pancreatitis and almost died. He was SOOOO SICK. But we got him to the vet just in time and pulled through. 

Disney World

Brent had a work conference coming up, and usually there are several places/destinations to choose from. This year, we thought it would be fun to go to the one in Florida so we could also take the kids to Disney. They are at the perfect age to go and it be a memorable/fun experience. So, we booked the whole trip and didn't tell the kids until we were at the airport to head out! We didn't tell them for two reasons, 1) It would have been pure TORTURE for ME with them asking on a daily basis, months or even weeks, in advance when were were going! Kinda like, "Are we there yet!?" and 2) We thought it would be a lot of fun for them to be surprised!

So, shockingly enough, we were able to keep it a secret and PACK all the bags without them knowing. When we picked Ezra up from school, he was asking a lot of questions. It was hard not to just say what we were doing. So, we thought it would be fun to ask where and what they thought we were doing. Emersyn thought we were surly picking Ezra up early to go to the zoo! Ezra quickly pointed out that we were NOT going to the zoo because we had luggage in the back of the car. He thought we were probably going to Colorado. We go every summer, so it made sense! When we got to the airport and were settled in, I pulled out some shirts I had gotten for them from the Disney store and they were super excited. They thought we were going to California to go back to Disney Land, though. We have been there a couple times while visiting family in California. So, they were even more excited to learn we were going to Disney World in Florida.

The plane ride to Florida was a direct flight and the kids did awesome! Once we arrived to Florida, we headed straight for our hotel. Brent's conference was at the Gaylord Palms this year, so we stayed at the Gaylord. It was BEAUTIFUL!! Probably the nicest hotel we have stayed at as a family. It had a huge atrium, with alligators and fish. It had several restaurants. One restaurant was even on a sailboat on a little lagoon. That is where we ate the first night and the kids LOVED it. We probably could have not done Disney and stayed at the hotel the whole time and still have a great time. After dinner, we got on our swim suits and headed to the pool.

Thursday morning was bright and early. The kids and I got up and were ready to hit Magic Kingdom right when it opened. Brent went to his conference and headed to Disney around 1130. This was the PERFECT time of year to go. It was not crowded at all, the wait lines for rides were 10, MAYBE 20 minutes. I think the longest we stood in line for a ride, and we had already done it once that day, was 35 minutes. It was great. On Thursday, it rained off and on that day. But the rain was in 5 min increments, so we would go inside and watch a show or go to a eatery. It definitely cooled the weather down. We did every ride we wanted to do and even saw tons of princesses. I really wasn't expecting to see a ton of princesses because of the stories I have heard about the wait lines for them. We saw, Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Merida, Rapunzel, Minnie and Daisy. The girls were in Heaven. We also got to see all the parades. We stayed the WHOLE day and ended with the light show on the Castle and Fireworks. The kids were AWESOME through the whole thing.

Friday, we were so tired, so we decided to just stay at the hotel, sleep in and swim. It was an awesome day. I could have used one more lounge day like that. We stayed at the pool all day. The weather was gorgeous. It was breezy and in the 80's. When the kids were out of the water, they were freezing. The pool at the Gaylord was awesome. They had a pretty big water play area with two big slides. There was a restaurant right by the pool that brought your food and drinks to your pool chair. Oh, I was in HEAVEN this day. We took a little break from the pool to take naps and veg in the room. That afternoon, the Gaylord had a fish feeding so, we went to go check it out. It was so cool. They had a ton of HUGE fish that they fed live seafood too. The fish looked like sharks when they went to go get the food. They also had baby alligators that we got to watch them feed. After they fed them, we are able to hold one. That was such a fun experience. All of our kids held one. Emersyn went first, of course. She is probably our bravest. Then Ezra went and after Brent and I held one, Elynn felt more comfortable to hold one.
That evening we headed back out the the pool and ordered a pizza by the pool.

Saturday, we decided to head to Animal Kingdom. Since we were able to do all that we had wanted to do at Magic Kingdom, the kids really wanted to see a different park. I am so thankful we did. It was a lot of fun. We got to see a ton of animals, ride on a safari ride, see the Finding Nemo musical and ride a lot of fun rides. The weather was perfect. Animal Kingdom closes earlier than the other parks, so we were back at our hotel at a really good time. We ended up going to bed early which was good because we had to get up and pack up to leave the next day.

Sunday we packed up and headed out. Once again, the kids did so great. It was a really really great trip. One of the best ones we have had. I was so thankful the whole time. It's going to be a while before we venture out on another vacation with this little one coming soon.