June and July - Oh How We Love Summer

Since I waited so late to post, I’ll do June and July updates together.

June started out relatively quiet. Work was busy but the kids were not for a change. Katelyn had tutoring sessions 2 days a week, but that was about it. Until basketball and football workout started. Then life got a little more hectic. Hunter started workouts with the Chargers the week of the 17th. Basketball workouts are on Monday and Wednesdays from 8:00 – 10:30am and football workouts are on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:00 – 8:00pm. Guess who provides transportation to these workouts most of the time? Yep, you guessed it. Mom’s Taxi Service is back in business. I must admit that I was enjoying not having to worry about getting everyone wherever they needed to go but all good things must come to an end. Between running kids here and there and the extra craziness at work lately, I stay pretty busy.

On the 20th, we had a meeting at the kids’ school about the sports program and some changes that were recently made. We decided to leave the conference we were competing in and go independent. This opened up the opportunity for the local home schooled kids to play on our teams. We are very excited about this for a few reasons. The meeting was for NRCA parents as well as the home school parents to ask questions and get an idea of what to expect. Overall I think it went well, and we already have some of the home school kids joining our kids for summer workouts.

That pretty much sums up our June. We went from slightly lazy to being on the go more often than not.

July started with a bang. Literally. The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love fireworks. I was off of work on the 4th and the 5th which was good because we were also packing for our trip to Panama City Beach. The kids and I decided to go to the movies and watch Despicable Me 2 on the 4th. It was a great movie and we all laughed a lot. Since it was kind of a crappy day weather-wise, I wasn’t really expecting to see a big fireworks show that night. But the rain stopped and Katelyn and I headed downtown. We parked in office parking lot and watched the fireworks show from there. We had a great view and didn’t have to fight a lot of traffic afterward. The next day we went shopping for our beach trip. We hit the fireworks stand and bought a ton of stuff since it was on sale. Then we spent a small fortune at Wal-Mart on junk food and beach essentials. When we finally got back home, we packed up all of stuff and loaded up the car. We were all so excited, we could barely sleep.

We got up early on the 6th and headed south. My brother Randall, his wife Gwen, and their daughter and her family, Rebecca, Anthony, Breanna and Lexie got there about an hour and a half before we did. The weather was awful. It poured rain on us all the way to Panama City Beach so I had to drive slower than normal because there were several times when I could barely see enough to stay on the road. But just after we got there and got settled in our condo, the rain stopped and we got to see a beautiful sunset. Our condo was on the west side of the beach toward the bay and St. Andrews State Park. The balcony on our condo wrapped around the side of the building so we had views of both the beach and the bay. It was incredible. We stood on the corner and watched fantastic fireworks shows both up the beach and on the bay at the same time.

Sunday morning we woke up to perfect beach weather. The sun was shining and it wasn’t too hot. We spent most of the day Sunday and Monday just enjoying the beach and playing in the ocean. The kids had to visit the pool a few times too. By Monday night, the girls were starting to get a little pink from being in the sun so much so we decided to spend Tuesday doing some other things. Rebecca, Anthony, Breanna and Lexie went on a pirate ship cruise. Me, Hunter and Katelyn headed to Pier Park and had lunch at Margaritaville. We love that place and we got there at just the right time and didn’t even have to wait to be seated. After a visit to the gift shop, of course, we went to Emerald Falls and rode go-karts, bumper boats and played putt putt. That night, we decided to shoot our fireworks on the beach since we didn’t get to spend any time on the beach that day. All of the kids had fun helping light the fireworks and we even wound up with an audience of people on their balconies watching us. After we finished, we walked along the beach hunting sand crabs. Hunter turned out to be quite the crab hunter and found a bunch of them. We didn’t keep any of them though. We’d just catch them and then let them go.

On Wednesday, the kids and I got up early and spent the WHOLE day at Gulf World. When I say the WHOLE day, I mean the WHOLE day. We were waiting in the parking lot when they opened the doors at 9:00am and we didn’t leave until after the magic show ended at around 9:30pm. We were worn out, but we had such a good time. We LOVE that place! If you’re ever in Panama City Beach, you should definitely plan on spending at least part of a day there. Rebecca, Anthony, Breanna and Lexie spent part of the day there with us, but they left a little after lunch and then came back for the magic show that night. While we were there, we saw 3 sea lion/rough-toothed dolphin shows (and Katelyn got kissed by a sea lion), 2 bottle-nosed dolphin shows which included 3 dolphin babies (and Hunter shook hands/fins with a dolphin), 2 reptile shows, 2 shark/sea turtle feedings, 2 feathered and furry friends shows, a sting ray feeding (and we got to pet the sting rays), a scuba show, and the magic show. And of course, we did a little shopping in the gift shop there as well. This is the 3rd time we’ve been to Gulf World and I think I like it more each time we go. We’ll definitely be going back again.

We spend Thursday and Friday being beach bums again. Nothing is more relaxing to me than sitting on the beach watching the waves on the ocean. We saw an ice cream boat, which was a first for us. The boat would anchor just off of the beach and the kids would go up and get their ice cream. It was pretty neat. We also saw a guy on a “floating” surf board. I called him the Silver Surfer. His board was propelled into the air by water and he would do tricks in the air. It was the coolest looking thing. I have some video that I’ll post on YouTube and add a link here so you can see it.

Unfortunately Rebecca and Anthony had to cut their vacation short due to a death in the family, so they left on Friday morning. The girls stayed with us though. We all went out to eat at Angelo’s Steak Pit on Friday night. It was so good! We were all in food comas but still managed to get a little last-minute souvenir shopping in. Hunter and Katelyn both got air-brushed shirts which they thought were so cool. We loaded up most of our stuff that night so we wouldn’t be too rushed on Saturday morning to get checked out. We left the condo around 9:00 on Saturday the 13th. We all hated to leave. Thankfully the weather was much better for our trip home and we got to our house around 3:30. As soon as we got everything unloaded, I started unpacking and doing laundry so I could re-pack the kids for their trip to The Wilds on Monday the 15th. I’m not so sure that back-to-back trips was the best idea, but I managed to get everything packed in time for us to get to bed at a decent time on Sunday night.

We met our friends at City Café for breakfast at 5:00am on Monday morning. Those of you who know me know that I am NOT a morning person. At all. So getting myself as well as 2 kids up and moving that early in the morning was a feat. We made it, though. After a delicious breakfast and transferring of luggage, the kids and their friends hit the road for North Carolina and I (somewhat reluctantly) headed back to work. My house was entirely too quiet with the kids gone all week. And Byron was working nights most of the week too, so I had the house all to myself. What did I do with my week of peace and quiet? Caught up on my DVR’d shows and wondered what the kids were doing. Yeah, I’m a party animal. Work was pretty busy so I wound up working late every night anyway. I sure was happy to see Hunter and Katelyn on Saturday though. It was nice to have noise in the house again. And hearing about their week at camp made me smile non-stop.

On Monday the 22nd, Katelyn started Jr. Cheer Camp. She was a Jr. Cheerleader last year and loved it. So, of course, she wanted to cheer again this year. She had camp from 9-12 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, she won the Spirit Stick! She was so excited! She brought it home and we decorated it that night. Hunter also started back to basketball and football workouts. After a nice two-week break, he was pretty tired every day. It didn’t take him long to get back in the swing of things though. He also had an orthodontist appointment on Monday afternoon to get his braces tightened. I have to brag on him a little bit. He has handled having braces very well. He hasn’t really complained at all except for saying his mouth hurt a little after each appointment. He must have my high pain tolerance because he’s only taken a couple of Aleve each time. I know he’ll be happy when the braces finally come off, but he seems to be making the best of it until then.

We ended the month with a trip to Katelyn’s ENT on the 31st. She had been having nosebleeds every day for over a week. They weren’t bad nosebleeds and we had been able to stop them relatively easy, but the fact that they just kept happening bothered me. The ENT doctor took a look and said the blood vessels in both nostrils had burst. He numbed her nose and packed it with wet cotton for a few minutes. Then he took what looked like a match stick and rubbed the inside of both sides of her nose. This was silver nitrate that caused a slight chemical burn. Chemical cauterization is used quite often to treat frequent nosebleeds. The burn causes the blood vessels to scab over and thicken which usually cures the nosebleeds. We’ll go back in two weeks for him to check and see how it’s healing up. Katelyn did phenomenally well during the procedure and didn’t even cry. I hope this puts a stop to the nosebleeds. I don’t want her to have issues once school starts back.

I can’t believe summer is almost over! It has gone by much too quickly. I have enjoyed sleeping a little later and spending more time with the kids. I loved our week at the beach and wish we could go back more often. But I’m also looking forward to the things the school year will bring – football, basketball and cheering, lots of good stories about the kids and their friends, and many, many more adventures. Get ready to hear a few keys phrases from us over the next few months – Go Chargers and Roll Tide!!