Another catalog...

counting down our summer days.

30,001 pictures...

here goes.

I left off on Wednesday when I promised myself a grocery shopping trip.

But we made homemade donuts and swam with our friends instead.

My friend Ashley is real persuasive like that... and fun... and my new friend Shauna was a lot of laughs too.
So they trumped groceries.
And the kids...
And the sun.
Like always.

Lance and I ended up getting groceries that evening as a family affair-- which is always a little bit of a beat down.

What wasn't a beat down, however, was this little number I got in the mail that day.
I would have sold my soul to marry Ashley's brother a good 15 years ago...
And now I laugh, because I realize that what I thought I knew at 16 was so so so wrong,
however, having Ashley as a SIL wouldn't have been so bad!
She sent me a 2 page typed letter and that beautiful locket.
I had to put the car in park and get it together.
She is so sweet.

Thursday we had an impromptu lunch date with our friends, Holly and Ryan.
We met at a new food park and had plans to ride the Trinity train afterward.

The train only takes cash, however, and we had a combined total of $3 between the 4 of us.
Instead we let the kids play at the park while we chatted.
And Maddox made himself sick on the merry-go-round...
And B acted possessed.
We then skipped over to McKinleys for dessert and more conversation.

My kids crashed that night like this::
perfect and peaceful.

They woke up Friday like this:
chaotic.

A mascara mess...
a playroom disaster...
and a moon-dough mistake...
all before noon.

I finally gave in to the heat and we took the party outside...
we ate our weight in Popsicles,
and we called it a day.

Beckham did decided that he wasn't wearing a diaper that day, however, and did not have one accident.
I would rather him not potty train until after our vacation (aka: 10 hour car ride with my no-stops brother) but he is a self-motivated little guy.

I had to work Saturday morning.
I always enjoy my time there-- I just hate getting up and making the drive.

Lance's dad had never been to the food park and he and Lance decided to take the kids.
I met them when I got off and we happened to run into our pal Luke while we were there too.

We ate...
Enjoyed the cupcake truck too...
and then I scooped up the bittle so the big guys could have some time together.

It didn't take B long to crash, and Maddox felt so special that his Papaw let him pick out some goods in Omaha's Salvage.  (just like he use to do with Lance when he was little too)

Lance picked up my camera from getting "blue sticky stuff" cleaned out of it...
imagine that.
And I stopped for a $15 pedicure on my way back home.

That night, something weird happened.
Beckham went to bed without his B.
I offered, but he didn't want it.

And he has found a few here and there, and will put it in his mouth a few seconds...
but hasn't "taken" one since.

Again, not an issue I cared to press before vacation.

And if it is a fluke, I'm okay with that too.
It's no secret I love a little Nuk faced baby.

Or an indian one.
I just can't get over that face.

Sunday my mom invited us out for dinner to celebrate David's birthday.

The kids played...

Papaw took us for a hay ride.

(where the kids sang and danced to Ganghum style as loud as they could) 

I pet a horse.

(which I am terrified of) 

And Lance dug a ditch.

Monday we had our first swim lesson.
These 3 are the only ones in their class and their teacher knows her business.

The kids improve so much each day,
although I still wonder why in the world Randi and I chose 9:00am!

Tuesday my kids and I went to our community pool and splash pad after lessons.
Mom ended up coming out too.

Maddox was a little too confident in his new swimming skills and wanted to take off his puddle jumper.

It only took one scare to convince him back into his green gear,
but he has lost all fear in the water at all with these lessons.

I was throwing him in the air and flipping him off my shoulders and he did it again and again.

Beckham only wanted his Gigi.
But I bet he jumped to her 1000 times to her yelling, "dump gigi dump" every time.

Lance was off Wednesday and went to lessons with us.
Maddox did so well that morning and even swam underwater by  himself.

One quality I love about him is that he is very coachable.
(when it is something he wants to do)
He listens and does his best to apply what he is taught...
and sometimes that's better than skill.

After lessons, we had breakfast together at a little diner in Justin, ran to Dick's and got Lance a new bat bag for father's day....
ran into hobby Lobby and bought the perfect sticks for the tee pee I am making the boys...

And then went to the driving range.

It was hot, I am really terrible, Maddox didn't care to be coachable--
and one bucket of balls was all we lasted.

I called Allison to see if she would like to earn a little extra cash, and planned a date with Lance.

We were 10 minutes down the road before I realized I had mis-matched earrings on... but luckily I had a spare in my purse.

We had mexican food, and planned on going to the new FTW drive in afterwards.

I feel so guilty doing anything without the kids and it felt wrong to go to the drive in without them.

Instead we popped over to Capital bar and saw Micky and the Motorcars play for the Ranch's Wednesday night free show they do each week.

We played a game where we tried to guess each person's story that walked by-- where they worked-- what they were thinking-- etc.
It may had been my $10 drink, but I was laughing so hard I was crying.

Once we finished our drinks, and heard the one song we knew-- we bailed out and headed back to our biscuits.

Who obviously missed us like crazy....
 Now tell me that's not perfection?

We were thankful to Al for the night.

Today we completed our 4th day of swim lessons and all 3 of the cousins are doing so great!
We sped from there to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and then had lunch with Candace, Randi and all 89 of our children at Firehouse.

The week has finally caught up with my crew though,
as they have all (including Lance) been asleep since 7:00.

I'm on call, so I can't follow suit just yet...

but I did turn off the tv, and have enjoyed the silence!
(and I am now only minutes behind them!)