June!

June was another busy month before the alarmingly wide-open month of July hits.  We started the month out running with Anna's rescheduled friend birthday pool party on the evening of the 1st.  Anna did a great job planning the meal, cupcakes, games (alligator races, scavenger hunt, decorating flip flops), and music.  Everyone had lots of fun!  

The next day, we had a nice hike at Crowder Park with Finley in the evening.  Friday the 3rd was our first time out on a boat alone!  We reserved a deck boat at Jordan Lake from 2-7pm and had a really great time tooling around the lake and trying out our new life jackets and towable (not really a tube; not sure what to call it).  We had a yummy dinner of subs on the boat and really enjoyed everything!

Saturday was Erin's first of two ballet recitals at 1:30pm, and she did a fantastic job!  

She and I went to Kabuki for dinner after we got home, while Bob and Anna went to watch the Cardinal Gibbons women's soccer 4A state championship, which Gibbons won in an upset!  So exciting!  We had a great time swimming at our pool with Jimmy, Danny, Uncle Tom, and Aunt Pam on Sunday afternoon, and then Erin's second ballet recital was that evening at 7pm.  We enjoyed watching that as well!  Way to go, Erin!

Erin and I had a great time in Clearwater Beach, FL, from the 7th-10th.  Since Anna and I went to Universal Studios in March, Erin wanted to do a beach trip.  We flew direct from Raleigh to Tampa on Delta and stayed at a Residence Inn in Clearwater Beach, across the street from the beach.  It was a really nice area and Erin did a super job of planning our meals and activities, all within walking distance of the hotel.  The beach there is so nice, and there are lots of great restaurants around as well.  We were all set to return on Thursday evening, but storms caused a delay that bought us another night at a hotel near the airport.  It had a really nice pool, though, so we weren't too upset!  We were home by mid afternoon on Friday.

Anna's friend Addie came over on Saturday the 11th and we all went to the pool and then church.  Sunday was Finley's first time on a boat!  We had the morning shift this time.  While he loved being on the pontoon boat, he was not interested in swimming in the water.  We got him onto dry land and then lured him into the water about halfway up his legs with some treats, but that was it.  Maybe next time!  

The week of the 13th was Anna's first of two volleyball camps at school for 3 hours in the afternoons.  She had lots of fun and got to practice her skills before the season starts.  Erin's two weekly summer dance classes also started this week, and she's enjoying those as well.  I hosted book club here on the 13th, and Erin also had her first of 6 summer teen social groups.  She has been to 3 now, and she is doing a great job there and learning a lot.  We are very proud of her!  

Saturday the 18th, we met Ansley and family at Falls Lake for a fun day on a pontoon boat.  We had so much fun cruising around and swimming!  They closed down due to wind/rough water around 3pm, but we still got about 5 hours in, so it was ok.  Bob left Sunday for Austin, TX for work, so we had an abbreviated Father's Day celebration.  The week of the 20th, we girls stayed busy with activities and appointments and hosted friends before we left Thursday morning for our super fun trip to the Midwest!  

We flew from Raleigh to Midway and were delayed for about 1.5 hours due to a mechanical problem.  Our best laid plans were for Bob to fly from Austin to Midway that morning as well and meet us there, but he had to wait around for awhile until we actually landed.  Once we were reunited, we ate lunch and rode the L to a stop near our hotel (Fairfield Inn north of the river, "North Loop").  We dropped our stuff off at our hotel and then set off on foot to explore the Riverwalk, Navy Pier (Bob and Anna rode the ferris wheel while Erin and Gina rode the swings), then hopped on a bus to Aurelio's near Soldier Field for a super yummy pizza dinner.  After that, we rode another bus to Grant Park and saw Buckingham Fountain, then walked to Millennium Park and saw the bean.  Then, we rode another bus back to our hotel.

Friday we packed up, had breakfast, and divided and conquered a little more of Chicago!  Bob and Anna kayaked on the Chicago River while Erin and Gina took the train to the cathedral, admired that, and got beverages for the kayakers.  We met up and decided to skip another stop at Navy Pier (our original plan) in favor of heading to Indiana.  So, we all hopped on a bus (we got our $5/person worth out of our 24-hour transit passes!) and the girls went back to the hotel to get our bags while Bob picked up our rental car near the hotel.  He picked us up, and we were off!  We made a quick McDonalds stop at the state line, then got a few things at Meijer in Valparaiso, dropped our stuff at our Fairfield Inn in Warsaw, and were at the lake by 4pm (EST).  We had a lot of fun swimming and making pizza pudgie pies (and dessert pies!).  Then we did some more swimming and party setup before going back to the hotel.  It was still daylight at 9:30pm!

The action must have caught up with the girls, because they slept until 8:30am on Saturday!  After breakfast at the hotel, we stopped at Walmart and were back at the lake.  We had a yummy lunch with an extra yummy Michigan watermelon, then took a boat ride before the party started around 4pm.  The kids also spent a lot of time playing volleyball at the lake, and Logan was happy to give golf cart rides to anyone who wanted one!  There was loads of yummy food!  It was so nice to see so much of the family; we had a wonderful time!  Sadly, it ended around 7pm and we went back to the hotel that evening to shower and pack up.  

Sunday, we were out of there by 8am and drove an hour to Notre Dame campus, stopped in the bookstore, and went to mass in the basilica at 10am.  It was gorgeous, crowded, and was a really nice mass!  After walking around a little more, we had lunch at Portillo's in Mishawaka (everyone except Erin liked it), then drove/walked through St. Mary's College campus.  From there, it was on to Indiana Dunes!  We went to the eastern side of the (now a national) park first and found that it was full, so we drove 9 miles west to the West Beach area, entered the park, parked, and walked around briefly along the trails and checked out the beach.  The water was closed for swimming when we got there due to whitecaps (we were less than impressed with all of our ocean experience), but it opened up as we were leaving.  We could see the Chicago skyline from the beach!

Anna got a Kona Ice from the mini truck, and we headed back in to Chicago, got to Midway after a nice drive through some residential areas with historic buildings.  We dropped off the car, got a quick shuttle ride to the terminal, through security, and picked up bagel sandwiches before our 4:35pm (CST) flight that took off only about 20 minutes late and was a smooth ride home.

So, it was a really fun, quick, but awesome trip!  We really enjoyed seeing Chicago and would love to go back to do more.  The cooler weather and breeze didn't hurt, either!  It was cloudy at the lake on Saturday with a breeze, and that felt so nice.  We definitely appreciated the lower humidity compared to NC.

After we got home, it was right into a busy week with Erin's ballet camp in the morning and Anna's second volleyball camp in the afternoon, plus Erin's Monday group and 2 dance classes and Anna's gig watching the neighbors' cats.  We were happy to see Finley again, and he seemed relatively unscathed from 3 nights at the kennel.  More trip pictures and general summer pictures can be seen HERE.

Those were the highlights from June!  It was packed full, and now we need to come up with things to do in July.  It should be ok, though, as we have friends coming over on Saturday, a baseball game on Sunday, Grandma and Ansley are coming up next week so Anna and Ansley can take a babysitting class on Friday, then Elliott's birthday celebration and our last-minute "vacation" to Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia July 11-14 while we get our hardwood floors refinished.  After that, Bob has a quick trip to Colorado for work and Erin has piano camp, then Bob goes to California to finish up the month.  So, I guess we will try to keep busy, though Anna and I are pretty wide open.  The floor project preparation and putting everything back after should keep us busy for a little while.  Otherwise, we will try to balance relaxation, fun, and work.  I guess that's what summer is for!

May

May was busy!  I've heard people call it "May-ember" to imply that there are as many events in May as there are in December in preparation for Christmas.  Those people might be on to something.  Bob was in Australia and New Zealand through the 10th, and he had a really great time, especially seeing a bucket list item (New Zealand)!  He spent most of his side trip there in the Christchurch area on the south island, hiking in a national park, and seeing the sights.  He also spent part of a day in Auckland, the main city, on the north island.  The work portion in Sydney beforehand went well, and all of the travel went smoothly!

Meanwhile, we ladies had a nice time at Joey's first communion at the cathedral on the 1st, followed by a fun party at their house.  The week of the 2nd was busy for me at school with it being Teacher Appreciation Week.  Anna also had 3 school soccer games, a school soccer party, and the girls had their first middle school dance on the evening of Friday the 6th!  

The dance was beach themed, and the kids turned out in full force and had a blast!  There were severe storms in our area that evening, but thankfully the dance was indoors and the storms didn't prevent people from driving their kids to/from school.  

That was quite a week.  We wished Bob a virtual happy 40th birthday from halfway around the world on the 7th.  We had a more laid back weekend, and a nice Mothers Day complete with Panera takekout!

Monday the 9th, I went to book club in the evening, and Anna had her last Y soccer practice as well as Erin's last piano lesson on the 10th.  The year is winding down!  Finley had a blast at that practice, which was at a different location than usual and had a great walking trail.  The girls did their traditional egg toss at the end of practice, and it didn't seem to get too messy.  Bob went straight from the airport to Anna's practice.  We had a couple of consultations to refinish our hardwood floors that week; we are casually considering doing that this summer when we have some more flexibility in our schedule.  It doesn't sound fun, though, to move everything out!  We had to reschedule the school spring festival from Friday the 13th to the 20th due to impending storms, which ended up not being that bad.  I spent a lot of time worrying about the weather this month!

Saturday the 14th was Anna's first-ever soccer tournament!  It wasn't too far away, in Clayton, and she played 3 games at 8:30am, 11:00am, and 2:45pm.  Her team won all 3 games, AND they won the tournament!  We managed to avoid any weather issues (though it did rain through most of the last game).  It was a really fun day for the girls and the parents.  

That evening, Erin branched out of her comfort zone and went to Marvel movie night at her piano teacher's house to celebrate the end of the year.  I don't think she was a fan of "Ant Man and the Wasp", but she hung in there until 10:15, which is definitely a stretch for Erin!

Bob left on Sunday the 15th for Valencia, Spain, for a work conference.  We ladies (and Finley, of course!) held down the fort.  I had to spend all of Monday at the school golf tournament (which was super boring, no offense to golfers), and we celebrated Anna's actual birthday on the 18th!  She had a nice day with some special food, gifts from us, and she got to dress down for school.  

Friday the 20th was the spring festival at school, which was insanely hot.  All I can say about it was that it was hot!  There was a good turnout, but one sports team didn't show up to work their cotton candy and popcorn tent, so another mom and I were stuck at that the whole time.  But, it was successful, and was thankfully the last of the PSO events for the year.  Due to a few factors (covid, Lent, and scheduling), we had a bunch of stuff packed into the last month of school.  But, it's over now!

The weekend of the 21st we girls were all a little sick, but it worked out well that we didn't have much planned.  We had to miss Danny's birthday party, but we got his gift to him and we are going to see them this weekend!  We had to reschedule Anna's birthday party at the pool, but it ended up storming during the originally scheduled time anyway.  Anna went to the eye doctor on the 23rd and got some badly needed new contacts.  Her right eye went up by 0.25 and her left eye stayed the same from either last May or last December when she got contacts.  

Wednesday the 25th ended up being the last day of school due to a covid "outbreak" within the school (5th grade).  I am still pretty confused about what exactly went down and I definitely don't agree with them closing the school a week early, but what can I do about it?!  I would say that as PSO president this year, I got a little too close to the "inside" of the school and plan to never be that close again!  ;) 

So, it was a lot of mixed emotions surrounding the end of the school year, but we are now into summer mode and are making the most of it.  The girls joined the Y and did a middle school orientation class on Saturday morning, and we all went to work out together this morning, which was great!  Bob and I took a boat training class on Sunday at Falls Lake for our new venture - boat club!  We are super excited to be able to reserve boats and have some outdoor family fun on the lake!  

Monday was Memorial Day, and we mostly did some projects around the house and hit the pool with Olivia in tow, which was lots of fun.  

Tuesday, we ran some errands and Erin had her dress rehearsals for her dance recitals coming up this weekend - it's her first year taking 2 classes, so that ended up meaning she will be in 2 recitals!  Sometimes multiple classes are in the same recital, but it's just luck of the draw.  Her dress rehearsals ended up being just an hour apart on the same night, though, so that was nice.  Her recitals are this coming Saturday at 1:30pm and Sunday at 7pm, and this year they are back at Fletcher Opera House in downtown Raleigh for the first time since 2019.

So, that was May!  It was a little crazy but all good, and we are happy that we were able to do so many normal things again. Here's hoping for more of the same, especially when school starts back up!