what I did this summer part 1

We've had one heck of a summer!! Between track meets, summer school, birthdays, youth conference, girls camp, and a trip with my sis and her family life was pretty much crazy!  It all started in May when my parents came to visit! The thing is there isn't much to do here in good old Abilene. We went to the zoo and out to eat with our friends the Comptons. My parents took a tour of Gary's school and went with us to Lorin's end of the year awards assembly. At her school they have a a program where students read books and take tests on them and then get so many points for length of book read and how well they did on the test. Lorin had the second highest score in the entire school!! But really, my parents spent most of their time buying us a picnic table and painting it!!! We really loved having them!

After my parents left the kids had an opportunity to participate in an Autism Awareness fashion show! The kids had so much fun!! We went to Dillard's a few weeks before and the kids got to pick out what ever they wanted with some guidelines of course (no swim suits!)The kids loved it! When we got there that morning they had us dress them and do their hair and they had someone there doing just a teeny bit of makeup for the girls. I knew Brynn would love strutting her stuff, but Ethan was the biggest ham!! He wouldn't get off the stage! Afterwards the kids got cookies! It was a lot of fun!

                                  

                                           

We also just missed a really beautiful wedding!!!  It was the wedding of our friends Chrissie and Ryan Petrie. It was about four hours away.  Halfway there we blew a tire!  We went to put on the spare and realized it wasn't there!  I guess when we fixed a flat before our friends at Pepboys failed to put it back on the car!  We were 20 miles from the nearest town!  It was a weekend so all the tow companies were closed.  We did not have AAA (now we do!) and some how in the ordeal I got peed on by one of my children!   We finally got a hold of a guy who came out and replaced the tire on the spot to the tune of 400$!!  So when we finally got there we walked in and we were at a quinceanera!  We were at the wrong place!  The wedding was on the other side of the park!  We missed the wedding but made it to the reception.  It was so beautiful!  It took place in a reception hall that looked like a barn.  The decorations were simple and elegant.  It was very classy without being stuffy and there was lots of dancing!!.  

Chrissie was kind enough to dance with Brynn over and over and over again!!  Brynn was diggin'  her fancy dress and thought Chrissie was pretty much the best!

We also had closing ceremonies and awards for Ethan's little league team!!  He got a Special Olympics medal. He loves it and would wear it to bed and to the store and to church!!!  He had to show it to everyone!  

I got to go to girl's camp this year!!!!  My job at church is to help plan and participate in activities in a region of west Texas for 12-17 year old girls!!!  Every summer girls camp is held and I got to go up as a leader!  Every year I went when I was a teenager and had a blast!  Nobody told me how much fun I would have going as an adult!!  I think I spent a lot of time swimming (it's a lot more fun when you don't have kids hanging around your neck wanting you to be a shark or crying because water got up their nose!

This is a silly skit some of us leaders did!

Our camp nurse was also an excellent braider!!  She spent most of her time braiding hair!

Some of the clan from our congregation!  I love these people!

Last but not least my Lorin turned 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What!  That can't be right!!!  We had a Luau complete with luau games, a hula dancer cake, and spam sushi!!  Many of her friends were there to share it with us!  Unfortunately our camera was no where to be found to we had to use a disposable film camera!!  Who knows when I will get that developed!  

I do however have footage of her blowing out her cake when we had a family party!

There is more to come from our very busy summer! Stay tuned!