Happy Fourth of July

Fourth of July morning JJ went for a bike ride with a friend.  He then came home and we all loaded up our bikes to go for a ride on the Katy Trail.  It wasn't to hot and we haven't been this year.  The kids were excited to ride.  Nolan has outgrown the bike trailer and likes to ride on the tandem bike behind JJ.  He was so funny with his gloves like Dad.  We started in Defiance and rode to Weldon Springs and then back, about six miles.  Everything is so green and pretty, my favorite part of the trail is when the trees come together and it looks like you are riding through a tunnel.

 

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting food ready to take over to my parents.  We all meet up there just before dinner. 

 

 I made some cheesecakes and also made a spinach and berry salad.  All the food was delicious!  We enjoyed eating, visiting and the kids enjoyed riding on the dirt bikes.  The Anderson's were in town and it was nice to see them.  I bought some tattoos for the kids a while back and almost forgot about them.  Thankfully Lucy remembered them as well as some light up necklaces.  I put a tattoo on each kid and then some adults.  They were fun and the kids thought they were fun.  Nolan wanted his star tattoos on his forehead.   

 

 

 

 

 We headed to a parking lot close to Bluebird park and enjoyed watching the fireworks from there.  It was a good display and it was nice and easy to sit by our cars.  We didn't get stuck in traffic like last year and were able to get home and in bed quickly.  We had a nice and relaxing day together.  I was glad we didn't try to make it to a big festival or fight crowds.  Simple and low key.  

Cardinals Game

A friend posted that tickets for the cardinals game were going for $4 with fireworks at the end of the game.  We have never been to a cardinals game as a family.  JJ usually gets two tickets from work and we go together.  Tickets that cheap is such a good deal so we bought some and looked forward to going.  We weren't worried about getting to the game right when it started because we knew our seats were in the sun and Nolan would most likely not enjoy sitting for that long.  We got there just after the third inning.  My sisters Christy and Kelsey were at the game and we said hi to them.  They had much better seats.  We were up in the nose bleeds but had a fun time.  We brought candy and peanuts from home.  Once the sun went down the evening was much more enjoyable.  The game was really good, we won 14-6.  The kids had a fun time and Garrett especially enjoyed joining in with the cheering.  We enjoyed participating in the wave and it made it all the way around the stadium a few times.  Fireworks were awesome and put to music which was really fun.  The went off from a few different parts of the stadium.  One part was right above us, it was really loud sometimes.  We had such a fun time going and it was neat to be there as a family.  I know a lot of people go down to the games a lot but we don't.   This was a special treat and were thankful for the cheap tickets.

Sparklers

My visiting teachers brought me this cute 4th of July apron.  We came home from church and I put it on while I fixed dinner.  JJ said I looked very patriotic!

Sunday evening we went out in the street to do a few fireworks.  We always enjoy setting off just a few fun ones.  The kids did some sparklers and then took turns setting off other ones.  They were cute with their sparklers, especially the boys pretending the sparklers were swords or something.  They love the smoke ones and the pretty fountain ones.  There are so many fireworks that are set off in our neighborhood it is fun to sit out there and enjoy them all. 

 

Saturday evening we invited my parents over for dinner and to take the kayak out.  They were excited to come spend the evening with us.  We had a nice dinner together, enjoying some cucumbers we picked and chicken grilled in a pesto marinade with basil from the garden.  We then loaded everything up and headed over to the park.  We gave Grandpa the first ride in the kayak.  He was loving it, you could tell because he just really soaked it in going nice and slow around the lake. We also brought the fishing pole.  We took turns fishing and riding in the kayak.  I took Nolan out for a ride and it was so fun.  He was so cute riding in there with me.  He eventually turned around so he was facing me in the boat.  He loved putting his hands over the boat and running them through the water as we went.  He had all sorts of questions like "are there sharks in this water?" and "where did the water come from?"  I asked him if he thought the fish would come bite his hand while it was in the water.  He quickly pulled it out of the water and looked worried, I laughed and told him no.  I just looked at his cute face, his blue eyes and big smile and thought what a precious moment it was.  I just wanted to put that memory in my mind and save it.  I hope to always remember that time when I looked at him in the boat and how cute his little voice was and the dimples in his chubby little hands.  We had a nice time together and he loved to have a turn with the paddle. 

I took a turn fishing, we used a grasshopper that Garrett found in the grass as our bait.  I caught a fish and was so excited I yelled "I caught a fish!" No one was there to see it but my Mom.  She was so excited and took my picture.  We called everyone over to see the fish and my Dad got it off the line for me.  The kids were a little jealous and both wanted a turn to see if they could catch a fish.  It got late quickly and was soon time to head home.  Everyone had such a fun time and heading to the park with the kayak is quickly becoming one of our favorite things to do.

When we got back to the house my parents wanted to stop by a firework tent to get some fireworks.  We had lots of tents up by our house and they don't have any out by them.  Lucy and I went with them to also get a few for us.  After we got our fireworks my Dad said "lets go get a treat!" He was so funny.  We ended up stopping by the store to get ice cream and Oreos.  My parents were so funny picking out the ice cream.  My Dad wanted one kind and my Mom wanted another.  Lucy and I laughed because the whole thing was so funny.  We ended up back at the house quietly eating our treat at the kitchen table while the boys were already in bed.  It was such a fun night!

Our little garden is growing so well!  We decided to plant four different tomato plants, two cucumbers and a basil plant.  We are trying a new way to grow the cucumbers so they don't take up so much space.  We are growing them up.  So far it is working really well.  Next year we will do the same but plant them together at one end of the garden.  We were able to pick several good size cucumbers and a few red tomato's.  We have also picked some basil and used it in some recipes, it was so good.  We are having fun growing some vegetables together.    

Alexa's Party

Saturday afternoon Nolan was invited to his friend Alexa's birthday party.  This was his first party to be invited to and he was so excited.  It was at a fun little place called Little Bits gym.  There were all sorts of things for the kids to play with.  He had a blast running around and exploring with his friends from nursery.  His favorites were the ball pit and the big swing.  He was so excited about the goodie bag he got when the party was over. 

Bike Parade

Our neighborhood had their first 4th of July bike parade.  I picked up a few little decorations from the dollar store.  They enjoyed decorating their bikes and Nolan's little pedal car.  We are going to love JJ's new work schedule of only working one Saturday a month.  He was able to join us in the bike parade and all our other fun Saturday things.  It really was so nice because normally taking the kids to something like this is all on me.  It can get overwhelming at times.  We walked down together to the club house where the parade started.  They rode in age groups, older kids up front so they could go faster.  The younger kids were all towards the back.  They rode down the street from the clubhouse to the round-a-bout and then back to the clubhouse.  They had a fun time!  At the end they had freezer pops, drinks and chips for everyone.  It was hot and after we enjoyed our snacks we headed home to change and go swimming.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Day at Clarkson

It has always been JJ's goal to open his own practice.  All the way back to our BYU days we talked about how someday it would happen.  He even went to business school at BYU so he would better know how to run his own business.  Out of school was not the right time for us to do that so we accepted a job at Clarkson Eyecare, which has been a great choice.  We have really appreciated the job JJ has had with them but always knew it was stepping stone in his career.  He has developed a love for vision therapy and there is a need for it in our area.  This past year we have really been putting things into works for him to leave Clarkson and get ready to open his own practice.  He has been attending the OEP conferences so he can have more knowledge and confidence with vision therapy.  He will complete the 4th and final course at the end of July.  Early this year we started to look for locations for his practice.  We found one we really liked and had everything in place to go when he put his notice in.  We have been saving a lot lately so we had a nice security net in our savings account.  We know it will be an adjustment going from a salary base with monthly bonuses.  We were finally ready to put our notice in at work.  They were fully supportive of JJ wanting to do vision therapy and start his own practice. They however were not going to let him out of his non-compete agreement of a 10 mile radius for 1 year.  We thought they would for sure let him out since he would be doing vision therapy but they weren't.  We even submitted another location farther away and they denied that too.  We talked to two different lawyers who both advised us to wait out the year and not fight it.  We agreed, we didn't want to burn any bridges and fighting it would only take time and cost money.  We were really disappointed, it was a huge set back to think of waiting for a year.  Especially when we had everything in place to move forward.  It was also neat to see answers to prayers as we felt our Heavenly Father is mindful of us.  He knows this wasn't how we wanted it but has something in store for us.  JJ started looking right away for work to support the family for the next year.  We were able to have several job offers and it was nice to have choices.  He still needs to stay out of the 10 miles so his work will be a little farther way but we are thankful for work.  He is working part time at two different places.  He will plan on keeping one of the jobs when he opens his own next year.  He will be at a Lasik office two days a week and JcPenny three days a week.  So the last day of June he said goodbye to his office and staff at Clarkson.  He was there 5 years and it was great.  It has been neat to watch him pursue his dreams and I know he will be great.  We are ready to move on and looking forward to the next adventure!         

Monday morning we went to Quail Ridge park to do the story book walk.  It was part of our summer reading program.  You walk around the path and read the pages to the book.  It was a cute book about trucks and tractors.  The kids liked taking turns to read the pages and got excited to find the next page.  We played at the playground for a little while before heading home for lunch.

 We had some fun at the pool, the water was freezing!  We learned later in the week that they had to drain some water out of the pool due to a back flow issue and then refill it.  Hopefully the water warms back up quickly.  I hate cold pool water, the kids didn't seem to mind.  They would occasionally get out and warm up in the sun.   

 Garrett attended STEM scouts day camp all week long.  We took turns with other parents driving carpool so that was helpful.  He went each night from 5-8:30.  It was hard to have to drop him off somewhere right around dinner time.  Each family had to take a night to help at camp.  I went up and drove the carpool on Wednesday.  Garrett was excited to have me come and see all the fun things he was doing.  They did some shooting, had someone speak to them about wolves, they did a craft and then did soap carving.  It was a fun evening!  By the end of the night all the boys are starving.  one day Garrett brought some money to buy a ring pop.  He was pretty excited about it.  I learned after being there with him that I should pack him a snack to eat on the way home.  He had a lot of fun with the boys from our church.  I was glad, we hope the transition from troops will be smooth and he will enjoy his new group.