SUMMER RE-CAP!

I don't have a whole lot to re-cap, summer truly came and went way too fast this year. We had a lot of fun things planned, but then they had to keep getting cancelled due to Emma's dance and Jared's work.We did celebrate 4th of July at Grandma Joyce's house (or as Eli calls her, "Pa's boy" - Grandma calls Eli, "Pa's boy" because Eli reminds her of my dad and he always lights up and waits for her to say that to him, it's really cute!) with a BBQ and swimming party with my family, Kristen's family, Jason's family and that was about it. It was slim pickins this year. Afterwards we went back home and rested for a bit and then ate dinner and grabbed milkshakes for everyone and headed out to watch the fireworks. The kids loved it and we found the perfect place to do it (but if you think I am going to share that info on here, you are crazy, I got to keep the good spots secret, muhahaha).Eli played flag football this summer. This was probably my favorite sport he has played so far. He would practice Wednesday nights at 6pm, then practice Thursday nights at 6:45pm and then have his games at 7:30pm that same night. The weather was perfect, the sun had gone down by then and it was just nice to sit out under the lights and cheer our little buddy on! As usual he was the smallest one on the team and had a ways to go to catch up to the rest of the group (that is the problem when you play your child up with the older kids, but it is so beneficial for him because he fights really hard to get to their level and by the end of the season he is amazing and playing right along side of them!!).

He got really good towards the end of the season about ripping off the opposing team's flags. Sometimes he would rip them off with such force that the other boy would go down too! I went to every game except for one, the game I missed I was in Vegas with Emma. I kept getting play by play texts from Jared. Finally I got 2 texts and they made me get teary eyed, my little man had scored 2 touchdowns, that's right, 2! I was soooo sad that I missed it, I felt bad all night. I did proudly tell all the moms that was with me that night at dinner what he had done.

Every week on the drive home from the games we would give him 3 "hip hip hoorays!". The kids loved cheering for him and he loved hearing it :) The night of the last game his team was playing for the championship, they had only lost 1 game all season and that's who we had to battle it out for 1st place with. We lost. We kinda figured we would. It was a rough way to end the season but the exciting part was they each got the 2nd place trophy. As we were all done and walking back to the car, Eli said to me, "Mom, I'm so happy I did so good at football and I'm so happy I got a shiny blue trophy. I'm so happy!" And that is why we do what we do. Love you buddy!

Elias' first pre-game practice
Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers came to a couple of games and so did the Slys, it was great to have people come out and support him!Getting his trophyListening to the coach tell them how great they were and then after that we headed out for some ice cream to celebrate his great football season! Eli frequently played with his mouth guard. We actually had to buy 3 of them during the season. I won't even tell you how we bought his 2nd one and moments after putting it in his mouth for the first time he dropped it in the toilet right after he peed, yum!Pure intimidation

During the summer we tried to go on a few family walks on Sunday nights, but after our first 2 attempts, we quit. The first time, Emma and Eli decided to ride their bikes and just a few minutes into the walk Jared and Emma decide to race and out of no where Emma crashes hard. Road rash all over her face, arm, legs, shirt, hole in her shirt and oh yes, many many loud cries and tears (she is not nearly as tough as her brothers). I took her home and got her cleaned up and Jared finished the walk with the boys.

The second attempt was even more annoying. We just put the garage door down and then Tyler decided he wanted his scooter so we went to open up the garage and the outside key pad had died. We ran next door to see if they had a spare battery we could use just long enough to get into our house and they didn't. We walked around to a few neighbors to check to see if they had a key pad and they didn't either. We were trapped outside with no keys, no phones, nothing. We walked over to Heather and Dabrielle's house who welcomed us in with open arms. They were pretty surprised to see us there unannounced and then to top it all off, we wanted the keys to their car to go to the store and oh yes, money to buy a battery :) Eric and Jared headed off to the store right away, the girls fed my kids desserts and then while the boys were still gone they decided to paint Tyson and Eli's toes and nails, Tyler would not have anything to do with that :) It was a fun night, but Jared was a little disappointed in the boys with the nails polished but quite proud that Tyler said no! Ha Ha.We went out a eat several times this summer and oh yes! Eli learned to swim without floaties!! We hired "Bells" to come out and give him some private lessons and he LOVED it!!! He is a little fish and swims all over the place now. Tyson isn't to far behind him and next year I have no doubts he will be without floaties, Tyler, well...if he can swim on the step then forget it, so he has a long ways to go :) It was a short summer, but we did have some fun times in there!