Camp

Our next adventure was camp.  Elye stayed with me at night and for meals, but Reesi was in a cabin with two counselors and 5 girls.  Elye had a blast and did not want to go home.  Reesi's stomach hurt for the first few days, but then by day three she was having fun.  We also got to see Mimi and Papoo when they came up for Grace's baptism. It was a special week.  

Meanwhile, Larry spent 12 days in Myrtle beach and Hilton Head with his summer teams and coaches.  

Cruising

For our vacation this year we went on a cruise to Jamacia, Cayman Islands, and Cozymel.  We spent the week relaxing, eating, and swimming.  I also spent a lot of time relaxing on a chair and reading.  When we were in Jamacia we went to the most beautiful beach. The girls spent the whole time swimming with their goggles looking for shells in the perfectly clear water.  However, we quickly realized that walking the streets and shopping was not a good idea after we were offered pot twice.  

The next stop on the cruise was Cayman Island.  Here we went to a sea turtle farm where the girls got to get in the water with the turtles and hold them.  Reesi feel in love with them and did not want leave.  She also decided that when she graduates she wants to move to the Cayman Islands and work there.  

The last stop was Cozymel.  We tried to save a little money and take the taxi cab drivers advice for a beach/hotel.  Not a good idea.  The hotel pool was the size of a large jacuzzi.  The beach was about 20 feet wide and full of sea junk.  The water was full of millions of minnows.  The girls were great sports while Larry tried to take them in the water and okay while I sat on the beach saying no to everything they would walk by and try to sell me, like prescription drugs!! So $90 and 2 hours later we were back to the port shopping.  

We left in Sunday and got back on Sunday so we had plenty of time for fun on the boat.  The girls favorites were the movies at the pool at night, the slides, and ice cream several times a day.  My favorite was reading books on the deck in the late afternoons.  

Camp

This last week the girls and I spent our last week at church camp.  It took Reesi a few days to get used to it, but by Tuesday she was good.  Elye had a blast with the camp kids.  Reesi even went around the Mess Hall with the same boy three times!! (His choice) We are exhausted but had a blast!!

Gatlinburg

We always look forward to our week with family every other year in Gatlinburg.  The girls and I rode down with Karen and met Lesli, Jeff, and Austin at Mountain Loft.  Karen worked her magic to get us a newly renovated unit, but unfortunately that meant we lost our amazing view from last year.  Jeff was a little disappointed. Sunday and Monday we started each day with a big hike.  The first part of the first hike Elye spent taking a gazillion pictures with their camera.  The girls lost their energy around mile 1.5 and we had to turn around.  The next day we did an even longer hike and it was straight up hill, 2.4 miles uphill.  The last mile uphill was ugly but we made it!! Then Elye ran the whole way down with Austin and Jeff.  The girls went down on our own nice and slow and started talking about soldiers who have lost limbs in war and how they miss out on things like this.  Then we started talking about the dancing with the stars soldier who lost his arm and leg.  Meemaw best comment of the week was about him and how he lost them, "What'd he do, step on an IUD or something?" 

The rest of the week we went to the water park, walked downtown almost every night, did Wonderworks, Alamo, and walked around the Island.  

We are losing our pool😫😫

Mimi and Papoo moved into a rental this summer and are building a house.  We are so excited for them but this means we only had three weeks of their pool for the summer and it rained most of that time.  We did find a perfect day for Reesi to have some friends out to swim to soak up all the fun we could.   

Swim Lessons

After six years of swim lessons with Mrs. Nancy this was our last round.  My girls are growing up 😩

Elye was a champ.  Most of her lessons were early in the morning and freezing.  One of them she actually did in the rain with chattering teeth, but she learned so much.  She can now tread water and jump in the deep end and swim all over the pool.  We celebrated the last lesson with Reesi treating us to free Kriapy Kreme donuts using the A's on her report card.  

State Champs

After eight years of coaching Larry's team won their first state championship for the school. The whole experience was so surreal!  Larry thinks he got almost 1,000 texts, but he had recently lost his phone and had no contacts so he didn't actually know who they all were from 😂😂 

Commendation

Somehow our baby is becoming a young lady. Commendation was kind of like her crossing over program for going to middle school.  Each student was given a personality trait that fit them the best and Reesi's was relating, which was basically being a good friend.  That is definitely one of Reesi's best qualities.  When you ask her who her best friend is she will never give you a straight answer.  She has too many.  Last year a teacher told me that when she was getting ready to split up kids to ride with on field trips and she has the class write down who they would want to ride with and every single girl write Reesi's name down.  That is her one quality I don't want her to lose when she goes to middle school.  

Elye's Field Day

I was lucky enough this year to get to be outside and help with field day all day this year, Which means I got to see this girl some.  She didn't want to get wet, which excluded several of the stations.  She quickly changed her mind and ended  up soaking wet.  

Tough Mudder

This year I decided to try the tough Mudder again, but this time it was with one of Reesi's friend's mom.  It was at Milky Way Farms in Polaski, TN.  After watching Tough Mudders Facebook page we had a clue that the biggest challenge was going to be the hills, but it was not even close to what we imagined. Right off we started with a ridiculously long hill straight up.  It was ten miles of this and I felt like I was trail running in the Smokey Mountains, but we made it through and I made it across the monkey bars again!!! We did it on a Sunday this time and it was so much more laid back and less crowded.  I was dreading doing it, but actually enjoyed it!!

Grandparents Day

This was Reesi's last grandparents day program.  I can't believe her elementary school days are gone.  After the program we headed to Mimi and Papoos for some pool time.  The water was cold but it was a beautiful day.