take a deep breath........

....you are going to need it to get through this entire post.  I have really lacked motivation this summer to keep the blog updated.  It was a very interesting summer with all the kids home and I found it quite challenging to keep everyone entertained and on task during the days.  I should have set up some sort of system to reward good behavior but lacked motivation to do even that....notice a theme here?  I'm not even sure what the problem was but if I had to pinpoint one thing it would be that we were either really really busy or not busy enough....not much middle ground.  So, I found that coping with being really busy was okay but then when we had to create our own schedule, there were a lot of issues.  That probably doesn't make a lot of sense!  I'm hoping that next year is better and I will get things figured out sooner.  It was also weird trying to keep all four kids happy.......they all seem to want to do something different at ages 12, 9, 7, and 3 so I always felt like there was at least one who wasn't being paid enough attention or being forced to do something too mature/too childish for them.  Anyhow, we DID do a lot of fun things and had some great trips that they will hopefully remember over the dull days at home.

I am going to attempt to just throw together a lot of random photos in this post and then I'll recap some of our trips later on.......like maybe before Christmas:)

First off, we continued our tradition of pelting the kids with water balloons when they get off the bus on the last day of school.  Between my neighbor and I, we had two wagonfuls, water guns, and lots more.

Here is a quick clip of the mayhem....

Wouldn't be the same without any tears.......he had no problems getting anyone else wet!

We also got this letter in the mail, yardwork isn't our strong suit.  The funny thing about this letter is that we got it in the mail right after we had spent an entire weekend prepping baseball fields for a tournament our team was hosting.  

 We made it through softball season somehow.  Emma has become our diehard sports girl.  Not a day goes by without her begging us to practice with her.  For a while it was pitching every night in the yard......she even developed a nervous tic in the form of delivering a softball pitch.  Now, it is soccer season and she is obsessed about being the next Hope Solo, so there are many late night sessions of "goalie training" going on.  (thanks to our soccer-loving neighbor)

And then we have this one.......who unfotunately inherited my athletic genes:)

 Our indoor baseball facility hosted a baseball camp with one of the Reds players, Jay Bruce, and Jordan was lucky to be able to attend.

I'm going to touch on the baseball season in a different post, here is just one picture from their trip to Baltimore.  They won the 11U Ripken Experience in June and continued on to have a stellar season.

 ....cell phone picture from a visit to Kings Island with Halle and Eli.

The next group of pics is of Travis' family at the airport when we welcomed his parents home from serving as mission presidents in Phoenix, AZ.     

It is so great to have them home after a long three years.  Eli was only a couple of months old when they left and there were two more grandkids born while they were gone and now two more on the way.

 Halle lost a whole lot of teeth this summer, she went through a great Nanny McPhee stage for a while and the tooth fairy has paid lots of visits.....most of the time a few days late.

 Another baseball tournament in Michigan.......

 Eli working on his stance.......are we the only ones who allow this in our house??

 Lots and lots of cheese coneys were consumed this summer.

 Lots of "coordinated" family time.

 I hope the cousins will be good friends as they grow up.  I never had the luxury of living super close to cousins so I am happy that they all have eachother.

 Our dear friends moved back to the States from Madrid and were able to spend a few days here on their way to their new home in Oregon.  We had some good times together and wish they could have stayed longer!  

 This may be the best way to describe the summer.  HOT HOT HOT!!

That's all I've got for now......I hope to come back this week sometime to recap some trips, probably will happen while I am procrastinating cleaning the bathrooms.