Summer Activities Post #4

 The best part of our summer was our trip to Arkansas and Missouri. Ryan had to be in Arkansas for his job, so we joined him.

 

It was really great hanging out at my parents' pool,

 

and it was made even greater sharing the fun with aunts and cousins.

 We felt like we were staying at a resort.

 

 

Meanwhile, the kids each got to attend a camp during one of the weeks we were there. Sis attended Around the World Art Camp and...

 

Triple Threat Camp, which culminated in their performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We love Blackbird Academy.

Dash spent his mornings at Lego Robotics Camp. So cool!

 

I don't have a photo to use of Tornado at Camp Connect, but here are a few of his crafts he made. This is a camp for special needs (mainly autism and related) kids. He attended two years ago and had talked about it ever since. I was really happy he got to go again, and so was he. He won the "Happy-Go-Camper Award" for always being "cheerful and happy, even when he hurt his leg." It's the exact award I would have wanted him to win.

 

Sis and her BFF were so happy to be reunited. Her friend brought her this Build-a-Bear shirt from her recent trip to England, and it fit Sadie quite nicely. The girls got to play with each other a few times, making up for lost time. Dash has also gotten to know her older brother, and now the two of them are able to join in on the playdates, too.

 

We got to hang out with a few of our other Arkansas friends - definitely not enough of them, though. It's so hard to see everybody we want to see during our visits. :( We had a great time hanging out at the pool with these guys.

Ryan had to leave Arkansas to head to Georgia for a few days. While he was there, we were in Missouri, staying with my brother and his family. My aunt joined us for our visit, which was great. We also met up with my uncle, grandma, and family friends, so we were able to squeeze in as much as possible. At my brother's, there was a lot of this kind of stuff going on.

And a lot of this. O is one patient older cousin. He's one of the greatest kids I've ever met. All of my nieces and nephews are!

We even experienced an early morning fire alarm incident which resulted in a lot of laughs (after the all clear was given) and...

...turns sitting in the fire truck!

While we were in Missouri, we finally got to experience the Askinosie Chocolate Tour in Springfield. We love factory tours! This is Tornado, tasting cocoa nibs.

We really enjoyed it!

We also had a great day at Crane Park with some of my best friends from highschool and some of their kids.

It was just the kind of day I had been needing, and I was so happy to share a little of my old world with my kids.

 

I was also thrilled to get to watch two of my nephews play ball.

I HATE missing out on their lives,

being so far away.

I got to soak in as much delight as I could while I was there.

 These girls got a hold of my phone.

 And one particular almost-teenage girl wouldn't let me get her photo here.

 

During our stay in MO, somehow Little Brother developed a bad case of hives. I still have no idea what caused this. It looked so bad, poor guy; none of my kids have ever done this before. We made a quick trip to urgent care to rule out any possible bad causes.

 

Then it was back to Googie and Papaw's house for a day or two more of fun,

before heading back to Florida until next time.

We can't wait to visit again.