How We Spent Our Summer Vacation

And you . . . and you . . . and anybody else who has wondered, "Where in the world did she go??"

I received an e-mail this past week with the gentle urging to quit having so much fun and get back to the computer so, *sigh*, here I am.

Oh, I jest. Believe it or not, I have started several entries which have either gone to my Draft box or straight to File 13; I tell you that so you won't think I'm a slacker who's been sitting around watching TV and eating bon-bons all summer. In truth, we've had so much going on that blogging has taken a backseat. And the thought of trying to come up with a blog entry for each and every activity that has filled our summer makes me want to stick myself in the eye with a fork so I give you . . . (drum roll, please) . . .

THE LIST!!!

In no particular order, this is what we've been doing with our summer that is coming all-too-quickly to a close:

1. WACO - Randy sniffed around on the Internet and found a dirt-cheap "Family Getaway" to sleepy little Waco, Texas that included three nights in a hotel and tickets to the following: the Waco Water Park, the Mayborn Museum, the Cameron Park Zoo, the Texas Rangers Museum and Hall of Fame and the Dr. Pepper Museum. For you Facebook friends, you've already been privy to a lot of the pictures from our trip. But I have been remiss in posting any pictures for the grandparents--I know, I should be shot!--so here is a sampling of the fun we had. Just click on each link and you'll see photos from our various outings (with the exception of the water park, where I would have been out of my mind to take my Nikon!):

-The Mayborn Museum
-The Cameron Park Zoo
-The Texas Rangers Museum and Hall of Fame
-The Dr. Pepper Museum

2. CAMP IMPACT - This was the girls' first time to go to church camp since living in Texas. Camp Impact is located on the Oklahoma Christian University campus and ran from Sunday through Thursday sometime back in June (please don't make me get up and have to traipse all the way into the kitchen for the family calendar!). I rode on the bus to Oklahoma with all the kids (3rd - 6th grade) and helped the girls get settled in, and thoroughly enjoyed the drive back with several of the other parents who had come along for the ride. Here's a link to some photos that Emily (our Children's Minister) took during the week:

-Camp Impact

3. PINE SPRINGS - Tyler went to the mountains of New Mexico for the second summer in a row with the Woodland West Youth Group. This year's trip will likely always be memorable for me because it was with great sadness that I let him walk out the door and get on the bus for a twelve-hour drive . . . on his 13th birthday. Boo hoo hoo! It's not every day that your boy turns 13, and he wasn't even here to celebrate!

4. BASKETBALL/VOLLEYBALL CAMP - Tyler and Darcy each participated in PCA's basketball camps this summer and Darcy also went to Volleyball camp. The upshot of each is that Tyler thinks he has almost NO chance to make the team this year ("There are a LOT of good players in the 8th grade, Mom!"); and Darcy went from being content to play with Upward again to wanting to at least try out for the basketball team AND from not even wanting to participate in Volleyball Camp to wanting to at least try out for the team. I'm detecting a pattern here.

5. CLARINET/SAXOPHONE/DRUMS - Darcy now takes clarinet and saxophone lessons for an hour each week and she is literally blowing through her practice books. Her teacher can't believe how far ahead she is and how quickly she has made the adjustment from clarinet to sax. I'm not surprised--if Darcy's going to do anything, she's going to do it well! And this is probably news to some: Tyler now has a full set of drums! Our friend Brent, who was letting Tyler borrow his snare drum, found out that Tyler was ready to upgrade so he came over one afternoon with the rest of his equipment and set everything up for Tyler. I must say, they take up a lot more room than I expected them to, but on the plus side we finally got the computer desk moved out of Tyler's room like I'd been wanting to do!

6. DRUM LINE - Speaking of drums, Tyler is joining the high school marching band this year, and he will be the only 7th grader on the field. The drum major/lead percussionist moved, and apparently the only other upperclassman percussionist in the band also plays football and, oddly enough, didn't want to stop playing football in order to march at the football games. Weird, huh? (That's a joke.) So the band director looked to Tyler and, as the saying goes, he "seen his duty and he done it!"

7. H.O.P. CAMP - H.O.P. stands for Helping Other People and that is exactly what the girls did last weekend at Camp Hensel in Travis Peak, TX. Camp Hensel is run by the grandparents of our children's minister and our 3rd - 6th graders had an opportunity to help out by washing windows, painting picnic tables, cleaning the camp kitchen, mopping floors--with a little fun thrown in here and there!

-H.O.P.

8. POSSUM KINGDOM - The same week that the girls went to H.O.P., Tyler was invited to go to Possum Kingdom with his buddy Hunter and four other boys, where they had the time of their lives swimming in the lake, exploring in the woods and, best of all for Tyler, finally getting to shoot his bb gun!

9. SHOTS! - Interspersed here and there we've managed to squeeze in four well visits to the doctor in which 12 immunizations were administered, five of them to Sawyer alone! Even after all that, though, we're still not caught up. Ohio apparently didn't feel too strongly about the Hepatitis A vaccine but Texas law requires it, so all the kids have to have TWO doses scheduled six months apart. Sawyer is actually supposed to have both doses before being allowed to start Kindergarten, but our doctor said to simply tell the school nurse that his follow-up immunization is already scheduled and he should be good to go.

10. SCHOOL SUPPLIES - I am excited to say that all the kids' school supplies have been bought and boxed up, ready for the first day of school, and have been so for the last two weeks! I was determined not to wait until the aisles at Wal-mart became so crowded that I would want to shoot myself to be put out of my misery, so the girls and I headed out one afternoon with my list in tow and came home with all but about three items. Aaaaahhhhh!

11. KFC/CAMPING - And that brings us to this past weekend. Tyler and Sawyer headed out Friday afternoon around 3:00 with a couple from church, and they drove to Glen Rose State Park (at least I think that's where they went) where they hunted for spiders by flashlight (apparently that was a BIG hit), went to Dino World, swam in the lake and I don't know what else. Meanwhile, the girls and I spent the day at the KFC (Kids For Christ) Rally at the Pleasant Ridge church with some of our other All-Stars and had a GREAT time.

Well, in a testimony to our busyness, four days have passed since I began this post! But in my defense, we are on a "stay-cation" and have been going here and there and everywhere in a last-ditch effort to spend some good quality time together as a family before the craziness of a new school year begins!