First day of school and Freshman A volleyball!!!! Vacation Bible School volunteers

Emmy started 9th grade HIGH SCHOOL and Bobby started 7th grade at the Academy last week.  They are off to a great start and are enjoying it. They both want to get to school super early every day (Emmy an entire hour before school starts).  They are both in tons of school activities. Emmy volleyball and Jazz Choir and Bobby is trying to do both soccer and football.  We are so proud of them and how they've adjusted to being busy at school.  Emmy's first days included volleyball try outs. By Wednesday last week she had some good news to share......

Emmy made the FRESHMAN A VOLLEYBALL TEAM AS THE STARTING SETTER!!!! She is one of only 7 girls on the team and she is very excited. She worked very hard at strength training this summer and went to multiple camps. She moved to setter as a new position and beat out 4 other setters for the starting position. She now is a great overhand server.  I am very proud of her work ethic and determination and most of all.....for her attitude.

Emmy and Bobby also volunteered at McCabe Church as crafts volunteers. They enjoyed serving and always came home tired and with smiles (sometimes stickers) on their faces. Emmy devised a game to get kids to pick up stickers off the floor. If they picked them up, they could put them on her face. Bobby told me the kids were so cute and he loved helping. I told him I was proud of his character for serving others with such joy. He looked at me and told me he got that trait from me.  What a sweetie!
 

Emmy is living her best life!!

Robb hosted a pool party and sleepover for Bobby while Emmy, Grandma Launa, and I went to Fargo for the weekend. They had a great time while we were away.

The three of us shopped, ate great food, visited a street fair and food trucks for snacks.

 We also got to see Pink in concert (along with Brandi Carlisle and GroupLove).  Emmy loved the show and she was so much fun to hang out with!! I love my girl so much and I hope she enjoyed her weekend.

Family time before school starts

We wanted to take a family trip to the zoo this past weekend. It had been a long time since our last visit to the zoo. When the kids were young we had a family membership and the zoo was a weekly trip.  Emmy and I rode our bikes down there to meet the boys. We had many laughs during our time at the zoo.  Bobby was aggressively milking the fake cow and I told him it brought back bad memories of our nursing experience when he was a baby.  I caught a picture of Emmy busting out in laughter along with her brother (who stopped being so tough on that poor fake cow).

Emmy thinks ALL animals are cute....even those that aren't so cute (like the huge pigs). Here she is making friends with a Wallaby.  We remembered that this Tiger stalked Bobby as a baby and that I was worried that he wanted to eat my baby!

We visited our friend's lemonade stand and made sure to support their endeavor.  The kids and I walked to the park to buy some lemonade and then we met up with Grandma Launa to go to some rummage sales around our neighborhood.

Boston and Bobby had their open house to drop off their school supplies. I took Emmy to her volleyball open gym which meant that Dad was giving this ride which included a stop at Cold Stone for ice cream.
 

Medora

 We enjoyed our annual day trip to Medora. We did some HOT weather hiking, ice cream, shopping, and the Medora Musical. We love spending time together as a family and this trip has become tradition.

Permit test passed!

Emmy passed her permit test!  Big day for our girl!!
 

Grandpa teaches some history lessons

 Grandpa offered to give us a tour of his shop and to tell us the stories of all of the treasures he keeps there. It was VERY interesting and we really enjoyed the history and stories. He gave Bobby his softball glove and Grandpa Art's catcher's mask and glove which was very special to Bobby. Bobby also had asked him about a Magic Johnson/Larry Bird signed poster that had been hanging on the wall. Grandpa said this was given to him by a friend of Phil Jackson (famous Bulls coach and ND native). Bobby thought this was super cool and grandpa generously gave Bobby the poster.