Family Reunion and Hallie Turns Eight!

 My mom's family has a reunion every Labor Day weekend in Texas. Since it's such a short trip, I fly with the girls on Friday and stay an extra night before all the family arrives on Saturday. We gather at my uncle and aunt's ranch house, which is incredibly fun. The only downside this year is that my mom got sick just before that weekend, and didn't feel like she could travel. So, she and my dad stayed home this year, and we all missed them!

They have several golf carts to ride around the ranch property, and Emma and Hallie have learned some great driving skills there! Emma took us on our first driving tour.

Then it was Hallie's turn at the wheel! 

Enjoying the tree swing and the beautiful views.

There's a pond on property that's stocked with fish. The girls didn't catch anything over the weekend, but they had fun trying.

Dan flew on Saturday morning since he had to work on Friday. He caught a ride from the airport with my brother, Steve, and his family since they arrived on Saturday, too. It's been several years since Steve's whole family's been able to come, and we loved having them at the reunion!

As soon as cousins, Meera and Rowan arrived, they got a grand tour of the ranch.

Meera loved driving the golf cart and giving Hallie and Rowan a joy ride!

We have an annual egg toss competition. The kids are pretty casual about it.

But the adult version is highly competitive!

They added a pickleball court this year.

Dan played pickleball for the first time on a team with Jeff, and they dominated!

The pickleball cheering section

The kids had a great time riding and drawing with chalk.

No visit to the ranch is complete without an adventure in the woods to visit the "bone pile"

This is where the kids collect any cool bones from deceased animals on the property. And pile them up into a creepy skeleton tower.

It's a monument to the Circle of Life

It's always hot enough for a swim in the lake. There's a giant lily pad for the kids to play on. The girls give each other rides on it, and the boys play "King of the Hill" on it until someone bleeds.

There's also a paddle boat and a couple of kayaks. Emma's hitching a ride and being dragged around the lake by Dan and Hallie.

After swimming, Hallie took a big bite of watermelon and lost a tooth!  

One of the small trees had died in the lawn, so the guys handed an axe to a barefooted 9-year-old and told him to take care of it. Welcome to Texas!

Meera caught a fish and the whole crew helped her reel it in!

While the kids were adventuring, the adults spent many hours playing card games

The Webb/Strickland/Campbell cousins

The cousins with spouses

The cousins' kids

And the whole family! We absolutely love that our extended family still gathers every year. It's a special tradition that we don't take for granted!

Just a few days after we came home from Texas, Hallie turned 8!  I made her a #7 pancake to celebrate her last day of being 7 years old.

Hallie's birthday was on a weeknight, and we had dinner out to celebrate. Her restaurant of choice was Texas Roadhouse. The grandparents and our nephew, Nathan, were able to join us there.

She was a little bit happy about her presents.

She picked out her own birthday cupcake from the store and it was gloriously pink!

Speaking of gloriously pink, one new place that Hallie wanted to visit for her birthday is a dessert shop called "The Sweet Spot." It's completely pink inside from floor to ceiling, and she loved it!

The desserts were super fancy and delicious!

Dan and I split a gourmet shake that had a brownie and an ice cream cone perched on top.

That weekend, we had more birthday celebrations! Hallie invited her two best friends, Sophia and Fiona, to make Build-A-Bears at the mall with her and Emma.

The birthday girl

There was a cute ceremony when they stuffed their Build-A-Bear animals.

They each chose different animals, and all of them were adorable!

They all chose roller skating and leash accessories for their animals so they could take them on walks.

We had a final birthday party for Hallie with the Jester family in Williamsburg. It was the last chance for everyone to swim in Grandpa and Grandma's pool before they closed it for the fall & winter.

Hallie built her own donut cake for the family party, complete with Stitch and Angel decorations.

Hallie, what would our family do without you? Your enthusiasm is contagious, and you enjoy experiences to the fullest. We love your sensitive and sweet heart and the kindness you show to others. Your best days are filled with the people you love and fun activities. We're thankful that God blessed us with you! We love you and pray that the Lord will lead you and keep you near him all the days of your life.

Just Like That...

Just like that, summer ended much too quickly!

Hallie and Emma did an amazing job gaining skills and confidence from their swim lessons this summer.  We feel that it was money well spent since Hallie improved enough to swim in the deep end without any flotation devices. She lost her fear of jumping into the pool, and learned several new strokes.

Her new skills came in handy during summer camp. Each Wednesday, they'd take the kids to the YMCA swimming pool. If a child could pass their swim test, they were allowed to swim in the deep end of the pool and slide down the waterslides. The swim test involved treading water and swimming across the length of the pool using a freestyle stroke. The first time she attempted it, she didn't pass because she wasn't sure exactly what they expected of her. So our swim instructor went over the terms and technique with her during her next lesson. A couple of weeks later, Hallie had a second chance to take the swim test, and she passed with flying colors!

Emma learned new swim strokes and gained a lot of speed!

We joined Dan's brother, Tim's, family at Kings Dominion one hot day in July.

The kids enjoyed riding a few rides, including Joe Cool's Driving School.

They tried their best to race, but the cars only went about one mile per hour, so it was a slow-motion race.

When we couldn't handle the heat anymore, we spent the afternoon at Soak City Waterpark, which was included in the price of our tickets.

We rode lots of waterslides and swam in the wave pool. The concrete was absolutely blistering, and you felt like you were running across hot coals to get to the next shady or wet patch of ground. We learned that they'd allow you to keep your water shoes on if you held them in your hands while you rode down the waterslides.  Unfortunately, Tim's water shoes were stolen while we were playing in the wave pool. I'm sure someone who didn't bring any shoes stole them to save their feet from being baked. We kept all our stuff well-guarded after that happened.

When the sun began to set, we ventured back to the amusement park side of Kings Dominion. This ride spun the kids so fast, the force of the turns plastered them into one side of the car. 

Josiah: "Get OFF me, Emma!"  Emma: "I would love to, but I literally CAN'T MOVE!"

Micah and Hallie didn't care how squished they were. They just laughed wildly the whole time!

One of our local parks puts on a great firework show on July 3rd each year. We've watched it for several years now, and last year we found a nearby parking lot that allowed us to view the fireworks but skip all the traffic.

The girls had the best seats on top of our van.

Ready for the show to begin!

We gathered with Dan's family for Independence Day, and Hallie made a lovely American Flag dessert for everyone.

We had a relaxing holiday hanging out at the pool

We brought Pop-Its for the kids, which are tiny bags of gunpowder. When you throw them on the ground, they make a "crack" sound, and if you wait until after dark, you can see a tiny spark when they hit the concrete!

Hallie and Micah wanted to prank our nephew, Benjamin, by planting a bunch of Pop-Its under his car tires so he'd hear a crackling sound when he drove away. 

One of the neighbors set off small fireworks.

We were able to visit with our good friends, Mike and Kate, and their kids, Charlotte and Cameron, the following day. They joined us at Dan's parents' house and we ate dinner, swam, and caught up for several hours. It's always wonderful to reconnect with them!

The girls enjoyed a free Slurpee from 7-11 on July 11th! Hallie loved it...Emma, not so much.

We planned a long overdue friend playdate at our house with school friends.

Celiah used to be in Hallie's class at StoneBridge. Last year, her parents began homeschooling her and Hallie's really missed seeing her!

Diana (in front) and Remy (in back) are Emma's two best friends. They've been begging to have a play date this summer!

After hanging out for a while at our house and eating lunch, I drove them to my parents' community pool. Much fun was had by all!

After swimming for a couple of hours, we reconvened at our house to play. 

While the older girls listened to funny music, Hallie and Celiah designed beautiful dresses together before she had to go home.

Dan has exciting news! He accepted a new job at StoneBridge as an upper school math teacher!  It's a big change from his previous job as Director of Operations, and he spent the entire month of July doing online math tutorials to refresh his skills. 

When he finished his last tutorial, we had a date at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate!

I guess it was technically a double date. Heh! Emma's wondering why Dan would willingly spend his summer doing math problems. Hallie is fine with celebrating math, as long as she gets to eat those delicious rolls!

Hallie's not-quite-as-exciting-news is that she got a spacer in the roof of her mouth this summer. Her baby teeth are tight, and she needs more room for her adult teeth. She was in pain for a couple of days as her mouth grew accustomed to the spacer. And to make matters worse, fruit snacks and gummy candy are now off-limits, which are her very favorite foods.

We supported our niece, Miriam, when she performed in her summer theater camp's fairytale performance. She played her parts perfectly!

Just before teacher orientation began, Dan took the girls to his parents' house to help them out with some projects. They rode the ferry there from Surry to Jamestown, which is always a cool experience. Dan's sister, Robin, and her daughters, Naomi and Miriam, joined them for a few hours there, too.

"Hurricane Debby" flooded the southeast coastal area in mid-August, but we only got light rain in our area. The girls were supposed to go on a camp field trip to the zoo that day, but the trip was cancelled because of uncertain weather. So I took the day off and the girls and I had our annual "Mommy and Me" day instead!

They started the morning with a scavenger hunt around the house for toys. They were very excited to find these Magic Mixling playsets!

Emma set up the castle

And Hallie set up the magic van

After grabbing lunch, we spent an hour at Catnip Cat Cafe in Norfolk. They had at least 20 cats and the cafe provided toys and laser pointers to keep the more energetic cats entertained.  They also had lots of cushy chairs and sofas for snuggling with the cats that were willing to be held. The girls were in heaven!

After considering several indoor options (because of the rain), we decided to visit Sky Zone Trampoline Park that afternoon.

Evidence that Emma is a total stinker! Haha!

Hallie was a tiny bit upset about being knocked off her battle stand.

Emma made it up to Hallie by helping her navigate a tricky swinging obstacle course, though.

While both girls enjoyed jumping on the trampolines some, they obviously spent most of their time in the obstacle course area.

Hallie had a 3rd grade class summer party at a local park. While most of the kids played at the playground, she and her best friends, Fiona (left) and Sophia (right) had adventures in the woods next to the playground.

Emma's middle school kickoff event was at the school, where they played team games and had ice cream. She said it was awesome!

And then, it was time to return to school!

Hallie is in Mrs. Edwards' 3rd grade class this year. She already knows and loves her teacher, since Mrs. Edwards used to be the director of extended care. She earned her teaching degree a couple years ago and is passionate about teaching 3rd grade.

In 6th grade, Emma has the benefit of learning in the brand-new upper school building at StoneBridge! It's been a long time in the making, but the building is beautiful and is a definite upgrade from the modulars where the middle schoolers used to attend classes. She has different teachers for each subject and will move from class to class and use a locker for the first time. We think she's going to thrive this year!

We pray that the Lord will guide our girls' steps and help them grow in wisdom and faith.