NATIONAL BALLOON CLASSIC

I decided to take the boys to Indianola on a Wednesday night, July 30th, for the National Balloon Classic.  It was kind of a spur of the moment trip, and we ended up having Heidi and Ty Woollums tag along with us on our adventure!

It turns out that it took us forever to get down there because of traffic.  Fortunately, the whole event started up probably 20 minutes after we arrived, so it actually worked out perfectly.  That 20 minutes gave us just enough time to use the restroom, get some dinner and drinks, and find a spot for our blankets. 

Just as we sat down, the 3 balloons right in front of us took off and the many, many, many more all started to fly in and land down right in front of us.  It’s actually a really beautiful event to witness.  All the balloons in the sky on a beautiful evening is almost surreal. 

While we were there, we had a great time!  The boys ate dinner, watched the balloons, and then wanted to do some bounce houses. 

The boys and I at the Balloon Classic.

It is so fun to watch this happen!

A couple of the boys’ favorites.  The pirate, Peg Leg Pete, and the Monkey, which had people wearing banana costumes flying the balloon.

As we were getting ready to leave, they had just opened up the fence for people to walk in and look at all the balloons up close and get right underneath the fire and heat.  It was very cool!

After our amazingly fun evening at the Balloon Classic, we had bad luck in the parking lot.  We ended up waiting in the parking lot for a good hour after we had just gotten into our car.  There was a bad accident that backed up traffic for the night.  So, besides our traveling to Indianola and our traveling out of Indianola, the spur of the moment adventure was awesome!

‘THE BRUISE’

So….Tyler fell off of his bike and got a pretty ugly bruise on his chin!  He was very lucky that it was just a bruise and nothing more serious.  He took a pretty good fall and the bruise showed that!  And then a few days later…we had family pictures!  Luckily we have an awesome photographer!

It happened on Saturday, July 26th, so this was what it looked like the first night—when we were at the horse races.

Day 2.

Not sure what day this was, but it’s when it looked the worst, I think.

HORSE RACING FUN!

We had a great evening at the horse races on July 26th.  It was a beautiful evening to be outside enjoying summer!

The boys had a great time betting on which horse they thought would win and Brady left the night with winnings!  He won $2.28!

SUMMER MOTORCYCLE RIDES

Around and Around and Around they go!

The kids love going around the block on Dad’s baby!

They don’t get to go on actual ‘rides’, just because I’m not completely secure with that idea.  However, Tyler did get to ride to a T-Ball practice on the motorcycle.  But, they are completely happy with going around the block time after time again!

And Lee is so happy to have his motorcycle and is enjoying riding it to work every ‘dry’ day this spring, summer, and into the fall!

SUMMER FUN AT THE LIBRARY

We had a lot of fun going to the library and doing the library events this summer!  The boys also participated in the summer reading program this summer.  Each of them had a goal of 75 books and each made that goal before summer came to an end.  Tyler read his 75 books and Brady was read to.  Because of all their awesome reading this summer, they were each given a ticket to the library swimming party, 2 tickets to an I-Cubs game, and 2 tickets to the Blank Park Zoo.  Unfortunately we were unable to go to the pool party and the I-Cubs game.  And we still have our tickets waiting for us to go to the zoo one of these weekends.

I am very proud of both of them and of all their reading this summer!

SUMMER CAMPS

Tyler had a busy summer of camps this summer.  He participated in a High School Basketball Camp in June, a YMCA football camp in June, and a YMCA basketball camp in July.

He loved them all!  They kept him busy and he was always learning new skills!

SWIM LESSONS!

The boys had such a great summer of swim lessons and really improved their swimming!

This was Tyler’s 2nd year of private, one-on-one, swim lessons with Sam and it was the last year that he will need to be with Sam.  Maybe swim club next???  Tyler progressed incredibly fast with his swimming skills this summer.  He went to swimming just a little ways, to swimming from wall to the rope, to swimming 25 meters (wall to wall), to making it across the ropes, to going off the low diving board, down the steep red slide, and then finally off of the high diving board!  He is amazing!  He loved every bit of it and always had a smile on his face and was ready to try anything.  The only time that we saw any hesitation out of Tyler was the first day that Sam wanted him to try to pass the swim test.  It made Tyler very anxious and nervous and when he tried, he did not succeed.  He was a little down on himself, but we reassured him that he could do it and would do it next time.  He tried the test again 2 days later and passed it!  Now, when we go to the pool, Tyler spends the majority of his time going off the diving boards, or going down the slides, or across the ropes!  It’s so fun to watch!

This was Brady’s 1st year of private, one-on-one, swim lessons with Sam and we would love for him to get to be with Sam again next summer.  Brady, as well, progressed incredibly fast with his swimming skills this summer.  He began not really being able to swim at all.  He can now swim a ways in the deep water, but swims much better in the shallow, knowing that if he needed to, he could put his feet down.  We still put his ‘puddle jumper’ life jacket on him at the beginning of the summer and he still wanted it on then.  He grew confident in his swimming quickly and we didn’t need him to wear his puddle jumper any longer!  Now, when we go to the pool, Brady (and 1) spend the majority of our time playing “fetch” with one of the torpedoes.  He loves to swim down to get it without plugging his nose!

The Leap of Faith!  Jumping into the deep water for the 1st time!

My first time seeing Tyler go off of the diving board.  He was with Lee when he passed his swim test and did it for the first time.

Brady swimming in the deep water.

Brady listening very closely.

Tyler’s first time going down the red slide!  The same day he passed his swim test!

One day Tyler thought the line at the low board was too long, so he decided to go off the high one!  Way to go!  He didn’t even tell me before he did it.  I looked up from playing with Brady and noticed Tyler swimming in the water below the high diving board!

Brady loves dumping water on himself.

Our last day of swimming lessons for the summer was August 7th.  It was cloudy, rainy, and cool!  But we did have the entire pool to ourselves!

These boys absolutely love their swim instructor, Sam!  They would do anything Sam told them to do!

I can never get a normal smile from Brady anymore.

During our last swim lesson, Sam tried to teach Tyler how to dive off of the board.  He did get better the more he tried, but he still needs to practice it a bit.  I think he did a few belly flops that day!