I
love summer. Who doesn't? I love having my kids home. I love sleeping in and staying up late. I love getting up early with the summer sun and the fresh morning. I love all the fun things that we do that are reserved just for summertime. Our summer is off to a great start, beginning with a visit from Jeff's siblings.
Jeff's sister Marcy lives nearly three hours away, so we don't see her very often. His brother Brian has been away at dental school for 70-something years in Ohio so we NEVER get to see him. He flew in for a few days and all the siblings were together. It was so fun!
How lucky am I that I married into this awesome family?
I know this is an awful picture, but it is the essence of dreams coming true. Jeff and I have been wanting to see Garth Brooks in concert for years. We talked about it all the time. It was just too expensive (the cheapest seat for his show in Vegas was $250.) When his Vegas show closed, we said that if he ever did another show, we would go, because you only live once, right? Well...I got an email (since, yes, I had signed up for the newsletters) that said he was doing a special engagement over Memorial Day weekend in Vegas...and the tickets were HALF what they normally were! DREAM COME TRUE! So you better believe I was all over it. I booked the tickets and told Jeff we were headed to Vegas, but didn't tell him why. My parents said they would keep the kids (I had never left my baby overnight!) and I reserved a room. Could this be real? Oh, yes, it was. I finally told Jeff about the concert two days before we left, and he was totally shocked. There was no photography allowed in the theater (and believe me, they were serious about it...like FBI serious) so I didn't get any good shots, but this was the stage right before the show started. Just his guitar.
And that's all it was for the entire show. Just Garth in his ball cap, t-shirt, and jeans, and his guitar. No band, no nothing. Just him. The theater only seats like 500 people so it felt like a private show. And it was everything we dreamed it would be. We were both amazed by his performance and couldn't stop talking about how talented he is. Our summer began with that awesome feeling that comes with putting a check next to an item on your lifetime bucket list. See Garth Brooks in concert: check. (and sigh...) (sidenote: please forgive me for looking pregnant when my baby is already 7 months old, I'm working on that.)
While we were off fulfilling our dreams in Vegas, the kids had a blast kicking off their summer with my parents.
Visiting Grandpa and Grandma is the best!
While they were in Cedar, Daisy had Grandma cut her hair off to donate to Locks of Love. Daisy has never, ever cut her hair and it was a big change! She had been planning it for weeks and could hardly wait for school to get over so she could go to grandma's and cut her hair.
We put her hair in a padded envelope and shipped it off to Locks of Love.
Levi worked hard in his first year of coach pitch. It was a rather unfortunate season all the way around, but he loves playing ball, and we're looking forward to lots of family baseball fun for the rest of the summer.
Daisy got her first show lamb! She named him Pepper and she works with him everyday.
Levi is not old enough to show a lamb yet, but he is working with this little ewe for practice.
Summer on the farm means critters everywhere. The kids found these baby kittens in the corner of the lamb pen.
The kids are also proud rabbit owners and have fun taking care of the bunnies and playing with them on the grass.
These are my five favorite people in the whole world.
And this is my favorite little person in the whole world. He is such a helper doing chores morning and night. He just bumps along the gravel in the "farm stroller" and waits patiently while we take care of the animals.
And now that he's 7 months old he is babbling more, sitting up, and eating all sorts of yummy mushy baby food. We love this sweet summertime!
