Summer 2021 - Big Update

I haven't posted in awhile, because we have been extremely busy. I am going to post the highlights of the past two and half months in one long post. We have had lots of fun and lots of change and I want to be sure to document it all!

In July, we ended our regular swim season with a winning record of 3-1. We also hosted City Meet and our team placed 3rd! That was quite an accomplishment as we hadn't placed third in over 10 years! Preston had a great swim season and helped his team place in many relays. He also had some good individual events and had lots of fun at City Meet, even though he didn't make it to the finals. He was a great teammate and spent lots of time cheering for his friends. Evan accomplished his goal and was the City Meet champion for diving for 14 and Under Boys. He worked very hard all summer. He also was able to get 5th place in the 100 meter IM and also helped his relay teams win two more medals in the 14 and Under Boys freestyle and medley relays. It was an amazing season with our amazing team!

Just a couple of days after City Meet, we went to Key West. We had an amazing time. The weather was great and we had lots of fun. 

We all spent lots of time at the pool, as it was the perfect spot to cool off. 

Preston asked to go to the botanical garden almost every day. He loves catching lizards there. I really enjoy seeing the flowers and the butterfly garden.

Preston found coconuts and got permission to keep them. We ate one and we brought one home to see if we can grow our own palm.

We spent an afternoon at the water park and playground. In addition to playing, there was also lots of lizard catching and tree climbing.

We loved spending time at Fort Zachary Taylor. The water was beautiful and great for snorkeling. Preston especially liked snorkeling on this trip and he and Carl went many times. 

We visited Geiger Key where we kayaked and had lunch. We also did a bit of exploring, but not too much, as it was quite stinky from the large amount of seaweed. While we were there, a boat captain was cleaning fish and let both Evan and Preston feed a large nurse shark that was by the dock. It was really cool!

Evan spent a LOT of time fishing. He went out to the pier at least once a day and sometimes he went more than once in a day. He caught lots of fish and was especially excited to catch many sharks and a barracuda. 

While Evan fished, we kept Preston entertained doing things he liked. We went to the aquarium, tried coconut water, went on walks, visited Southernmost Point, went out on the paddleboard, and caught lizards. We also took him snorkeling. He absolutely loved snorkeling and he saw lots of sharks. He also found some cool shells.

Carl and I were able to go out together on a few different nights. We enjoyed a sunset sail, as well as eating at all of our favorite restaurants. 

We went out on Captain Rio's boat one morning and had lots of fun fishing. Captain Rio knew a great spot and the boys caught over thirty fish each!

On Carl's birthday, we went out on a boat for the all day adventure. We had a great time snorkeling, playing on the inflatable playground, riding jet skis, and parasailing. 

We went to the wildlife center. It was only partially operational, but the boys enjoyed feeding the turtles.

The boys were greeted by a fledgling grackle one morning. It was learning to fly and was super friendly. He reminded of us of Lamar. 

When we returned from Key West, we celebrated Granddaddy's birthday. The weather was nice, so we had lunch outside at Captain's Quarters. 

On August 2nd, we bought a new house! It was quite a long process, but we are moved in and have already started to make it perfect for us. We love the extra room and we absolutely love our backyard, which has a pond and a dock on Harrods Creek. The boys have already started making friends and they are happy that they remained at their schools. 

It was quite a process to find and purchase a new house.  Over the past year or so, we looked at several houses in Hunting Creek that just weren't right for us. We tried to look at a few others, but they sold so quickly, that we never even got to attend our appointments to view them. It was quite frustrating.

Earlier this summer. I happened to see an ad online about an open house that was happening in The Landings. It wasn't where we were looking to buy a home, but the house looked amazing. We went to the open house and decided to put in an offer. Although we made an offer over asking price, we were outbid. We were very disappointed. It seemed like getting a new house was just not going to work out for us, so we started to work on making additional improvements and additions to our house. 

A few weeks later, our realtor messaged us saying that the house we loved in The Landings, was no longer under contract and that the agent selling the house wanted to know if we were still interested. We made an appointment to view the house again and meet the owners to learn about the repairs that were going to be done on the house. Everything seemed great and the owners agreed to take our original offer. We were thrilled!

After we purchased our new home, we got to work getting our old house ready to sell. Despite having it all updated, it was actually a lot of work to get it staged and ready to list. We had an amazing realtor, Todd Klondike, that helped us get it ready. He also helped us sell it very fast and at a great price. It did take several weeks of hard work to get everything moved out. We hired movers for the furniture, but we still made countless trips to the new house, as we moved clothes, toys, etc. 

We made many great memories at out old home and can't wait have lots of fun in our new house!

The boys started school in mid August. Evan is in 8th grade at Kammerer Middle School and Preston is in third grade at Chancey Elementary School. 

Here are the pictures from the first day of school. 

Evan has continued to fish a lot this summer. He loves catching bass and has also learned to catch carp. 

Preston decided to try cross country this year. He has joined the team at Chancey. He loves practicing with his friends, but also enjoys running with Daddy. He has had one race so far and he loved it!

The pool was open extra long this year. It was extra nice to go and relax after working hard on moving and starting back to school. 

I don't want to end this post without mentioning the pandemic. As a family, we are happy and things in our lives are getting back to normal. Carl does still work at home, but the boys are back in school full time and we have resumed many of our usual activities. However, Covid-19 is still here and causing lots of people to get sick. To date, there have been over 4.5 million deaths worldwide and about 685, 000 deaths in the United States due to Covid-19. Vaccines have helped people to not get super sick if they do get infected, but many people refuse to get vaccinated. Also, there has been difficulty getting the vaccines distributed to certain places. Healthcare workers are overworked and underappreciated. Teachers and school staff are also feeling lots of pressure as they try to teach, care for the students, and also follow lots of guidelines to help keep people healthy. I am hopeful that we can get this pandemic under control in the near future. Living during a pandemic is difficult and stressful for most everyone.

Summer 2021

I can't believe that it is already July! It just seems like the boys just finished school, yet we are about half way through summer break! We have been having lots of fun together so I figured I would write a little update, before we head into the crazy fun adventures of City Meet and our trip to Key West.

The summer started off with lots of fun outside with friends and lots of cicadas. They were incredibly loud and you could not go anywhere without seeing them or having them land on you! I really enjoyed the beautiful sounds they made. The boys enjoyed seeing them, holding them, and trying to count them!

We do most things outside, but it is also fun to do things inside. Defy is always a favorite on a super hot or rainy day. 

Evan has spent a TON of time fishing this summer! He fishes all day on Monday at the golf course. He then spends other days at the creek or nearby ponds. He likes catching bass the most, but is also happy with other fish too. He has caught some over three pounds!

Evan has also enjoyed catching fireflies this summer. I truly think he enjoys all things that involve being outdoors!

Preston has had lots of fun too! He recently earned a new belt in karate!

Preston enjoys going out to dinner. He worked hard and learned how to use chopsticks. He also likes getting dessert!

Preston and I had an adventure in the woods. We tried searching for treasures with his metal detector. That didn't work out so well, but we had fun and saw some cool creatures. 

Preston LOVES the Purrfect Day Cat Cafe. We visited this summer and he had a ball. The kittens were playful and sweet. 

Preston has enjoyed making things out of wood, using kid kits. He has built a bird house, bird feeder, a foosball type game, and an airplane. 

We celebrated Father's Day with Carl, Granddaddy, and Grandpa. Due to all sorts of busy schedules, we did each celebration on a different day. That actually worked out really well, since each dad got his own celebration and we were not rushed. We had fun celebrating everyone, but we especially enjoyed celebrating Carl. He is an amazing father!

We had a great time on Independence Day weekend. We had lots of time together with friends and family. We spent a lot of time at the neighborhood pool. Evan and his friends also had a backyard sleepover. We enjoyed decorating our cart for the parade and got second place! The fireworks in our neighborhood were fun  and we also had a few fireworks here at the house. 

We also had fun floating in our backyard pool on the holiday weekend. We did decide that it was time to send it to a new family though, so it was our final float. It served us well, especially last summer, when we were stuck on our property due to being infected with covid-19. We hope Ms. Tracy loves the pool as much as us!

We have spent a lot of time at swim and dive practice, as well as meets. So far, HCCC has had three meets and we have won two of those. We lost to Big Spring, but only by 9 points. They are a HUGE club and last time they beat us by over 250 points. Losing by 9 points definitely felt like a victory. Evan has excelled in dive and both boys are swimming well and helping their team. We face Owl Creek this weekend an plan to come out with a win. Next up is City Meet, where we plan to show off our team's hard work and dedication. 

Carl and I have gone on a few date nights, as well as met up with friends. We have recently seen friends that we haven't seen in person in over a year! It is so nice to be able to get together again. 

I wanted to note that we currently have most of our restrictions for the spread of covid-19 lifted in both Kentucky and The United States. Vaccines have helped tremendously and our infection rates are very low. Unfortunately, our country has over 600, 000 deaths and the world has over 4million deaths due to covid-19. Many countries, like India, have recently had terrible outbreaks, which is very sad. We are hopeful that as we move forward, that there will continue to be more vaccines available, as well as equipment needed to save the lives of those that are sick.

May 2021 - End of School and Springtime Fun

The boys are officially on summer break! Evan completed 7th grade at Kammerer Middle School and Preston completed 2nd grade at Chancey Elementary School. It was a challenging year with most of the year spent doing online school at home and then ending the year on a hybrid schedule with school at home and school in the building. We are very proud of how well the boys persevered throughout the year. Evan ended the year with straight As and Preston ended the year with straight Os. 

We spent a lot of time outside as the weather has continued to get warmer. I have enjoyed walking on the trails, as well as in our neighborhood. I love how beautiful Kentucky is this time of year!

Evan has enjoyed lots of fishing this spring. He enjoys fishing at the creek, our golf course pond, and the pond at Norton Commons. He especially likes to fish with Lucas, but also enjoys when Granddaddy or Grandpa take him fishing. 

The 17 year cicadas arrived! They are all over the place and are quite loud. We actually enjoy hearing them and the boys like finding them and their shells. Preston even went on a special trip to search for cicadas with Bonnie Mom and Grandpa.

We were especially excited that the Congleton family came to see us. It has been almost a year since we have been able to see each other and were all thrilled to be able to be together again. 

We also celebrated Mother's Day. All of our celebrations were simple this year, but no less wonderful. We are grateful for Bonnie Mom and Grammy. I am also extremely grateful to be a mom to Evan and Preston. Some days are challenging, but I am incredibly blessed. I love them more than they will ever know. 

Finally, the most exciting news in May is that Carl and I became fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and Evan had his first round of the vaccine. Hopefully Preston will be eligible to be vaccinated later this year. We are grateful that the use of the vaccine is helping us return to normal. Mask mandates and other restrictions are being lifted and we are looking forward to a fun summer with family and friends.