Cross Country

Evan decided to try cross country this year. It was a totally new experience for him and for us! The meets were typically not close to school and they were quite crowded. It was challenging trying to get to the meets on time and making sure we found the team. Thankfully, we had most everything worked out well after the first meet and things went pretty smoothly.

Evan liked the practices and the races, because he got to have fun with his friends. He also really liked it when he was improving from one race to the next. He did really well when he was familiar with the course. He sometimes got frustrated when he ran a new course that he was not used to, but that is understandable.

I am proud of Evan's hard work and I hope he chooses to run again next year. If not, I am sure he will find something fun to do. He is REALLY enjoying playing soccer with his friends at school and with us at home. I would not be surprised if he chooses to play soccer. Of course, maybe he can do both!

Evan was excited for his first race!

Evan was lucky to have Grammy, Granddaddy, Bonnie Mom and Grandpa come to cheer for him at so many of his races.

Way to go, Evan!

Evan loved the medal that he received at the last race of the season.

Summer Fun

Summer is officially coming to an end. We have had lots of fun this summer, but we are also looking forward to fall and all of the fun things that fall has to offer. Before fall arrives, I wanted to share a few pictures of our fun, lazy summer days. We sure did make the most of the warm weather!

We had fun riding/walking across the new east end bridge.

The boys liked catching fish in the creek by our house.

Preston had a great time at the zoo with Bonnie Mom and Mommy.

The boys enjoyed going to the driving range with Daddy.

House of Boom is always a fun place to hang out!

We spent MANY days at the pool. The boys have a great time swimming and playing!

The woods by our house is one of our favorite places. The boys like to catch frogs and turtles in the creek.

Summer Birthday Celebrations!

We have been celebrating many birthdays over the past few weeks. Instead of writing about each one, I put them all together. I figure that is pretty fitting, especially since we tend to combine birthday celebrations, since some are so close together! We had a great time with family and friends at each celebration. We are so lucky to have such great family and friends!

Happy birthday to Daddy, Granddaddy, John, Bonnie Mom and Aunt Heather! We love you!

Preston's First Day of Junior Kindergarten

Preston started junior kindergarten on Tuesday, August 22nd. Preschool actually started on Monday, but we were out of town on our eclipse adventure! Due to renovations at church/preschool, his preschool room is located in the "loft." It is HUGE and Preston absolutely loves it! His teachers are Mrs. Crite and Mrs. Plappert. He knows a few kids from 4 year old preschool, including Jace, Braxton, and Joshua. He is also making new friends too. He likes playing outside, as well as playing with the castle and the big ship. So far, he has been very excited to go to school each day and he always has lots of great things to say when I pick him up. I have noticed that his school skills, such as coloring, have really improved over the summer! He is doing great!

Preston loved meeting his teachers and seeing his classroom!

Preston was all smiles on the first day of school!

Eclipse Adventure!

For several months, we had been excited about the upcoming eclipse, which was going to be visible in Louisville. The moon was going to cover almost 96% of the sun and that seemed amazing! As the time for the eclipse neared, Carl began to read more and kept telling me that we should travel to see the total eclipse. According to what he had been reading, there was a HUGE difference between even a partial eclipse and a total eclipse. I was up for it and we decided to take a trip to Bowling Green, KY, which was the closest town in which we could see the total eclipse.

As we prepared for a quick day trip to Bowling Green, Carl and I read more about everyone travelling to the path of totality. There has not been an eclipse like this one, since before interstates, and no one was sure what traffic would be like. Travel experts warned that the interstates could become totally gridlocked. We did not want to miss the eclipse, so we made a slight change in plans and decided to leave early on Sunday afternoon. The eclipse was on Monday, so we figured that would give us plenty of time to make it on time. We made plans to stay the night with our friends, Mark, Melanie, Ellie and Tilly in Bowling Green. We had hoped to be able to make it back home late on Monday, but we packed tons of food, water, sleeping bags, etc. just in case we got stuck. We even had a portable toilet, so we were ready!

Thankfully, everything went extremely well. There was little traffic to Bowling Green, so we even had time to stop at Kentucky Down Under, which was lots of fun. We were also able to enjoy dinner and socialize with our friends on Sunday night.

On Monday, we woke up and had a leisurely breakfast at Wild Eggs. We had planned to head over to the WKU farm to view the eclipse, but we were worried about traffic in and out of the farm, in addition to traffic on the interstate. We were lucky to find an awesome park to view the eclipse. We had a large shaded area with a picnic table, a playground, and restrooms! It was perfect and it was not very crowded. We spent our time on the playground, as well as playing ladders, tossing a frisbee, and challenging each other in Bean Boozled. Before we knew it, it was time for the eclipse! Honestly, we all enjoyed it from the start, but it kept getting more and more exciting, as the moon covered more and more of the sun. When it was time for the total eclipse, many people at the park started cheering. It grew dark and then we all got to witness one of the most amazing things ever; the total eclipse! It was truly amazing and not like anything any of us had ever seen before! We were all very impressed, including Evan and Preston!

We headed back to Louisville after the eclipse and we made it home without any traffic problems. We did learn later, that there were traffic problems and delays as people headed home, but it was a couple of hours of delays and nothing major. This was a wonderful experience that we will never forget! We are already talking about going to see the next total eclipse, which is in 2024! I guess we will need to start making our hotel reservations soon. I think many people were disappointed in the partial eclipse and are going to be looking to travel for the next full eclipse!

We enjoyed Kentucky Down Under. Preston really liked the birds, donkey and the dingoes, but the rest of us thought that cave and the kangaroos were really cool. I was also pretty impressed with the sheep herding dog!

The boys were ready to explore! 

Preston really enjoyed looking at the birds. He also enjoyed talking to the parrot!

Hazel did a great job herding the sheep!

I kept trying to show Preston the really big horses on the farm, but he was only interested in the donkey!

Evan and Preston had fun mining for rocks!

The cave tour was really fun. It was hot outside, so we all enjoyed the cool, cave air.

The lookout area provided some great views!

 We all liked petting the kangaroos!

Go Cards!

On the way out, we saw Hazel taking a much needed break to cool off! 

We had a great time watching the eclipse!

We did not have cameras or special lenses to photograph the eclipse, but our friend Wes did! He took some great pictures, so I wanted to add them, as it is what we saw too. The last image is from a website, but it looks just like the eclipse did in Bowling Green!