Random June

In addition to taking turns sleeping with me while Mike is gone, the kids also like to wear his shirts to bed. 

Here we are on a random hike somewhere. Where? No idea, it's 2018. ;)

Adam and Nolie playing in the rain. 

The kids getting ready to TP the Wright's house. Adam allowed them to come right back over and take it down so the sprinklers didn't soak it in place. (No fun neighbors) ;)

On the day Mike came home the kids brought me some breakfast in best. :)

Mike's deployment

In April we dropped Mike off at his base for a 10 week deployment to Al Udeid Air Force Base in Qatar. It was his longest deployment so far and we knew we were going to miss him A LOT.

Mike is a very smart man and later that day I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Well done Mike! :)

One his way to Qatar they stopped at Mildenhall Air Force Base in England. Our friend Cody Wayne Carter Jordan is stationed there so he gave Mike a tour of the area. Mike got to visit some local Abbeys and cemeteries.

Mike stayed really busy flying, and accumulated a lot of hours, but when he wasn't flying he was bored. The main thing he said about the base was that it's brown. Everything is brown. In the top picture you can see the fire truck and it's...brown. :) The windows in their rooms are blacked out because pilots have to sleep at all times. Mike's take off schedule was generally between 1-7 AM so he had to sleep during the day.

Here are some pictures he took while flying. It definitely beats a desk job. (If you like flying)

This one and the next are my favorites

During one of his flying his plane was hit by an RPG and it busted out the window. Just kidding. One of the windows shattered for no apparent reason. There was still another layer, so it wasn't a big deal, but it freaked me out a little when he told me. 

In June we picked him up. It felt wonderful to have him home. Welcome home Mike!

Baseball is over. Finally! ;)

We like to support our kids in trying out sports and activities they like, so when the boys asked to play baseball this year we signed them up. We chose a city league rather than rec center league because it's more competitive and they get the cute baseball uniforms. It's all about the cute baseball uniforms. One of the big differences between rec ball and city ball is the frequency of games. In the city league they each had 1-2 games/week plus practice. Put this together with Sarah's piano and riding lessons and we had a very busy couple of months.

Steven played on the Diamond Backs. He thought it was pretty cool that his team name is after a rattlesnake, because he's a big reptilian fan. Steven is a great hitter and has a really good arm. We played catch together but after getting hit with the ball a few times he decided he'd rather just play the offensive side of the sport. :) I was the "Team mom", so I get to spend the games in the dug out hanging out with him. His coaches names were Dustin and Justin and the three of us had fun helping Steven to pay attention. He cracks me up. He enjoyed the time with his team.

Adam played for the Marlins. His friend Jace was on his team and as long as we kept them completely separate they would both play. :) Adam loved to hit and always tried to be one of the first ones at bat. Outfielding wasn't his thing, but that comes later for some kids. He was one of the youngest on his team and did well for his age. (Except for one game where we had to leave because he was batting at butterflies in the air and prancing around the bases. The other parents were highly amused.) :) He had ten or so kids on his team but a few were out of town for pictures. Jace is the front right kid.

I didn't need this baseball season to make me appreciate Mike, because he's an awesome dad, but his absense was felt. It was hard to shuffle the kids between all of their extracurriculars and still feed them. Mike would have loved to have been there for the whole season, but he unfortunately missed all of the games. He did enjoy seeing the pictures and hearing the stories but I wish he could have been there. 

Adam's preschool graduation

Last Thursday Adam "graduated" from Little Learners Academy. That means he'll be starting kindergarten in the fall. That means he'll be going to school every day. Most days he threw a fit about going to preschool, even though he liked it, so hopefully kindergarten goes okay. I'm going to miss having him home with me.

A few weeks ago we went with his class to the planetarium.

Here is Adam's adorable class picture. Seriously, we made a cute kid!

Here are a couple pictures from his graduation. Adam has so much personality! I baby him a lot, but he's a really smart little big boy.

Here is Adam receiving the "Mr. Spunky" award. Miss Leslie and Miss Aubrey loved Adam and all of his "spunk".

I should have written down this kids name. He chased Adam out into the parking lot asking for a picture.

Here is some video from his performance. My phone was acting really weird so I didn't get the whole thing.