A little balance

An entire week home for me - yahoo! The weather was pretty nice this week - perfect for Nola to learn how to ride a bike! Brenner was also charged with destroying the Japanese beetles in the garden. Summer is certainly here!

Love this picture.

Matt helping Nola with her balance on the bike. She did good - a bit of a challenge with the dog running in front of her!

There were spills but smiles as well. We are riding the trail on the 4th so she needs to pick it up a bit :)

Hope they are always willing to give each other a hug!

We ran errands on Saturday while Matt worked. They wanted burgers at Five Guys - and not the little ones which meant double cheeseburgers for each of them. The server even reminded me of this and I said sometimes the battle isn't worth it! Anyway - I didn't order anything thinking I would be clean up. I was mistaken - I did get a few fries though :(

Nola in my shorts that reminded me of Grandma Hilbrenner's (Nola) culottes. So Aunt Lynnie - this picture is for you!

KC after running around a bit in the gorgeous weather! No humidity in June - who would have thought!

Matt working in the garden. It looks small in the picture but doesn't feel like it when we are weeding it. The blackberries are huge! Can't wait for them to ripen...very soon.

We found these in Nola's room. She loves to right. Love that chooses interesting things (eg not battles with drawings of swords and solders - sigh).

Love the detail, Grandma?

This is a bit of an embellishment - I don't go to the Grand Canyon all the time - but am heading there this week - yahoo (except for the part about being away from the family)!

Father's Day

I was in Ohio part of this week scoping out forest restoration sites and the kids and Matt held down the fort! The weather has finally steamed up - typical for Missouri. We can hardly believe June is half over already!

Touring upland forest at the Fernald Preserve.

The kids avoiding going to bed one night - they can be very entertaining.

Brenner had soccer tryouts Friday and Saturday. Go Ravens!

On Sunday, we headed to mom and dad's house to celebrate Father's Day. It was a fun time.

Dad with his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. We're not a bad looking bunch :)

The best dad these kids could ever hope for! We are so blessed.

Matt got Nola a bow this week and she was exited to try it out. Especially after they took the new blind (Shed Roof Inn) to Hilbrenner Lake.

A dream come true - both kids shooting bow while he drinks a beer ?

VBS and Denver

The kids and Matt had Vacation Bible School this week while I was in Denver for a work meeting. Nola had a bit of trouble with me leaving and then both kids got sick - oh no! Matt was stellar dad (except for sending me a 2:29 am text that Nola still wasn't feeling good!). We all survived but Matt got sick once I got home - poor guy! I measured the kids this week - both have grown at least an inch in the past five months - thank goodness it is shorts weather!!!

Nola's class practicing their song. The VBS theme was the Five Fingers of God. Kids had a blast!

Nola got sick during Matt's Trustee Meeting with Brenner coming into the room to let him know she had thrown up. Everyone was sympathetic. Matt finally got the kids home and then it hit Brenner. His lasted about 36 hours while Nola's only lasted about 24 hours.

Kids only missed one day of VBS. On the last day they released balloons with a scripture and our church. Hopefully the balloons travel far and wide :)

Balloons in the air. Our God is great.

The kids also went to the pool for the first time this year - I was told it was a good day!

Funny story - one of the Grandma's at our church apologized for not saying hello to me at the pool. I laughed and said I wasn't there - and asked who was Matt talking to?!?!?! We had a good laugh!

Science in the summer. Nola correctly hypothesized that the black balloon would blow up first because it was dark and would get hot.

Voila!

In Denver, we went to a Rockies game one evening - it was a nice night at the ball park!

On our last day, we had a field trip to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. The arsenal made weapons for WWII. The refuge is near the airport - stop and check it out the next time you are in Denver.

The refuge is one of the reintroduction areas for the black footed-ferret - the most endangered mammal in the US. Here they are demonstrating how they are training the ferrets to find food.

John Hughes, Fish and Wildlife Service, showed us how they mark and monitor the ferrets on the refuge. Notice he had some extra onlookers - a prairie dog in the background kept calling while John talked.

We had an exciting Saturday night. Notice anything different? Brenner chipped his front tooth while hitting the ball with his bat. We still aren't sure how the bat hit his tooth. Luckily - the chip didn't go to the nerve and the dentist called us back right away. Brenner was excited to show his Sunday School classmates his new smile. Off to the dentist this week to get it fixed. There is always something!

Brenner eating pretzels off the ground. Why? I have no idea.......

3v3 Soccer Show Me Games

We enjoyed the time at home this week - getting back into our home routine. The kids and Matt had a busy week running errands and I was swamped with work. But - the weekend was all about soccer! We had a great time watching Brenner play, getting some sun, and visiting with family and friends!

Brenner is getting to be so grown up. We went to a work party on Friday night, and as we left Brenner went up to the host, held out his hand, and told the host "thank you for having us". All. On. His. Own. Way to go, B!

A hot June Saturday for 3v3 on the turf. The boys are getting some coaching from Paul.

The boys had two tough games Saturday and lost each one by one goal. Brenner was a scoring machine though!

On Sunday, the boys did a bit more passing - which is what we are used to seeing in the spring season. And - they won both games Sunday!

We had some spurts of energy.....

....but they still earned a bronze medal. Good job, boys!

Cousin Colten came on Saturday and Nola made the most of it!

Grandma Val came both days, and Grandpa came Sunday.

Grammy, Aunt Theresa, and Uncle Chuck also came to cheer him on. Thanks to everyone for coming down to cheer on the Ravens!

Earlier in the week - Brenner had his allergy testing. It didn't go as planned with him having severe reactions to several plant. Brenner actually went in to anaphylactic shot and had to get a shot with the epipen. But - he recovered quickly - it took Matt a bit longer!