First spelling test

Destin 2013 Beach Pictures

The moment Em wakes up, she starts screaming "Suit on!"
 Thankfully, Daddy and Ry let her tag along on their beach walk this morning!

She's kinda hard to say "no" to these days!

Making an attempt at capturing that "perfect beach picture" of the kids.

They aren't fans of the photo opportunity!
 Totally appeasing momma and smiling for promised candy!

This is before Em decided to try some sand. It looks like sugar afterall, right?!

Little monkeys!

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Melting at this sweet sister moment!

Beautiful Jugi-bug!

Family Lake Week 2013

Every year the family all tries to head to the lake at the same time for some fun.
We couldn't have asked for better weather this year!

Julia is a little afraid on the boat this trip...when we were down Memorial Day we hit a  few huge waves from an  ocean liner boat that went by and it still has her shaken up. She's a pool girl!

Amy, Julia and Glammie

Julia and Daddy take a walk to hunt for wild flowers.
She tells us when she grows up she is going to have a store and sell flowers.
She asks me if I'll help her collect all the stems. =)

Jeff, Amy and Emmie

We take a nice night ride to dinner...
and much to Julia's horror, hit another huge wave on the way home. Amy got slightly wet. (And that is a slight understatement! LOL!).

Ty and Aunt Krista try out our newest tube purchase.

Isn't this super sweet!!?

Ry and Uncle Jeff hop some waves.

Em chills with Larry and Diane Busch in the shade. Mr. Busch is moving his boat down to the lake permanently, so they were down this same weekend while he had a company build his new boat lift.  Perfect timing!

Uncle Jeff and Ry show off some tricks.

It takes three days, but we finally talk Julia into overcoming her wave fear and hopping back on to the tube!

Glen Carbon Homecoming and Father's Day

The kids look forward to the Glen Carbon Homecoming every year, and this year was no exception!

The swings are always a favorite, although this year Ry did tell me at one point he thought he might throw up from being dizzy.

Shorty Em has to sit out and watch this year, but she WANTS  to go on the swings too!

Father's Day Morning daddy and his munchkins!

We asked Jeff what he wanted to do, and he wanted us to take a family bike ride to the pool and tropical snow place.  It was quite an adventure getting there..we've got great trails in our area, but this trip still required some off-roading, which was a little interesting with a bike trailer, and tandem bike! At one point Ry stopped and sat down and said "I'm done!"  I honestly felt like joining him!  But we persevered on for Daddy's sake and all had a great time once we made it to the pool! 

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Schuette!

We decided to "birthday bomb" Grandpa Schuette after swim team practice today, so while Ry swam, we girls ran around and picked up our supplies.

Grandma and Em enjoy some pizza before Em runs off to explore! She's not the greatest  dinner guest these days!

Uncle Rick stopped by whil we were there so we got a pic with him too!
You can't see it too well, but the kids made a big poster sign for Grandpa wishing him a great birthday.

Swim Team

I talked the kids into signing up for swim team this year.
On the way to the first practice, Ry says, "This is not a good idea. We might drown. I think you better sign us up for tennis instead."  After two practices, the coach decided Julia needed another year of practice before participating on the actual swim team. I thought she'd be disappointed, because she was more excited about participating than Ry, but she seemed just fine when he recommended this to us.

Ry's first meet, he's never dove off a block before (and had only practiced diving off the side of the pool about two times the day before at practice!), so we weren't sure what to expect.  He and I watched a few races before his, and he saw how "swimmers take your marks" and then the actual "beep" to dive.

He lost a few seconds at the start, but I was very impressed with how brave he was!

We had a little celebratory St. Louis Bread Co after the meet.

Strep Throat

Our miracle worker lifts her hands and says, "Be healed, sister!"
Oh, how I wish it was so easy!

We thought summer would bring good health and an end to strep sickness...boy were we wrong.
Both girls ended up with a bad case that came along with a 5-6 day high fever.
I have a zillion pictures of scarlet fever rash...I'll refrain from posting those here. =)

The upside of this is mommy and daddy get lots of extra love and snuggles!

Julia Dance Recital

Julia and her friend Annie signed up for a dance class this schoolyear.

The excitement of attending the class fizzled a month or so in, but what kept her going was the promise of the fancy recital where she would get her hair done and get to wear makeup.

When we're at the grocery store, and Ry is begging for candy at the checkout lane, she's asking for the flower bunches. So she was pretty excited about the flowers she received at the conclusion of the recital too!

Aunt Stacy brought some flowers for her favorite little neice!

Ironically, the title of the song they performed was "Smile".

Juls and her friend Annie play around after the show.