Nebraska Visit

We headed up to Nebraska for our traditional summer visit. Makin wanted to continue the plan to golf in the local golf tournament that was one of Brad's favorite weekends of the year.

Lorelei enjoyed spending one afternoon working at the store with Grandma.

Makin and Grandpa enjoyed the golf tournament.

Grandpa decided he wanted to drive his gator in the tournament, so he rigged up this "golf gator" or "red-neck golf cart" for the weekend.

Both teams missed Brad this year.
Thankful they took the time to play anyway.

We enjoyed time with Brooklyn. She even learned to play Swoops with us and liked it! We played LOTS of Swoops this visit.

Can you tell Watson loves Brooklyn?

We fit in a little Husker Football photo shoot for Watson.

When you are within a short walk of the football field, why not?

Makin fit in some drone flying, although it is still broken-ish, so it wasn't quite what he would have liked it to be.

He saw some deer (a mom and fawn) behind the house and got to film them.

First Golf Course Drone Footage

Somehow I didn't picture him watching it from the cart (gator) behind a tree,
but we had to be out of the shot!

While they didn't get their usual amount of Wii time in, they did enjoy some!

Another favorite is always the gator. Makin and I took the gator to the golf course so he could practice getting golf course drone footage (which isn't as fun when it's partially broken, but he still enjoyed it and it was good practice!) He took me the "pasture route," which goes from the backside of the Senior Stahls place and is...well, basically through a pasture/prairie land and then gets you into town. But it was the "most fun" way, so that's what we did.

Thank you for the visit, Grandma and Grandpa!

Oklahoma Visit

We headed up to Heather's place to meet up with Mom for Lorelei's Oklahoma summer visit. It has become a routine for Makin and I to spend one night there and enjoy time together, and then Mom and Lorelei stay another night, where they get time with just the three girls.

The dogs are learning to be OK together more and more each visit. Progress.

We decided to take a trip to the farmer's market that Heather goes to many Saturdays. Lorelei enjoyed a fruity popsicle treat, and Makin spied some peaches to buy to take home. They may be the first Oklahoma peaches I had ever had, and they were delicious.

Mocktails are also a tradition for their girls' night.

Lorelei and Nana's "usual" walk around Sunset Lake.

Nana is still working on her selfie game. ;) I'm thankful for the picture nonetheless.

Uncle A.J. was working at the farm a bit this summer before starting his new Oklahoma teaching gig and was willing to take Lorelei out for some driving practice. Yay!

Makin and I stayed one night while picking Lorelei up from her visit on our way up to Nebraska. Had to get an updated "how tall" Makin and Uncle A.J. picture.

Thank you for a great visit!

July

Some friends got the kids passes to Hawaiian Waters, hoping this would help them fit in some summer fun despite our circumstances. Robin played chaperone, and the kids enjoyed the afternoon with water and friends.

We spent one afternoon at the lake with friends. It was the first batch of hours that felt like "the old days," and I am very thankful for that special time.

Lorelei had been looking forward to Moana Live Action for a long time now, so we girls made it a priority to go see it. (What a treat we had even been given a movie gift card.) She loved it.

She was in a commercial a few years ago for about .5 seconds and
they showed it on the big screen, so she was crazy excited.

Shenaniganz - While Lorelei was in Oklahoma, we took the boys to Shenaniganz so that they could enjoy the Quantum Go-Karts. They also had a summer pass we added on, so they enjoyed hours playing pool and laser tag. This was a priority for Makin's summer bucket list, so I'm glad we made it happen.

Makin figured out how to set our sprinkler system. Gemini (Google's AI assistant) was extremely helpful. I was also super thankful that God provided enough rain that we didn't have to get the sprinklers going until July. In our area that is not the usual.

Makin spent a lot of time working on his drone, partially because he needed to fix it after a crash. He is learning a lot.

July 4th

While we didn't feel much like celebrating, we also didn't want to spend the day just focused on how sad it was to have another would've-been-family-fun-day glaring at us and doing nothing.

We decided to watch a patriotic-type movie the night before (because it was a Friday night) and settled on National Treasure.

Lorelei found a relatively new counseling place she would like to try, and it is even on a ranch. We got invited to come out and tour, and Lorelei got offered to go on a trail ride. Of course, this made her day.

We had our traditional Independence Day foods, and Makin got his first experience manning the grill. He watched some YouTube videos to prep. The burgers turned out great.

We headed to Grapevine for fireworks (like last year) because they don't have rules against dogs. We did not expect it to be so crowded; we got to walk over a mile just to get into the park, but we persevered.

Happy 250 Years America

Surviving

Doing The Best We Can

It's hard to know how to handle life. We are constantly sad and yet have to still continue to live. For Brad's birthday one of the things we decided to do was read some dad jokes. I found this book for Brad when I was in Fredericksburg, and thankfully did not wait to give it to him, so he did get to enjoy reading some of them. We also watched Last Man Standing, which was the go-to comedy that we loved watching together. He had a lot of favorite movies, so we have worked our way through them on various days.

Chess has become an easy and free pastime.
More for Makin than Lorelei, but they both decided to try playing on an app while we were at the hotel on the way up to the Nebraska service. I'm not big on screen time, but tolerating a little extra for now.
It was good to see them enjoying something together.

Nice to look at the football field from the Senior Stahl's front porch.
Brad had some amazing memories playing on this field.

Heather was gracious enough to let us stay at her place on the way home from Nebraska.
Lorelei always loves her time with Reese.

Ah, chess in real life.
Lorelei studying up because her brother is playing way more
than she is, so she is trying to be able to compete.

Movie Night on Father's Day

I've had this note up in the cabinet for a long time now.
Of course, now it makes me cry, but I'm thankful I have it.

It has been hard to get back into my Bible time routine.
This particular morning I think was the first good Bible time since June 1,
so I was thankful for that.

Watson's ears got some bad mats, so he had to get a severe cut.
This is the first picture where he is starting to look more like himself.

Makin found a great deal on a drone on Facebook Marketplace. He purchased one in anticipation of his business plan he is planning on kicking off this school year. He has had a great time practicing/learning how to use the drone. In this picture he is showing Lorelei some of his footage.

Lorelei has volunteered at ManeGait a couple of times. Thankful for her friends there who are very supportive.