June

 

June was full of sports and exciting opportunities. One of the biggest for Chase was getting invited to play on the high school Sophomore football team! As a 9th grader, he was a year younger than everyone, but since city league doesn't give 9th graders an option, he figured he might as well try to make the high school team. He worked so hard and literally just loved the whole experience. After getting invited to football camp, he really hoped they'd ask him to stay on for the rest of the season and they did! It was a lot of early morning practices, but he improved so much and loved getting to know the other guys and the coaches. Such a sweet summer of football for him!

The big boys talked papa into golfing as often as possible. They also worked in his yard a couple of days a week. Lots of donuts were involved in both activities. I'm really not sure which one they are doing here.

Lila really has a way of coercing her brothers into being part of her games. They are really good sports.

Davis had an awesome baseball season! He got on base in almost every game and made it home several times. He really liked playing catcher and made us all laugh in that bulky gear with his funny antics. His team was really good and I think they won every game. Such a great season! (And hot! So hot! So many games we were all just dying of heat).

We had a very impromptu extended family party and these two loved swimming with Maya (who left before I got a photo) and Abby. They taught them to ways of hair salon. 

Again- Lila convinced Hudson to play her game. This one is spa/beauty parlor. He's so kind to her. 

I took the littles on a tour of the local chocolate factory. It was a fun morning!

More cousin swimming and BBQs

Lila had her ballet recital! She can be so shy about performing in front of people and told me a bunch about her fears of stage fright. But she totally shined in his performance! Smiling ear to ear the whole time and dancing her little heart out. You could tell she knew the whole thing and was loving being on stage! Ben hadn't seen it before (I had seen the dress rehearsal and watched Lila practice many times) and he was just gushing in the audience, whispering to me "She knows it so well! Look at her go!" It was so cute, Ben cried!

She was part of the Cinderella section of the recital and they were Cinderella's mice. Lila got to carry the mop off stage for Cinderella at the end, a job she took very seriously.

We had a fun morning with Nana at Dinosaur park! The big kids were busy- Hudson had a nanny job with the DeForest kids that kept him busy all summer and Chase had football. It was delightful with our little guys and a few cousins!

This cracked me up because these two are heading to the same event (Graham's baptism). Hudson is in a full suit complete with a pocket square and I had to make Davis put on something slightly nicer so he has a polo, with athletic shorts and crocs. 

We did another Nana adventure with the littles to the zoo! We lucked out seeing so many active animals and the kids all had an amazing time!

Chase was so proud to have an official practice jersey!

Davis giving Speedy some fresh air and Lila doing art projects on the porch!

As busy and fun as June was, it was also an extremely emotional and exhausting month for Ben and I. Mid-June he got laid off from his job with Axon. He really loved that job and it was great in so many ways. But new management took over, his projects go funds diverted elsewhere, and they made an official policy of moving away from remote employees. He was hoping to weather the changes but it didn't work out and it was pretty heart wrenching. I'm typing this 6 months later, and although I know now that everything turns out fine, at the moment it felt harsh and cruel and scary. A lot of prayers and tears and heartache for us. Our kids and all their joy, activities, and happiness were a really good distraction from the heaviness.