As busy as a Junebug on a summer night!

June was a month full of busy fun days!  Okay, fun for me might not fit the description of fun for others, so let me tell you about some of the events from my June.

OG Trainees

Myles and I working

Shortly after returning from our trip to DC, I attended a 9 day workshop on Multi-sensory reading instruction in mid-June. Although I was really exhausted by the end of the session, I truly enjoyed attending each day. For 2 hours each morning my friend Myles (who is going into 1st grade) came to help me learn new things about teaching young kids to read. He worked hard, learned quickly, and kept me laughing with his comments! I really get high on figuring out what is keeping a kid from learning and then showing them how to get past it. For Myles, he had gotten the idea that he needed to "sound out" all words rather than just know some. (He told me right away that he was a good sounder! He also said, "My brother has lots of words in his head, but me only one or two." ) So try to sound out "THE" and see where it gets you!

Note the squirmy worm, also a gift from Myles

Myles brought me an audio thank you 

card that cracked us both up!

He went from 4 words on his pretest to 23 on his post-test after 5 days of tutoring, so we were both pretty proud of that! He even commented that he had learned more in our 2 weeks than he did in all of kindergarten! Not true, but his feeling of success changed just that much.  I don't think reading is going to give him any trouble once school starts.

yep, that would be Myles with the weapon!

I didn't spend all my time in workshops though. The gals that I teach with at IXL gathered for a pool party, so I was able to finagle my schedule to get there for a couple of hours.

The twins were there but I played with my older buddies!

I enjoyed visiting with everyone (especially Pam who moved to Ohio in December but came back to host the party at her parent's home) and playing with the kids in the pool.

Then I made it to a few sports activities for some of my little buddies. Babysitting for Amy's twins helped her out and gave me a peaceful way to spend an evening or two!

Miss Gracie, aka Miss Spit!

 

Amy's Brody is headed for home!

Megan's Chloe is a competitive swimmer!

Reading Addison' birthday book with her as we wait for Chloe to swim

Miss Maleigh smiling so big at 10 weeks!

Meg's Addison entertains wherever she goes!

Alyssa & family moved to a new house, so that gave me the opportunity to spend time with her kids + Jen G's Hunter, while others helped with the heavy lifting.

Ayden and I tired out before the big boys did.

It was cooler on the trail than the playground. 

Throw in a family gathering at the lake for a bonus (see prior post)! June 2011- busy but grand!

Tubin, splashin, and chasin' kiddoes!

Lexie out on a tube...

Behind every tuber is a crew!

Austin & Hunter

Brianna didn't get tossed!

Lexie & her Papa

Many of the summers for the last 25 years, several members of my family have gathered at Marion Reservoir for a weekend of camping. When we started, my sibs and parents all lived in Hutchinson, and it was close by.


Now my sister and her family are the only ones still in Hutch, but she organizes the weekend for us and our gatherings range from about a dozen to over 30! We have certain traditions, such as cooking "wranglers & s'mores" just after dark, doing some stargazing, swimming in the lake, soccer games among the kids and some of the grown ups, "church" by the lake, and lots of catching up. Of course there is always wind (we are in Kansas), sometimes a storm blows through, and often we have HEAT and mosquitoes! For us kids, the grand-kids, and now the greats, a very special part of the weekend is time with (my parents) Oma and Opa.  We come away with stories to tell for the ages, and a lot of memory making! Here's some of my favorites from years past.

The cousins in '90?

Manda... so fun by day.... terror  at night!

hey Uncle John! Matt in '86?

Holly... a FEW years back!

fun in the water long ago!

Bria, Maddy & Gage- nature art ~'05

Austin, Bria and her friend... ~05?

Lexie blowing bubbles when she was smaller!

This year was unique in several ways, 1) none of our out-of-state family came except Holly & her boys from NW Missouri and usually we get some of my nieces and nephews here from Georgia or Florida. :-(  (but we plan to gather in Arkansas in December. and 2) My sis has had a population EXPLOSION in her branch, 4 baby girls in 15 months (added to the 7 grand-kids she already had)! What fun to get acquainted with these precious little ones.

Joshua and Laci talking to Oma and Opa

Laci holds Dustin's Kinley, and Amy holds Ben's Cameron.

John, Ella, Sophie, and Hunter

Miss Kinley talking to us!

Lexie is one of the big 'uns these days!

Kellie, Oma, and Bria 

Lots of talkin goin on here!

Aunt Holly holding Miss Kinley

To take kids tubin, or to go fishin, or to just sit????

Austin and Maddy look out for John.

Grandma Brenda introduces us to Ella.

Opa and Miss Kinley

A boat ride for Ella and Sophie!

Crowds like we had in 2009 are rare these days, but we still have a good time. Passing on family traditions to our little ones... PRICELESS!

Summer 2009, quite a crowd!

3Ms at the Capitol

Our first major trip of the summer was actually a "make-up" trip from a year ago. (At that time, Rex had emergency by-pass surgery on his heart, so our plans were postponed.) Matt and Kelly arranged a  trip to Washington, DC with us, and it was everything we dreamed it could be. We stayed in Georgetown at a hotel almost a mile from a metro stop, and quickly learned the ins & outs of public transportation in DC! We crammed each day full of seeing Memorials, Monuments, and Museums! Rex, history buff and teacher that he is, walked around in awe! He made a point of spotting the Washington Monument from every angle possible, and even walked up to touch it. Just by chance Matt booked us in at a hotel less than a block from the C&O National Historic Park and several other historic Georgetown attractions, so we could have spent a few days just in Georgetown. However the sights of the capitol beckoned each morning. A few of the highlights follow:

The eternal flame at the Kennedy gravesite.

Rex stopped at Audie Murphy's grave.

Memorial for the Challenger  crew

The guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

We soon realized that seeing most of the sites in 6 days was not EVEN CLOSE to happening! Over and over I was impressed with the crafting that went behind the documents that guide our government, the Declaration, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the huge amount of compromise necessary for any progress to go forth. In our history, when the people who represent us go to this city and work out compromises, we prosper. When they do not compromise, we fall into a quagmire. Yet Jefferson and his peers envisioned exactly that and created a framework where no one is all powerful. That's why that banner still waves!

between museums

One of many views of the Washington Monument. We also went to Mt. Vernon.

Kelly & Matt waiting on one of the trams we took to go from site to site.

Caught staring at the W. Monument again!

The Vietnam Memorial

The C & O Canal near our hotel. The "Tow Path" made for a nice evening walk!

On our way in for a capitol tour.

To say that Matt was not interested in History as a kid would be an understatement, yet he seemed to find things to occupy his mind all week! He loved showing his Papa all the many symbols of our nations foundation.

Another photo op

One of MY favorite spots was the National Air and Space Museum Annex, a building the size of several airplane hangars out near Dulles Int Airport. It showcases many planes, to include the Space Shuttle Endeavor and the Enola Gay! WOW!