May, June, and July, oh my!

Can you tell we recently watched The Wizard of Oz? Trying to remember 3 months worth of life can be as scary as lions, tigers, and bears! I'll do my best with the highlights I remember.

May began with a Music School concert at a local coffee house. The boys' guitar instructor thought it was a great idea to have Barr play along with the boys so "Ham and Eggs" got to have another performance minus the girls. Ben was really hoping to play All the Small Things by Blink-182 but the bass part was a little too difficult for Brigham to learn that quickly. Minutes before hitting the stage, they agreed to perform their good old Lit stand-by. It was a hit and now we're just waiting for the record company to call!

Having lived in Columbus 3 years now, it's a tradition to run in the Race for the Cure. At the time of registration, I was pregnant so opted to have us do the Family Fun Walk in lue of the run. Although I think it was fun for the kids to experience the event, I realized running 3 miles with Barr is a lot more fun than walking 1 with 4 kids and 20,000 other people. The hour of standing and waiting for the walk to begin in a crowd that big kind of ruined the excitement. Everyone was tired and hungry and wet (from rain) before we even started. I think we all look happy in this picture because it's over!

Memorial Day weekend was a lot more fun. Our old neighbors, the Fields, invited us to come stay in their beautiful new home just a few miles from where we used to live. The boys wasted no time finding the theatre room and the girls disappeared to the Barbie room. It was great to be with good friends again and relive the "good old days"! I'm sorry we didn't take more pictures of that weekend as it may be several years before we make it back to Fishers again. We did get our camera out at the Andersen's, the Arnold's and the pool.

The last week of May we had a piano recital. Because I only teach 6 kids, I invited 5 other students to join us. When I told Brittany we were going to do this she said she really wanted to play something. She hasn't taken piano lessons for several years and didn't really remember much, but she was determined to learn something that month. She found an easy version of "I am a Child of God" and after several cram sessions she pulled it off. She even volunteered to go first at the recital because she thought when she messes up it will help the other kids not be so nervous. She ended up playing it perfectly and the entire evening was a success. You can tell from the red, sweaty faces what the boys did after the performances were over. Thank goodness for cultural halls!

The Last Day of School!

Brooke saying goodbye to her student teacher. She really had great teachers and classmates. We couldn't have asked for a better program for her.

Brigham and his best friend, Luke

Brittany and her friends after performing a cheer routine for the 4th grade talent show. They had spent many recesses practicing.

Ben after 6th grade awards

The end of school marks the beginning of swim team. The boys were a little reluctant to sign up but Brittany and I convinced them to give it a try. I loved how convenient it was that they each could just ride their bikes to the pool every morning. Ben had a much better season than last year and even brought home some heat winner ribbons and a few trophies. Brittany would often stay after her 90 minute work out and help with the younger group. She was known as the coach's assistant. Swimming year-round really paid off for her as she would take first in most of her events and received the "high points" award. She was a good motivator and support to the entire team. This was Brigham's first year and he ended up loving it as well. It's amazing what just a few weeks of hard training can do. He now zooms across the pool with no problem and of course loved the 5 hour meets where he could run around with his friends. Again, I wish I had taken more pictures, but here are a few from Championships. It was a western theme in case you were wondering.


I guess being the coach's favorite has it's privileges!

We also stayed busy in June with a lot of baseball games, Scout camp, and Cubscout Day Camp. We also got to have our neice, Amie, with us for several days. They had a lot of fun building forts in different rooms every day to sleep in. Again, where was my camera for all of that?

Thankfully my mom and sister had their cameras for the 4th of July weekend. We spent a few fun days in Cincinnati with my family. Coney Island had a fireworks show on the 3rd and perfect weather to enjoy the rides and events that evening. We were all grateful we celebrated the day before because the 4th of July turned out rainy and cold.

Brittany and Amie helping with Grandma's harvest. What's up Doc?

Enough red, white, and blue? Brittany's in the middle if you can't tell from her disguise.

Two weeks before, Barr was offered a new position in Scotts helping to open up a regional office in Irvine, California. I wanted to check out the area before making the decision so on July 5th we left our kids with my parents and flew to California for several days. Once we got over the sticker shock, we agreed that it was a beautiful place and felt good about accepting the offer to move. With school starting in less than 2 months, we knew we had to act quickly. We found a home and have made an offer on it. Unfortunately it's a short sale and so we are waiting on the bank to respond. I guess it's not unusual for banks to sit on offers for several months, but we're praying for a miracle that they will act quickly. We listed our home last week and have been busy making small repairs and getting it ready to show. The kids don't like the idea of having to keep their rooms clean all the time, but have been a good help.

If we had known we would be moving near the beach, we probably wouldn't have planned a family vacation to North Carolina. It was too late to cancel, so we tried to pretend like we didn't have a million things going on and went. We first drove to Washington, D.C. to visit my brother and his family. They are just about 8 miles from "The Mall" so we enjoyed taking the metro to downtown. Grant was a great tour guide, showing us all the must sees. We packed a lot into 2 1/2 days. We saw all the monuments the first evening, did the Smithsonian museums and the founding documents in the archives on the second day (seeing Lincoln's hat was the highlight for Brigham), and the Arlington Cemetery and the White House tour on Saturday.

Ben, Jefferson, and Brigham

The kids wanted to kiss the Washington Memorial?

Looking toward the Lincoln Memorial

Anna made me a delicious fruit pizza for my birthday.

Brittany loved baby Duncan.

We drove from D.C. to North Carolina and spent a very fun and relaxing week playing on the beach, body surfing in the ocean, swimming in the pool, and just hanging out at the condo. With 4 T.V.'s we watched more movies and Disney Channel shows in a week than we have all year. The waves were great, but a little too much for Brooke. She would sit on the beach and pour the sand, but every few minutes would say, "hot tub". Because Brooke says hi to everyone and can tell them her name, she made a lot of friends. As we would pass people walking from the beach to the pool, everyone would say "Hi Brooke". Of course the rest of us didn't know any of them.

Ben's out there somewhere, probably buried under a wave!

Making sandcastles on the beach

Each room was decorated so cute with a different theme. The girls in their turtle room.

Fun at the aquarium.

We got to visit with Barr's cousin, Mike and his family a few times.