July (sans NYC)

First road trip in the Accord took these 3 boys to College Station for (unbeknownst to us) their last EFY (now that the church has cancelled EFY). Alex and Matt will have to find another reason to go on a camp together next summer.

 The big day has arrived! 4-0!

 Ryan made this cake for me. And cleaned the kitchen afterwards. And hid it from me.

 On our way back from dinner, we came across girls pushing their car. Dan and Ryan jumped out to help.

 My sweet friend Kristina sent me flowers for my 40th. Love that girl!

 Here we are at the revolving sushi shop celebrating this young man getting a 4 on his WHAP test. Yay! College credit for the worst class of all time!

 This is post NYC. This pooch loves staying with the Moffitts, but she sure missed us!

 Hedgehog is not for playing with. He is for snuggling. I found him in the washing machine, nearly decapitated and missing an arm. I did performed some toy surgery and returned him to Lu.

 'I'll buy you lunch, but you have to go with me.' Num, num Chick Fil A.

 Soccer camp in the end of July. Yeah, it was very hot. Especially on the turf. At the end of the first day we asked what she learned. Uh, I've been dribbling wrong my whole life!

 M says she learned a whole lot and really enjoyed camp with her fellow Dolphins.

 Another Act Day trip. This time to a horse ranch.

 How cute is this shetland pony foal? He has his baby mane still. I want one!

 M, Aubree and Charlotte taking turns riding the horses.

This was an awesome adventure. I am so glad we made it happen.

June

 Lucy just getting comfy for a long day of boredom!

 Rock painting with Act Day girls. It was supposed to be a service project, but mostly it turned out to be just making rocks for themselves.

 They enjoyed some Happy Salmon card game too.

 Alex passed his AP World History class (barely. It was a long, anxious semester...) so we went out to dinner to celebrate.

 This is the restaurant Alex went to for Mormon Prom.

 Alex used chop sticks. Macey learned she likes steak. Ryan enjoyed throwing ice on the hot cook top.

 Sewing class making pillows for the car.

 For Father's Day Dan got Enchroma sunglasses to help him see more colors.

 Time for indoor!

 We picked up Madi on her birthday, so we had to go to lunch to celebrate!

 Movies with Mrs Ellis, M&R's kinder teacher. We watched Secret Life of Pets 2.

 Ryan's buddy from 1st-6th grade, Asher Smith  came into town from Utah. Here they are bowling.

 Lucy does NOT love the car. The leather seats are too slippery! So she always finds a safe seat. Here we are taking R to STEM drone camp.

 Take to girls to a splash pad in June and they will get in it (even if they aren't dressed for it!)

 Father's Day. This was the only time Alex was in the lead. Actually, when Dad wasn't in the lead. He always whips us at scrabble!

 MJ and I are at the airport on our way to AZ. Dad had to travel for work and the boys were on high adventure. So we took advantage of dad's airline points and went to visit Baby Zander!

 MJ playing Mario Kart with a random teenager while waiting for our flight.

 Look at this sweet baby and my pretty girl.

 Emily brought her boys down too. Macey got to play with her boy cousins. She was a very good sport, even though she was mostly bored. :)

 A trip to the Tucson Zoo.

 Family pic at the zoo. Zander's first field trip!

 Macey worked on diving in grandma's pool. She is super disappointed that we don't have a pool.

 So fun to spend just a few days with our AZ family.

 Family outing to an FC Dallas game.

 With fireworks after the show.

 One summer project: build Hogwarts castle. Which lead to the sorting of ALL our lego bins. We had success. We were missing a few pieces, but that's OK. It was fun-ish to do all that work.

 Lucy finds a toad during her nightly walk.

 Boating trip with the Moffitt's! Another fun Act Day outing.

 Most of the girls had never been on a boat before. They wanted to go faster!!

 I later learned that when she goes with dad to Cheesecake factory, they get one slice to share. :)

 Our happy birthday pedi's and lunch. This year we went to La Hacienda.

 This is me nearly 40!

And here is our $12 apple pie ala mode. It was delicious!

May

Dan bday at BWW with the DeLucia clan. This cracked me up because as you can see, we are in a room FULL of screens and these guys were watching videos on this tiny screen. :)

 Soccer party. Coach is handing out the season's trophies.

 Mom's day at church.

 I love being the Act Day leader with Macey's friends. This was our first of our summer adventures.

 Piano recital.

 MJ learning to skateboard.

 Field Day. I showed up to take pictures this year. First one I haven't volunteered at in a long time. It was a wicked hot day, so I'm not too sad about it.

Ryan saved up his money for 6 months to buy this VR headset. And he keeps working so he can buy more games.

 Macers giving it a go. I haven't tried it, but I'm afraid I'd get motion sickness. Ryan does enjoy playing on his headset. When has a new game.

 A new car!! I can't believe it. After all the heartache with the truck Dan bought another brand new car! This is a 2019 Honda Accord.

It is super fun to zip around in our new car (even on economy mode). I have doubled my gas mileage from the Pilot.

 Memorial Day with the D's. They hosted us for a meal and a dip in the pool.

 Another summer swimmin' with Soph.

 Albert, Alex and Nico. Geez, these boys are growing up!

 4th Grade Living Museum.

 Last Day of school with Madi and Elissa.

 Yay! A 5th grader and her pooch.

 Last day of school snow cones from the Frisco Snow Cone Lady.

 Ryan had been asking for us to go camping for months. The day after school got out we loaded up the car in about 2 hours and headed to Little Elm Beach Park.

 Alex was determined this was going to be the WORST trip ever and packed in less than 5 min. And made sure to pack whittling tools to stave off the boredom. Also, he was miffed that we camped in a city park where he could see a gas station from our campsite.

 These two were very happy playing in the sand and were happy to be here!

Ryan was in charge of the meal. We bought a $20 fire pit from Wal-Mart, which R built. I had to go to the gas station ACROSS the street to get lighter fluid for the fire. (And a box of Dibs! No one was complaining about how close the store was when I had to go get stuff.) Ryan loves tin foil dinners. An easy meal to make on a fire pit. While waiting for the coals we played some games.

 We played card games, frisbee and Spikeball.

 (And Alex checked his phone regularly.)

The park has this truncated zip-line. The kids played on this for half an hour. In the end Alex decided our trip was very fun. Not lame. He didn't even need to whittle! (Dan travels a lot these days, so he missed out on this outing. However, with the last of the cool days and the kids upcoming summer camps, this was the best weekend for us to go camping. Next time we'll take dad!)