The Walkers' Trail: Summer is coming to an end!

For such a simple uneventful summer, it has been a great one! Simple things like a night at the lake with friends is one of them!

Captain Grant learning how to ski and how to drive a boat.

These two had a blast tubing!

I love when our friends send work pictures of this kid! He put in minimum 32 hours every week, and usually more than 40 with his private lessons and parties. The Colvin lifeguard experience was a great one for him - having to hang out with college kids day in and day out pushed his comfort zone at first, and now they are having a party on Wednesday and he's going. He's grown and matured a lot the past 3 months.

It's that time again - my third job. Volleyball! Here are pictures but they don't include everyone as it was the middle of July and several were on vacation. Looking forward to helping them develop basic skills and have a little fun in the process.

7th

8th

Goofy 8th

These may be my favorite part about coaching! :)

Kyle has played a lot of basketball this summer, and was picked up to be on a tournament team one weekend in Wichita. Here is his crew going to a relative's house to hang out and play at the lake.

He went to a camp in July in OKC and we were so thankful for the Halls and Myrins to each let him crash at their homes for one night to save 8 hours of driving time for us. Bonus for him was getting to hang with Amaris and Mattox!

Just a neat shot of my folks at the Ark Experience.

Cute kid. Happy kid. Content kid.

Part of the stuco duties this summer is to be at schedule pickup each day and to get events ready for Howdy Week. Here is good buddy Jody and Grant sending me goof pictures from their fun at the school.

It is fun to scroll through instagram and see my kid smiling!

Reid went to his second overnight camp with our church in July - Cross Timbers. He was very hesitant after being homesick from his first one. I did get a call from our Pastor who went as a chaperone, but he overcame and had a super duper time!

Reid and John!

Reid and Sam

Kyle and Reid went to spend a few days with Nana.

We took advantage of some free tickets and went to the bull riding rodeo in Perkins one night. It was pretty lame talent but the overall experience was a great one.

One of the cowboys was taking kids for a walk around the arena during the intermission. Reid was shy but finally agreed to go hop in line.

This is us. Kyle refusing sunscreen on his way to fish for hours and me stopping him and lathering on a glob so he'll have to spread it out. He looks so thrilled at his motherly love, eh?!

I haven't been to the land in literally 5 months. Jason and Reid went a few weeks ago to get something and went out on our fishing boat. Reid had the best time and still talks about it - time alone with Dad and no brothers. He caught a monster fish, too. :)

Everywhere I go, Eddie goes. Bed, couch, chair, deck... he is my shadow and I love it about 90% of the time.

Jason has been playing softball this summer with some guys. It turned out this random team ended up having several people we knew of but didn't know... so we've made new friends. He has really enjoyed it, but pulled a muscle 3 weeks ago, had 2 weeks off to heal, tried to run again and couldn't make it around the bases (see him at third: 1. in pain and 2. out of breath).

Kyle and his friends whose dads are also on the team.

Found this gal cheering on her dad!

Reid's favorite exercise to go run on the elliptical for 2.25 miles. Except for when it is crazy hot like the past few weeks. He has great form and better speed than me!

He started writing a book earlier in the summer.

Ashley hit her 10 year work anniversary for us this summer. We try to gift our staff with a big thank you gift at 10 years. We ended up getting her a pretty great kayak and paddle to go with their new RV! She was totally surprised and thankful.

Logo in the office.

At one of the days when Reid came to work with me, he built an air craft carrier and a destroyer out of Jenga blocks.

Cute dog. Tuckered out.

Cute kid. Tuckered out.

One of the neighborhood ponds had a leak in the dam. Dang it! Several people got together to try to save the big bass and catfish. Kyle and Garrett got 9 of them out and John and Hayden got one or two later in the day, very sad. Here is our ice chest being used as a transport with an aerator.

Grant has been interested in doing a Discovery Flight. Our friend, Tom Wikle, took him up and they flew to Ponca and back. Grant was able to have controls of the plane for a significant portion of the trip. He definitely thinks being a pilot is something he would enjoy, either as a career or a hobby. What he'll do with that knowledge will be fun to see in the next 5-10 years.

Of course Reid was super jealous but at least he was a part of the preflight check and could hang out in the cockpit.

Life360 didn't know what to do when they reached 100+ mph!

Reid texted Robin all by himself to see if he could go swimming. He finally learned how to do the climbing wall all the way up! He was very proud.

That is soap in Kyle's mouth. This is what happens when he thinks he's in the house alone and says a black word.... No, sir. He got to taste it for 30 seconds and then he proceeded to vomit.

This was my life for a few weeks - the couch, the dog, and USA sports during the Olympics, specifically volleyball. Can I just add that the USA Women's team ended up winning gold for the first time in history!

Reid loves to draw his airplanes. For dad's bday, he made another card and had a fun time drawing several of his favorites.

Gabi and Kyle hosted a small back to school party. She invited most of the vball team and he invited some of his buddies. Fun was had by all - good way to start their FRESHMAN year!