Swim Team 2021

 Club North Point Swim Team has been such a great experience this summer.  All 6 kids participated on the team.  Owen was old enough to be on the Prep Team.  Every kid had different goals and different experiences this summer and it was neat to see that.  Jaxton was hesitant to join, but it was a great form of exercise all summer and he really enjoyed the practices.  His award at the end of the season was the "Practice Award" because he practiced hard, worked hard, enjoyed the practices and never really complained.  Cooper's goals were speed.  He tried to beat his own personal records and he even went to the city meet to compete.  He was awarded the Lane 6 Squad award with his lane 6 buddies, and the Kaylee's goals were form and having fun.  She has amazing form that was perfected all the more this summer and she made some new friends and had a lot of fun. She also competed at the city meet. She got the Quiet Achiever Award because she quietly achieved great goals.   Dawson's goals were to have fun.  There were some mornings that he woke late or was not in the mood to swim, and nothing could change his mind (besides a popcicle).  Other days, he was the first in the pool and having the time of his life.  He did his first meet this summer and it was fun to see him try to beat his peers across the pool as he kept looking up and over to check who was winning all the way across the pool.  He also lived for those buddy gifts from his swimming buddy!  Dawson won the "Best Eyelashes" & "Best Breastroke" Awards.  Everyone would die over his long black eyelashes.  Nathan also went for the fun of it.  He loves swimming and he loves being on the team.  He can get all the way across the pool on his own and did his first ever meet this year.  He won the "Tiny But Mighty Award" because that describes him perfectly.  

Owen somewhat enjoyed Prep Team but tended to get cold a lot and disliked that.  He wanted to swim and dive for toys faster than the other kids in his group.  But he loved his Coach Macy and made sure to get her gifts on Buddy Days.  He won the "Best Goggles Award" because his goggles were hilarious and he loved them.  

Swim Buddies:

Jaxton -------> Claire

Cooper-------> Zoe

Kaylee ------> Kelsey

Dawson -----> Chloe

Nathan ------> Will (same as last year.  His idol)

Owen -------> Coach Macy

Swim was a great experience for all. 

Cooper at Work

 Cooper got a summer job at Simplx as an inventory assistant to our inventory manager, Kurt.  He worked every day from 11am-2pm, sometimes longer.  He became the receiving expert and would receive any shipments that came in.  He would check the order against the purchase order, label all parts and shelve everything.  Some days he had a couple boxes, other days he literally had 20 + boxes.  He was a busy bee.  A few days he got to help out the Fire Team with Felix.  He helped recharge some extinguishers and learned how that process worked.  He says that Felix is an amazing teacher and looked up to him a lot.  Good effort Cooper!  He will be training the new intern next week, before school starts, to take his place.  He certainly set a standard of hard work this summer.  

Simplx at the Tin Caps

 Our Simplx summer party was held at the Tin Caps field for an evening game on Saturday night.  We rented out the Treetops section for our group and invited families to join us.  It was a great party with all of our employees and their families.  Everyone was able to eat great food, have great drinks, enjoy some great raffle prizes and cheer on the local Fort Wayne Tip Caps baseball.  There were fireworks at the end of the evening and a great run around the bases after that.  Adults and children alike ran around those bases like a baseball player.  It was great fun!  It was a lot of fun to see our employees outside of the work environment and with the people they love the most.  Successful summer party - Check!

Happy 17th Anniversary to Us

 Nate and I spent our 17th Anniversary in downtown Indianapolis.  We decided to stay downtown near the rivers and spend some time biking the river trails. It was the most beautiful day and biking was just so much fun.  We traveled along the canals and got to feel like we were in Europe!  We also visited the Indiana History Museum and could have spent 3 days there.  It was so fun to learn but overwhelming to take in everything that was offered there.  We hope to go back again to glean more from the beautiful museum.  We had lunch there on the canal, took a nap in the grass together under a giant tree at the park and we also hit up IKEA while we were in town.  A quick weekend getaway to celebrate us!!

Order of the Arrow

 Jaxton was nominated by his Boy Scout Troop for the Order of the Arrow.  This means he had to attend the "Ordeal" and be initiated into the Order.  This was a unique experience for him.  He had to pack well and sleep under the stars for his initiation.  Then he spent a whole day of manual labor helping beautify the camp.  He was awarded, along with the other nominees, an arrow sash as a new member of the Order of the Arrow.  Congrats Jax!!

Cub Scout Shooting Skills

 We joined some friends for a Cub Scout Day Camp program where all the kids were able to participate in some shooting sports, crafts and activities.  The highlight were the sling shots and BB guns.  Owen's face says it all as he is trying to aim and shoot!  Kaylee loved shooting also.  It was great fun for the whole family!!

Bike Ride

 Kaylee and I took a bike ride on the Pufferbelly Trail.  We both enjoy riding and hope to ride many trails this summer and take advantage of the beauty of our city.  Love you Kay!

Father's Day 2021

Happy Father's Day to our hero!  We celebrated Father's Day this year by heading to the Parkview Park to open up Dad's gifts and play together.  Then we headed to get some ice cream.  We love Dad so much!!  Kaylee worked hard on a project to create Dad out of paper.  She clearly put tons of thought into it.  And we got him a blanket with all the kids names on it.  Fun day!  We love you so much Dad!!

Indianapolis Getaway

 We wanted to see off Austin Gregory, our nephew, for his mission to Chile.  He is doing online MTC for 6 weeks and then heading to Chile after that.  His MTC time begins on Tuesday, so his family had a farewell for him this Saturday.  We took the weekend and decided to stay in downtown Indianapolis with the kids and with Melissa, John & Jace, and Grandma & Grandpa.  It was a super fun overnight trip with great dinner and breakfast and fun with family.  We spent the morning on Sunday exploring the Downtown Circle Center and the Courthouse and down by the canals.  

Austin is excited and ready for this adventure!  We wish him all the best as he enters the next couple years of his life story!

Strawberry Picking Tradition

 The Strawberry Picking Tradition continues on this year.  The Stuckey family and ours filled many buckets full of strawberries.  Many berries were squashed, stepped on, juiced and tasted amongst filling buckets.  Leila, Jude & Lucy came with their mom Emily.  This has become a tradition to go picking with the Stuckey's.  Nathan dislikes gardens; so he became our photographer.  He did a great job!!  

After work today, we got busy making jam.  We used pectin and calcium water to thicken the jam and filled 22 jars of all sizes!!  Each kid helped in one way or another and we knocked it all out in a couple of hours.  We had slicing the green off, mashing & blending, mixing ingredients like lemon juice and sugar.  Boiling pectin water and blending.  Mixing in the calcium water.  Putting jam in jars and placing on lids.  This will all be freezer jam.  Thanks kiddos for keeping up with the tradition!

Order of the Arrow

 Jaxton was nominated by his Boy Scout Troop to become a member of the Order of the Arrow.  He attended an initiation campout and had to sleep under the starts and do a full day of manual labor for a service project.  He is a couple weeks away from earning his Life Badge, which means he likely has less than a year before he has his Eagle.  Way to go, Jax!

Utah with the Littles - Day 7

 A bittersweet time, to leave Utah and head home.  I am ready to get back to routine and to my own house and schedule and bed.  At the same time, there is just not enough time in the day and in this trip to build relationships and connect deeply.  It was a whirlwind of a trip with lots of fun exciting things planned.  I wish the distance was not so far.  I am going to make a better effort to keep in touch with my family and with Summer.  Can't wait for the next trip out here with the Big Kids in August!

Utah With the Littles - Day 6

 We stayed with the Stump family on Thursday evening so we could spend an entire day with our good friends.  Summer threw me for a loop when she told me the plan for Friday morning!  She said that the plan is to get up at 5:15am and run 5 miles, and then go back to bed....!  Ummm, what???  I reluctantly said ok, but was not sure what I was getting myself into.  I have not been running much at all lately. 

We indeed got up and went out to begin our run with Summer's friend Karrie, who runs every single morning between the hours of 3:30am and 6:30am depending on her schedule for the day!!  She is a motivated woman and an inspiration to us who can't usually get up and do exercise like that.  I let them know that I am out of shape but would do my best.  We began a steady job and went 4 miles!!  I was huffing and puffing by the end but they pushed me to finish and we did a total of 4.75 miles in all by the time we were back at Summer's house.  I felt great!  Successful!  Motivated!!  Wow!!  And the kids stayed asleep the entire time, so I indeed went back to bed :-)

Once everyone was up and going, we went to the park with our friends.  They took their sweet dog, Mazy, who is such a friendly, fun companion.  Fun times!  Later in the day we went to the neighborhood water park and pool.  We swam with the kids and spent some quality time together.  An evening BBQ and The Lego Movie finished off our evening.