Another outing we took this summer, a boat tour of a nearby canyon.

A few other outings we have had:  Saw Tarzan in live performance and saw the musical Sound of Music.

 Still trying to catch up from summer photos

Jacob and JR went on an overnight back packing trip with two other men.  The weather was beautiful, the fishing amazing (think they caught about 80 fish total) and the hiking hard!

My mom and I recently went to Medora ND to see the musical.  What an amazing production.  Incredibly patriotic second half!  Lots of music and history of Medora and Teddy Roosevelt.  Highly recommend it if you are ever near SW North Dakota.  Before the musical they had a pitch fork fondue with steak and all the trimmings.  All held on a beautiful cliff overlooking the badlands.  It was just shy of a full moon and beautiful evening!

We have had some warm summer days recently.  Headed to the river with Bree and boys!  

Leave it up to Jacob to find a snake!

Jacob is trying to get Joseph to reach down and pick it up.  I made sure to stay far away!

The boys saw a tortilla challenge on Tik Tok and had to participate.  You fill your mouth with water and then take turns slapping each other across the face with a tortilla.  Sounds ridiculous and it is, but hilarious to watch.  Not sure who or how people come up with these ideas.

 

 A selfie of us at the Elvis movie

We checked out a Dueling Piano show.  I had no idea what we were going to but it sounded fun.  We both weren't expecting what it was.  Enjoyed the music but the banter was more crass that I would have liked.  Fortunately, the accoustics was terrible so I did not hear everything that was being said.  We ended up leaving early.

Jacob has had a couple of football scrimmages this summer...not a bad view and it was a beautiful evening.

School starts Aug 25th.  Football 2 a days started on Friday.  Summer is quickly winding down!

 Just some more summer stuff!!

We celebrated this kids 13th birthday on Sunday!!!  Our third teen ager in the house!  Pretty low key birthday, went out to breakfast and had gifts and cake/ice cream

It was also my mom's birthday the following day, so we did a few things that weekend.  We went to a local drive in movie.  This was started just after COVID by a teen ager looking for ways to make money.  This was the beautfiul sunset as we waited for the movie to start after dark.

The movie was my all time favorite ever!!! The Man From Snowy River....I had never seen it on the big screen!

This kid got creative one day with his pringles!

 Random summer photos!!

A recent hike!

Jacob's football team had some 7 on 7 skills.  He mainly played safety on defense, but was ready if he was needed for QB.

Bree got to experience a paddle board....too bad she only stayed on long enough for me to take a picture!

Jacob has caught some big carp....they are bottom feeders so not good to eat.

Did not even know that pup cups were a thing from DQ, but Bingo (my mom's dog) has introduced Bree to them!!

My mom and I recently went to see Tarzan at a local theatre.  She was blow away by the production...it was really good!  We had dinner beforehand!!

Some more football action!

Things have recently shifted in a huge way for me!  I am no longer doing my work from home stuff.  The company has decided to move their production to California (this decision still baffles me and everyone that worked in house...).  I am thrilled to be done!  I had wanted a shift but the pay, flexibility and ease of work was hard to give up.  However, I am not exploring financial coaching.   God is opening up some amazing doors with this opportunity.  I will share more as things fall into place!!

 Mid July!  Time marches on!  I came across some more graduation pictures.

When Ben went with the school on the senior trip, we filled his car with balloons for a surprise when he came back.  Last time I checked there still were balloons in his car!!!!

My mom, brother, sister and I.

This was Ben's buddy, Kaden, who he had a joint grad party with.

This was everyone that came for graduation!  Sure was fun.  This was taken on the balcony at the community center where we had the party.  A great location!

I am also way late posting, but we recently celebrated Ben's 18th!!!  He is now a legal adult!  He is still holding tight with the restaurant job.  He did help during a 5 day stint at a fireworks stand over the 4th.  A friend told me he killed it as a sales person!  I really think that is a gift/talent he has and needs to explore it further.

 Wow, the last month has been a whirlwind.  Can't believe I haven't gotten pictures uploaded since graduation!!

A lot has happened in last 30 days.  School is out, Ben graduated and my mom is here for the summer.

We are trying to find out summer groove!  Joseph is attending some summer school for last half of June and first 10 days of August.  He goes M-Thurs from 8:30-11:30, so that is becoming my work time.  (I have cut my hours almost in half, because I never seem to get as much done during the summer).  Jacob is all over the place with sports camps, work, school workouts, basketball tournaments and friends!  He is continuing with driving hours and officially has 30 out of 50 hours.  He is scheduled to get his driving permit towards end of September.  This is one momma that will be glad when this kid can drive by himself.

Ben's graduation!!  We had a great weekend.  We had a party Friday night with one of his friends.  Both of my parents were here, as well as brother and sister and my brother's two kids.  (The Ohio clan couldn't make it, minus one niece that tried but the stand by flights just did not line up!!  It was weird to have the grandsons outnumber the granddaughters, a first!!)  We rented an airbnb for 3 nights and was nice to all be together.  Lots of pictures, with the exception of just after graduation.  

My dad with the grandkids

My mom with her grandsons!

I love this picture, still stairsteps, just in a different order now!    (Still predicting that Joseph will be the tallest, which would make it youngest to oldest being tallest to shortest)

And the graduate!!!!

My mom and I made the trek back from Ohio.  I landed in Cleveland on a Saturday at 5pm and we immedately hit the road.  We pulled into our place that Monday at 1pm.  Less than 48 hours.  We boogied.  Had no issues and just drove and drove.  The dog Bingo did well.  They are both settled into the RV and loving it!  It is parked at the end of a dead end street, so very little traffic and very quiet!  She has made it her own and the space is just perfect.  She has gotten a little part time job too!  We have taken one overnigth trip to watch Jacob play basketball.  I am hoping to get out more, but the price of gas might prevent as many road trips as I had hoped!  

Would not be an outing with dad without pictures and pictures with guns.  These two have been out several times shooting gophers and sure do enjoy it.  

 A couple of weeks ago I bought an RV.  It is a 26 ft bumper pull with a slide!  It will be just big enough for my mom and her dog, who will be out here this summer!  Excited to have them on our turf for a couple of months.  (We might keep the RV long term or sell it after the summer, we shall see).  I will fly out to Ohio in a few days and then drive back west with her and the dog.  I have not taken a road trip with the boys since 2016, so excited to be hitting the road.  Wish we had a little more time to explore, but we have to get back for big stuff......

Bens' graduation!  I am so ready for that kid to be done with school and start discovering his passions!  He will more than likely just work for now.  Possibly a trade school sometime in the next year or two, but mostly just putting his head down, working and saving money.  I think he will try to work construction.  Up here, you can pretty much call the shots with any place of employment.  So many businesses looking for help!  One of the boys told me the other day that they know a 14 year old that is making $20 an hour working at DQ!  That is just wrong!!!!

Jacob started his job today.  He will be working at a hardware store/lumber yard.  A job perfect for him.  With his sports, etc, I think they will be able to work with him and hopefully it will be a great job throughout high school!

We are plodding along!

Shortly after we started going to the new gym, Jacob met a guy that played D 1 football at our university and same position that Jacob currently plays.  Jacob come home that day and told me he met Jesse and Jesse said he would be willing to put Jacob through some workouts.  Jacob was so pumped that he had met someone that had done exactly what Jacob would like to do.  They have hit it off and Jesse is a great guy!  They don't get together as often as Jacob would like, but probably 2-3 times a week.

I got this picture recently.  Jesse is on the right.  I forgot to ask Jacob how much he was squatting but looks like it is around 175!  That is a strong kid.  They recently started doing some spring football footwork, etc and he said several of the coaches commented on how much better he is moving.  Between all the weights and the pick up basketball he plays at the gym, he is in great shape.

Joseph is killing it at the gym too!  He is getting stronger and faster and starting to play basketball with the old guys some days!  I think he would like to get into more weightlifting but I really would like for him to wait another year or two.

Benjamin is coasting right now.  So ready to be done!  Still no clue on future plans, but I am sure they are coming!  A while ago he gave me a list of movies that he thought I should watch.  I started four different ones and just really struggled getting through them (I am very particular in what I watch).   So recently Benjamin came to me and told me he had another movie for me.  I was very skeptical but decided to watch it.  He told me it was now one of his favorite movies and that I was gonna be shocked.  I started the movie and within about 3 minutes I found him in his room and said "seriously, you watched all of this...".  I was floored.  He just grinned and said 'yep'.  This is yet one more indicator that my boy is growing up.  (The first indicator was when he took me to an art gallery and we walked around for 30 minutes as he commented on everything).  The movie he raved about.....LaLa Land!!!  I love it!   Another indicator recently of him 'maturing' was we went out to eat and he ordered a Brussel Sprout salad.  I have never cooked brussel sprouts but he ate every bite of his salad!

 It is spring time, which means we never know what the weather will do.  Tomorrow is suppose to be sunny and 75 and then the next day snowing and high of 40!

This kid loves to get behind the wheel.  All in all doing pretty good, but have had a few close calls, which means learning lessons!  He is almost at 25% of his driving hours. His test is already scheduled for Sept 29 to get his actual license.  Nothing happening yet on his job front.  Sure hope something surfaces soon!  He is spending up to 3-4 hours a day at the gym.  He has created these crazy workouts that he puts his friends through and then he will get into some pick up basketball games for an hour or two.  Sure beats being in front of screen.

This has become my favorite part of the gym!  The sauna!  I will always finish my gym time with 15-25 minutes in the sauna.  Joseph is enjoying the gym too.  He is figuring out all of the equipment and getting pretty good at his ball handling skills.

I recently was flipping through a book on my bookshelf and found a piece of paper in it.  On the paper I had written down some numbers from a few years ago, when we had considered moving.  I was trying to figure out what we would sell our house for, minus commissions and what we owed plus what we would spend on a new place and what a new mortgage would look like.  I had projected selling our place for 215k!  I remember those days and our house is now almost double that.  Still a huge, crazy housing market here.  According to Zillow our place appreciated 28K in February.  I anticipate things cooling off in other parts of the country, but not here.  Our community is in crisis mode, trying to revamp city budgets, figure out infrastructure, etc.  We are just booming!

We are down to 8 weeks left of school and about 6.5 until graduation!  Ben is still holding his cards pretty close to his chest as to his plans after graduation.  I guess I will be just as surprised as everyone else when he announces his plans!

 Happy Birthday Jacob!!!  15 years!  Hard to believe!

He will take his written driving test tomorrow, so hopefully be legal to drive with an adult for the next 6 months.   He is also heading to a local hardware/lumber store to apply for a job!  A big day tomorrow!!

 A year ago today....Feb 18, 2021.  I spent my first night in the hospital as a parent with Jacob and his broken femur.  Seems so long ago!!!

Joseph and I recently took a 3 hour drive to one of Jacob's basketball games.  This was our view.

On the way back, we stopped at a 'middle of nowhere' bar and grill for a burger and this was my view.

JR and I recently ate at Benjamin's restaurant.  I snapped this quick blurry photo.  Always fun to watch him work!

We have temporarily switched gyms.  Joseph really wanted to be able to work out and his age makes it hard.  We found a gym that will allow him to work out and they have a basketball court.  Fun to watch these two compete against each other.

There is one more week of basketball for Jacob!  Not sure if he will participate in track this spring.  March will be busy.  Jacob will finish out the ski season, turn 15, get a job and his learner's permit!  Yikes.  March is all about Jacob!!  After all of that, we will be on the downhill stretch with Benjamin and his last 8 weeks of high school.  Hard to believe!

Work rolls along with me.  Has been a little quieter for JR due to low snowfalls.  Although it has been a milder winter, ready for warm weather.