Cousins!

Over Memorial Day weekend, we traveled to Omaha to visit the Pauley cousins and celebrate Alena's graduation.  I can't believe she's a graduate!  I first met Alena when she had just turned 9.  She was visiting the Pauley grandparents in Florida for Spring Break and Glenn and I happened to be out there at the same time.  Alena would be the junior bridesmaid in our wedding in the fall, but during that first trip she was a little shy but very adventurous and giggled at everything her uncle said and did.  Since then, she's grown into a lovely young woman and I'm sure she's headed for great adventures in college.  Her cousins absolutely adore her, especially the little blonde one.



Reina threw her only temper tantrum of the weekend shortly after this picture was taken when she found out that she couldn't drive to graduation with the graduate.  I think Reina would've gladly walked with her to accept the diploma if that had been allowed too. 

Cousin Ben is also on the list of "Cousins that are Adored."  He is probably the most patient soon to be eighth grader that I know.  He hauled Reina around the Omaha Zoo and brought out his gigantic collection of Legos to entertain Will.  I tried to talk him into coming back and spending the summer babysitting his cousins but apparently he has more fun things to do! 

 

Reina's cute little feet hardly touched the ground on our afternoon at the zoo.  Between her cousin and her uncle, she had a chariot wherever she went. 

This cute orangutan escaped his cage and followed us around for a while. 

Graduation finery. I stole a few minutes to myself and shopped with Aunt Maria at an awesome outlet mall. I knew Will needed some new church clothes for the summer and I hemmed and hawed until I found orange shorts and a dark blue shirt.  Naturally, it was a hit! 

More graduation finery with the grandparents! 

We had a very nice weekend with all of the Pauleys.  Besides graduation and the zoo, we had a family bowling tournament,  which the author of this blog won in a shocking upset.  Okay, shocking is a slight understatement because no one else really seemed to mind but I'm still waiting for my handcrafted trophy.  The bigger kids and assorted parents played a not-necessarily-friendly game of laser tag and Uncle Mark took home that award.  Glenn claims that his gun was broken. I kept shooting the poor guy that worked there.  Not surprisingly Will is now a giant fan of laser tag and I think we've found the theme for his next several birthdays. 

I sound like a broken record, but everything in our world seems to be beyond hectic right now.  So much for the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, huh?  Summer officially starts around here tomorrow with Will's last day of school.  He and I are going to have a mom/son afternoon while Glenn works and Reina is at Pop-pop's house.  Her preschool was closed for a few days to get ready for summer and she was more than happy to spend that time tiring out Grandma and Pop-pop.  Speaking of the end of the school year, Will brought home his report card today and I am one tickled mom.  He's made great strides this year and he's quite the smart kid.  He's rocking the math and reading and he also got an "A" in art which will make Grandma H happy.  I guess his art teacher must've liked detailed battle scenes.  And Star Wars.  Watch out second grade, we are coming for ya!

Last weekend we hosted a garage sale and officially sold the last of all of the baby stuff (sigh).  Will has baseball games a couple of times a week and Reina starts t-ball on Monday.  Glenn and I are both busy training for an upcoming half marathon and the biggest benefit of that is that we have two very tired dogs.  We have a few rows of cauliflower, kale, cucumbers and zucchini at our church's community garden along with pots of tomatoes and peppers at home.  I'm also helping with Aunt Vicky's community garden spot and if we don't get any HAIL we'll have a great bounty this summer.  In the past month, Glenn's been treated for an infected tick bite (not Lyme's disease) and had an allergic reaction to a bee sting.  The insects love him. Our insurance company probably does not.   I've stayed healthy but my allergies are in full swing with all of the green stuff growing out of the ground.  Reina has a pet beetle in her room and is a whirling tornado of activity who frequently shouts out "Let's go kick some honey buns!" which is her favorite line from the movie Mulan. I miss writing here but there haven't been very many spare minutes to sit down and type it all out.   I think that about sums it up.  Let's get this summer started!