Swimming conference and Colin's 8th Birthday

Colin qualified for Conference this year in swimming.  Just like last year, but in this year he qualified in almost every event (whereas last year it was just the 25 free).

He did awesome.  And he had a lot of fun competing and trying to better his stroke.

He swam in the 25 free, 25 fly and 25 back.

He made it to finals in both the fly and free, but got disqualified on the backstroke because, as luck would have it, he had a seizure during his race and barely finished (this was before we started him back on the medication, he is doing quite well right now).  That story is quite lengthy, so just ask if you are interested, but he was able to make it to the end of the pool okay.

Love this goofy kid

Colin's birthday actually fell on the first day of swimming conference.

We celebrated with donuts and lots of balloons.

He got a great Pokemon card gift from Maggie...

and an orange balloon from Eli - just kidding, Eli got him some slippers.

It is getting difficult sometimes to get a good picture of this crazy kid

Sitting in lane 1 for the 25 fly

After the meet was over in the cool down pool - he was really proud of himself

We watched a movie later on...

And celebrated Colin's birthday the next day by going out to eat at Nick and Jakes.

We love that place...

I wonder what he was wishing for, and I will likely never know, but I know this kid will do amazing things in life!

Happy 8th Birthday Colin!

The seizures return...

We have been noticing some of the same behaviors that Colin had a couple years ago.  

We suspected that his seizures had returned, even though he had a clean EEG done just in February.  We weaned him off his medicine over about a 3 week period.

We thought we were in the clear and that he had outgrown them, but...

Colin actually loves the EEG process where he gets to stay up late with Brian and wake up early with me.  They watched movies and played Pokemon cards.  When I woke him up, we watched more movies and made pancakes and muffins.  The house smelled wonderful by 5 a.m. :)

The EEG results came back and couple days later and as we though, it was abnormal.

He's back on his meds and we are hoping he'll outgrow them in a couple years.

Colin's best buddy Evan moved into our neighborhood a couple weeks ago and they have been having a lot of fun hanging out!

The kids insisted on on a bubble bath to get all the EEG goop out of Colin's hair.

Brian got this super cute pic of the kids.

They had so much fun in there.

Our best attempt at Family Pictures 2017

Family pics 2017

Taken by a good friend at work just dabbling in the photography hobby.

She did great.

The kids were challenging (well, mainly Eli), but she got some good ones for sure.

I can't wait to see the rest!

Notice the HUGE marshmallow Eli is munching on?

Yeah, mom fail, I totally didn't pack any snacks that he could hold in his little hand without them being seen.  Oooopsie!!!

Kelli's trip to Chicago with her college roomies

About a month ago I went on a trip to Chicago to visit my ol' college roomies.

We get together about every year or so - we always have tons of fun!!!

This year, we went to my friend Jamie's lake house on Lake Michigan (well, about 3 blocks from the lake, but close enough!).

Their family just bought it about 6 months ago and LOVE it!

It was stocked with just about anything and everything we needed.

Deidra and I flew in from Kansas City, Steph drove in from St. Louis, and Angie and Jamie met us up there.  Karla was unable to come due to family/work obligations and we missed her dearly!

Jamie's house was so cute and furnished perfectly!

We walked to the lake once we got unpacked.  It was a cool day, but it was beautiful!

The little staircase that leads to the main road we walked on...

Lots of selfies this trip!

The next day we slept in (glorious!!!) and headed to a fun little brewery down the way.

We stayed there for quite some time sampling flights of beer and playing games.

Love my Jamie and Angie!

Cute little flights of beer in the shape of Michigan

We flagged someone down to take our picture this time - love these ladies!

Playing bags out in the lawn

The cheering section

We made it to another place, which was more of a winery. 

The champions of Bags!

After the winery, we went to another brewery (are you noticing a theme here?!) and played some Bocce ball.  Apparently the games are usually over with very quickly, but ours lasted for quite some time.  We even had other customers of the brewery out rooting for us.  It was hysterical!

Cheers!

Deidra and I had to document how close we were in Bocce ball.  

The next day we spent relaxing and hitting up a local bakery for breakfast.  We spent a little bit of time at the house before we had to pack up and leave for the airport.

The weekend went by so quickly but I was glad to be home with my family.

Until next year...

Summer Days and 4th of July

How can it be the end of July already?!

I participated in and coordinated KCCC swimming for CMH at work.

It is always such a fun time (but very stressful with the planning).  Very good group of co-workers that I swim with.  The kids came to cheer me on a couple nights.

Not my fastest swimming ever, but still fun to compete!

Our neighborhood has a fishing club and we went to the fishing club get-together for some barbeque and fishing.  The kids had a blast!

We didn't bring any bait with us, but we used some mac&cheese that was at the dinner and it worked like a charm.  The kids caught so many fish it was crazy!

A nice out-to-dinner picture after a long week at work.

We love Nick & Jakes happy hour!

The 4th of July was so much fun!

Eli LOVED throwing the poppers out on the driveway!

We hit up the pool a ton.  Brian and the kids rode their bikes to the pool and Eli and I drove.

Caught this little cutie smile on Eli.  Such a ham!

The kids loved smoke bombs, little zippers, and actually got quite a bit more brave with lighting some 'bigger' fireworks.

Eli was right up in the action and LOVED it!

Still can't tell if he looks more like Brian or I - or maybe our first combo kid?!

Brian helping Eli light a smoke bomb

The kids insisted on some face pain - Colin's was a little scary :)

We hung out with family at Grammie and Granddad's house - always a good time!

Made it to the pool again and again!

Look at that smile on Eli! :)

A failed attempt at a picture of the kids - Eli had somewhere else to be obviously :)

The best I could get of the 3 of them - Happy 4th of July!!!

Colin and Maggie are still rocking swim team!

Meemaw came to help watch the kids for a bit - she got to hang out with Eli while we sweated it out at the swim meet

Maggie and her friend Quincy - they made slime and thought it was awesome!

Love this picture of Meemaw and Colin

Oh, and Grammie and Granddad celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.

So nice to celebrate with them when all the Teson family was around.