July 31

Happy Anniversary Ma-Maw and Pa-Paw C!!!

On our way home from IL yesterday, we stopped at the John James Audubon State Park to do a couple of missions for our Family Adventure Quest.

 First we had a picnic lunch. Grandpa Tim packed each one of us a brown-bagged lunch full of goodies. 

 We had to go into the museum and watch a brief video to be able to answer some of the questions in our quest book.

 

We had to take a picture in the nature observatory of someone on our team using binoculars to watch the birds. We also spotted a groundhog and a raccoon.

 

 We got bonus points for using a paddle boat on the lake.

And we had to use a compass to find this grave of a Revolutionary War soldier. 

July 30

Grandpa and Lulu took the kids shopping yesterday morning, so I got to hang out with Nonna again. From about noon until bedtime, we swam at Jordan and Terah's house with cousins. It was alot of fun. The kids were worn out! That is a successful day.

 Lucy's 2nd time swimming without her puddlejumper... she's doing great!

 

 

 

 

Good news! Nonna got to come home from the hospital today. I am sure she's glad to be back home. Hopefully she doesn't have to go back to to hospital for a very long time! 

July 29

 

 

 

I took the kids to a park yesterday before it got too hot. Afterwards, we visited Nonna for a little while.

 

 

 Lulu treated all the girls to pedicures. Lucy thought she was big stuff!

 Elysa came over to get pounced on.

July 28

 

 We started our day yesterday by paying Nonna a visit. Lucy drew Nonna a picture.

 Then we headed to lunch with Sara and her boys.

 

 

 

 

 We also had a visit with Grandpa Carroll at his and Nonna's house.

July 27

The kids and I drove up to IL yesterday to visit the grandparents. This had been planned for weeks. Nonna was supposed to be 5 weeks out from her hip replacement. Well, she had to have it redone 3 weeks ago because her femur broke. Then, she called us Monday to let us know that the doctor was concerned because one part of her incision wasn't healing correctly and he wanted to open her back up to see if there was an infection. That makes 3 surgeries in five weeks.

I dropped the kids off with Grandpa Tim (who is thankfully retired and able to keep the kids) and headed tot he hospital to hang out with Nonna and Grandpa Carroll while they waited for surgery. She did have an infection that went down to the hip replacement, which means they had to replace a liner (?) and she will have 6 weeks of a daily iv antibiotic. Please pray that this antibiotic takes care of the infection. Poor Nonna is basically back at square one of recovering from hip replacement surgery now. It's been a really crappy July for her and Grandpa Carroll.

The kids still managed to have fun and got to swim with their cousin Maddy.

 

 Elliott loves riding with Grandpa Tim on his motorcycle

 

 

 

July 26

We met friends at the Derby Museum yesterday. It was miserable hot on the outside tour at 10:30am. I am not wishing away the summer, but I am looking forward to Fall weather.

 

 

 

 Jonathan and Jaden admiring American Pharoah's triple crown trophy.

July 25

 

 

 

After church yesterday, we spent the afternoon celebrating Bapaw's birthday.

July 24

Happy Birthday Bapaw!

 Gus took advantage of the fact that we were washing the sheets

 Kat went to a birthday party, Clay and Julia went out for some father-daughter time, and I took these two out for McDonald's and a movie.

 Lucy made a friend at the birthday party

 We also had a bit of sad news at our house last night. Julia's hamster died. She didn't seem too upset about it.