Coming and Going

This has been a summer of coming and going. 

It started with Jasmine leaving on a ten-day choir tour to Colorado the day after school let out followed by our marathon Smokey Mountain trip. 

From there Kayla went to camp, Ty and Rick back to work and Jasmine and I went on to Indiana. Jessica joined us there. We were able to meet up with my step daughter and her family and get a picture of all three of my grandchildren together.

Jessica returned to FL, and Jasmine and I went on to Cincinnati to the International Christian Retail Show, which was really small this year. We stayed with a friend for a few days.

Then Jasmine and I returned home by way of Chattanooga. 

You've seen most of those photos in previous posts, but I'll post a few here for those who missed it.

Jasmine in Colorado

Most of us in the Smokey Mountains

Indiana for a four generation picture

With Rick's parents

Visiting my step daughter and her family

Griffin, Phoenix and River

 Signing three books in Cincinnati

 Downtown Cincinnati

Talking with my fiction coach in person

 At a friend's house taking life easy

 At one of the publishing house booths at ICRS

 The best part of ICRS is meeting up with other authors

 Talking with Pat Boone about his recent projects

Teresa gave me this pencil. It's going to hang in my office

 We added Chattanooga because we weren't quite ready to go home.

When we arrived home, everyone was there except Kayla, who had already been at mission camp for a couple of weeks. We'd been sending her postcards along the way.

But then on Sunday the 10th, Kaleb left for camp, Adam left for California and Jasmine and I left for Gainesville for her surgery. That was in the previous post.

My marine in California

Off to camp

Jasmine and I got home on Wednesday. Kaleb got home on Saturday and left again on Sunday for his second week of camp.

Jasmine went to a couple of hours of percussion camp today to see how she'd do. She was not in good spirits when I left her, but Jessica picked her up for lunch and a movie. She just got home and seems more relaxed now.

So, what's ahead?
Two weeks of band camp for Jasmine
Surgery follow up on August 1 for Jasmine. We plan to make a quick trip to Jacksonville after that.
Kaleb will be home on Saturday and no other trips planned.
Kayla will be home on the 28th and no other trips planned.
Tyler turns 26 on Saturday and we're going to the Chinese buffet.
Adam should be home sometime next weekend.
Ty and I are supposed to be completing advanced scuba but the shop we signed up with had a major turn over in instructors and basically there is no one for that class. We are going to start over with a different dive shop.

We plan to go back to Wakulla Springs and let anyone who wants to make the 22 foot jump do so. We have to wait until after Jasmine's follow up though. She has to keep the cast on her nose and dry until then. 

Ty, Jessica, Jasmine and I also want to make a springs dive and we have to wait for the same reason.

Try outs for the Missioula Children's Theater play are August 8.

So that's where we are now.

We go back to school August 18th.

What about the rest of you? What do you still have planned and when do your kids go back to school or start homeschool?

All Different Directions

Right now some of the kids are headed all different directions.

Kayla is at TMI camp.

She won't be home until July 28

On Sunday Kaleb leaves for camp in Pensacola

On Sunday Jasmine and I head to Gainesville for her pre op and surgery next week.

On Sunday Adam leaves for California for his two weeks of reserve duty.

So as many as could spent time together at the pool on Wednesday and Thursday.

Then last night we had some of the group over for one last get together for a while. We claimed it was a combined half-birthday celebration for me and Adam.

Adam's girlfriend Tara and her three year old son are in the picture too. They are very good for Adam!

And of course Ashley is in Indiana

And Jeff is still in Louisiana.

Rest of Last Week

Jasmine and I left for Kissimmee last Wednesday. We got there late afternoon and went to Hollywood Studios for a little while. It poured rain, but we had our ponchos.

We were inside here.

The next morning we headed over to FL's west coast to meet a family whose blog I follow. No, I don't normally go visit people I don't know, but I wanted to meet Dawn because I could tell she's the real thing. And we have a lot in common although she's younger, and her kids are a younger age range--9 children ages 12 and below. It reminds me so much of us a few years ago in GA when we had seven (3 were foster) ages 10 and under. She is facing some of the issues we were in the middle of at that time. We loved meeting all the children and spending time with them. Jasmine took her slither and her power wing and shared them. They already had scooters, but not this kind.

I got to sit next to this cutie at lunch! She is very friendly, aware of everything and verbal.

They have a pool too. Jasmine really liked Abigail.

One of hers and seven of mine are missing in this picture. But four of mine are over 18 and one will be 18 in January. They are spread all over right now.

We went back to our hotel and hung out for a while. Then we headed over to Magic Kingdom. People were dancing with Goofy and Stitch, so Jasmine joined that group for a while.

Amazingly, she wanted to eat!! (If you know Jasmine, you know she is a picky eater and would live on pasta and junk food if allowed). She wanted the rib/chicken platter (we usually take food, but we didn't bother so much with just the two of us-most of the time we didn't eat until we got back to the hotel and twice we bought food) and she was nice enough to let me have most of the green beans!! But she ate all of the meat!!! I grabbed the potatoes while she was busy figuring out how to eat the ribs.

Next day we went to Epcot for a while, and then headed over to downtown Disney to their theater for Brave. Jasmine had been given an AMC gift card, which they sell in our Walmart, but we don't have an AMC anywhere near us! So we used her card.

We sat in the third story balcony so we climbed A LOT of stairs up. Then I went all the way back down because she wanted fresh popcorn. And all the way back up. And by then she had decided she didn't really want popcorn!!

After the movie, it was raining pretty hard, but we went back to Epcot anyway because we had fast passes for Soarin'

And we ordered beef and noodle soup in China, and this is what we got! I was expecting cheap ramen at an expensive price- $8 a bowl, but this was real beef and noodles that were more like dumplings.

I had Jasmine try to eat with chopsticks to make sure I had time to get some too!

On Saturday we went to Sea World. We watched the Shamu show twice.

The sea lion show hasn't changed in at least 25 years! We did Turtle Trek and Wild Arctic and looked at all the animals. (She wouldn't pet the stingrays) We planned to go back Sunday but the tropical storm was moving in by then.

We went back to the hotel where Jasmine swam in the pool for a couple of hours. At this time I discovered my Kindle was dead. Just went to sleep and wouldn't wake up! I think it got stepped on at the theater because every single set was filled and my backpack got stepped on.

Since it was storming Sunday, we went ahead and headed to Merritt Island and went to the mall. We figured we'd watch Brave again or some other movie. The timing for Brave worked out well. Then we headed to the camp for commissioning.

We met the daughter of another bloggy friend. It looks like I will not get to meet the mom because Adam is flying home and his team arrives back at the camp later than Sarah's anyway. But we'll meet up someday. Sometimes it is a small world.

The rally.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Tyler and Rick hung out and celebrated Rick's 50th birthday. Doesn't Ty looked just thrilled about those tacos?

I bought the tacos and Ty bought a sugar free chocolate pie.

And there were presents of course although not everything is shown becasue he got a gift card to pick some himself.

So that's what we did last week!


How about you?