Peaceful.

Our Memorial Day weekend was spent camping in Lincoln State Park in southern Indiana. We enjoyed a great few days of hiking, swimming and playing.  

We are very thankful for the soldiers whom have given their lives for our freedom. 

Get Out and Go...

Camping!

We spent our Memorial Day weekend camping in Lincoln State Park in southern Indiana. It was a great time! The boys loved being outside, sleeping in tents and hiking around the forest. Not to mention, we loved it too!

We spent our days hiking around the state park and the national memorial, Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. 

The state park has a cool fire tower you can climb up, a Great Lake to swim, fish and canoe in, and very kid friendly nature center.  

The national memorial is where the boyhood home of President Lincoln was. There is a living museum with a cabin, wood working shop and farm. As well as, a great memorial/museum building. Plus, it's a great place to get your kids first Jr. Ranger badge. 

To become a Jr. Ranger, each kid has to complete the number of pages, in a workbook they provide, for their age. Emerson did a great job of completing his three pages of the workbook. There are several things in the booklet age appropriate for three year olds. Then we just let Rhys scribble on a word search page, which worked! Rhys was asleep on my back when they had to take the oath and receive their badges. They both are now Jr. Rangers at Lincoln Boyhood! 

Not gonna lie, I was a pretty proud mama!

One of the best parts of our weekend was getting to spend the evening with my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece. Emerson and Rhys adore their older cousins and were so happy to have visitors to our campsite. 

Eric and I both love going camping with the boys. It's easy at times, non-stop work most of the time and  constant awareness all the time. There are times, several a day, where I want to throw in the towel. Pack it all up and head home. Somehow, we manage through. Pretty sure, the campsites near us get several good laughs, which I am ok with.  Most of the time, it's just figure out how to make everyone happy. We have learned to just roll the windows down and let the kids play in the car!

The Last Day of School.

This year has been a great year. The boys have loved going to school, playing with old friends, making new friends, and they had really great teachers. I am truly going to miss this year.

The question at the end of the year is always, "do we need to get the teachers something?" I always say no, but only if you want to. It's not an obligation nor is it expected. I do not remember anyone giving teacher gifts when I was in school. Here's the thing, I like to get the boys teachers gifts. So, I decided this year that they will get handmade gifts as a thank you. 

I made these cute little posters. I saw something very similar on an Instagram feed. I really liked it and decided that it was a great saying for a teacher. So, I made it. 

I feel very lucky that my boys go to a preschool that they love. E was asking this morning if it was a school day. I had to break it to him that schools out for summer. Then he asked for a graham cracker and ran outside. 

I am pretty sure he will have a great summer break!

Summertime Fun.

This past month has been super busy with school fundraising, a bachelorette party, a first communion, a wedding, working on our yard, and our regular day-ins and day-outs, that I had no idea when we were going plan our summer trips. 

This year we plan to go to as many state parks as we can, see as many towns and cities as possible, camp as much as we can, and have as much fun as we can. 

A few weeks ago we headed out to Clifty Falls State Park. It was a prefect beginning of spring day. The sun was warm and the shade was cool. We hiked for about six hours and loved our time. 

After hiking we checked out the park's inn. That is oddly located near a power plant that has three really big smoke stacks. 

Then drove around the near by town and thought the country on our way back home. We want to have lots of days like that. The only problem, we have two months of summer break and three of those weeks are filled with activity camps.

Even though our plans our probably bigger than our summer time, we will attempt to pack it all in. 

'I did it!' The most satisfying words after a challenge.

Over the weekend, I ran a 10k, with this awesome group of ladies. This is my workout group, mom's group, social group and most importantly they are my friends. 

We were encouraged to run this race by an instructor that leads our challenge group, Hollie. She created a training plan for all of us to follow for ten weeks to prepare us for the 6.2 mile run. The training included one day of speed training and two days of race pace runs to build up endurance. Each week, my goal was to complete the speed work and at least the longest run because I wanted to continue with my regular workout schedule. Plus, I wasn't actually going to run the race so I was just running to run. I thought I had plans but actually had my schedule all messed up. Anyway, it worked out for me to run with my girls. 

So, we met at 6:30, walked down to the starting area, heard the national anthem and then walked towards the starting line. When I started running I had two goals; one- finish the race and two- finish it in an hour. The first couple miles flew by, I had a great pace going. Then, I was thirsty and at mile marker four there was a water station. Sadly, they had very little water and I had to search for a cup and then I stepped in mud. It slowed me down a bit but I felt great about where I was with my time. Fast forward to my last mile, I was relived when I saw the last mile marker because I was running out of steam. I had to keep telling myself that I could do this, don't walk now, almost done and you've got this! Almost, nonstop! As I got really close to the line, I saw my husband and kids with a sign we made cheering me on. I crossed the line at just under and hour, 59:53, officially. 

I did it!

We did it! I am so proud of all these ladies for completing this challenge. As well as, thankful that I call them friends. I am pretty lucky!