The boys have had a fun summer with Jenn and though it seems hard to believe – this is her last week with us before she heads back to college in South Carolina! It was a blessing to find her so quickly in May and feel comfortable with her from the beginning, especially given her background in nursing! She cared for the boys really well and certainly has a gift of organizing. She regularly went through the boys clothes and sorted/organized them by size and made stacks of the ones they no longer fit in to – and she labeled everything! She re-organized the pantry, fridge, chest freezer, and so many other things – she was super helpful! Each day this week she had a fun activity for the boys including a Lollipops concert in Powell, a trip to the zoo, baking chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and believe or not – she was able to capture Reid walking on his own for the first time! She sent me the sweetest videos on Wednesday, 8/8, of him walking through the kitchen and up in the loft. We didn’t see it ourselves for a day or two as by the evening he was tuckered out and didn’t want to perform. So we’re thankful to have the videos from Jenn!
This week was our first school function at Tyler Run with Meet the Teacher night on the playground. We met Mrs. Menary, picked up a kindergarten info packet, and met a few friends on the playground. It was a warm one that night too – but Griffin had so much fun checking out the playground!
We tried our best to get Reid to walk before Jenn left on Friday, but he wasn’t having it!
Here are a couple video’s from Jenn and the last one we captured later on Friday evening – it was the sweetest moment of Reid walking to Finn and giving him a great hug.
Is there anything better than playing in the rain? Not for Griffin! First some bike riding, then puddle jumping, then fielding balls off the backboard (pretty smart idea, eh?).
I’ve been bitten by the shrub-trimming bug recently. We had a few shrubs that were so overgrown it was making mowing the lawn challenging for Kevin. So I started by trimming the dogwood by the driveway and it just went from there! Major shrub trimming such that we had someone come haul away all of the brush – which filled the back of the 1-800-got-junk dump truck about 3/4 full! We really thinned out the front (below) giving much more light to the evergreens there as well as our new Maple. We also trimmed the forsythia and lonicera on the east side of the house and the lilac and spicebush on the west side near the screened in porch. So.much.brush. One of my favorite things to do outside!
After the weather cleared we headed to the zoo for a brief evening trip where, amongst other things, we rode the dinosaur boat ride and the carousel. 
After church on Sunday we had lunch with the Mannings. Totally unplanned and last minute and it was the best time! We talked about many things, but the main thing was small group and how ours will no longer be. The Mannings and Conrads both are stepping back from leading C-group as they are investing their time in other ways at church right now (Kara heading Stillwater in the interim until we find a new youth pastor and Sarah helping with Middle School stillwater). While I find it sad that we no longer have our group, we’re also in a stage of life that seems so busy it may be nice to have less on our plate. Time will tell. While we were at the Mannings Reid took a nap on Kevin, which is super rare, and Kevin really loved the snuggles.
And here are some succulent babies that we picked up at Mom and Dad’s (after the Corso’s trip we stopped there to visit their gardens and pick up vacation stuffs) and took back to Millcreek to propagate. They are growing like gangbusters. 
We’ve had another week of summer fun around here including the season’s last baseball game for Finn. Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein came down and watched him play. It was actually one of the best games of the season with several great hits and plays by the kids. There was so much improvement between the first game and last. 
On Sunday we headed downtown Big City to see the Clippers play. Again, another super hot day, but thankfully our seats were in the shade and there were very few people around us so we had plenty of room to spread out. Reid did really well and spent time cruising down our aisleway. It was Family Fun day where the kids and parents can run the bases at the end of the game. Griffin and Reid (with Kevin’s help) rounded all four :). 
Some of these are kind of fuzzy (not sure I’ll ever be a great photographer) but they serve as good reminders of what our typical days are like at home. The loft is really a great playspace with the carpeted floors and all of the kids toys in one place. The boys like to play with each other and Lily and Brutus often get in on the fun together too – both with each other and with the kids. Brutus tries so hard to get everyone to play with him often bringing things he know he shouldn’t have!
Griffin had a dentist appointment this week where he got two fillings (a milestone I’d rather not have had at this age!). He did so great! They have a tv overhead so he happily watched a show while Dr. Nick worked quickly – we were done in 25 minutes. This practice is certainly efficient (and not inexpensive since we don’t have dental insurance for the boys or me. The used both laughing gas and novocaine – the mask helped to act as a shield where Finn couldn’t really see what was happening so I don’t even think he knew that he was being given a shot here! Afterwards we went to Bob Evans and had a tasty breakfast before I went in to work. Griffin was SO SAD that he couldn’t go with me to work that he cried for probably 10 minutes, just begging to go with me and “work” in my office with me. Poor guy, I was so tempted to take him with me – but I offered a movie at home and he took me up on that instead. He continues to do really well at swim lessons. It’s fun to see his confidence grow each week – just look at his launch off the side. 
George, Fred, and I took a trip this week up to Corso’s in Castalia, OH to see their shipping process in action. We are seriously considering changing our shipping process from a pull by order pick to a “batch pull” pick system where we pick 3-4 trucks at a time. We’ve been looking in to this process since last fall as it is one that would require a new shipping and supermarket-concept facility. Corso’s is very different from Millcreek as they service box stores (Lowe’s and Home Depot) and grow a very limited number of sizes, they have order minimums of shelf quantities, etc., but to see the process in action and view their setup was very helpful. It gave us many ideas and much to talk about!
We love this vacation each year. We go in to it with no agenda and take each day as it comes. We enjoy a lot of lounging with no where to be other than the beach, the pool, or the house! And we did our best to capture life for the week doing a whole lot of relaxing 🙂 This was our first vacation with a pool at our house and though before arriving I was filled with nerves and anxieties about a pool and young kids (even though we wanted the pool!) we were all put at ease once we realized the pool was quite secure and on the lower level of the house. Whew. We explored the beach during the day and a couple of times near sunset. Finally toward the end of the week we had the perfect beach day – calm winds and waters and sunshine.
Everyone had their turn at showing off their skills jumping in to the pool. Griffin, and all of the kids actually, made great progress during our week in the water. He went from being timid and wanting to hold on to someone to getting rockets off the floor of the deep end (5 1/2′ feet maybe?) to swimming laps on his own! I put several videos in this post, all at the bottom. Be sure to watch Griffin’s water skills and also the cannonballs of Kevin, Andy, and me. You can judge who had the best form and water spillover.
Great could always be found near Reid playing with him and making sure he was safe. 
The Bethune’s and Beilstein’s have been in to puzzles for quite some time and on vacation they brought a box of a dozen puzzles. The Armstrongs jumped in on the action and together we all completed a puzzle almost every day. They can be rather addicting!
Thanks to Mom and Dad for watching all of the kids one night so we could go out on a Date Night. We were sitting on the patio of Columbia when all of a sudden these “strangers” walked by and wanted to pose for a quick photo in front of the restaurant, lol. We literally didn’t see them coming – check out my face in the second photo. 
The kids spent many hours playing together, building magnet creations, helping with puzzles, playing baby, and watching some shows. I think they really enjoy the time each summer. 
For our “On Your Own” night we went to Phillipi Creek Seafood Restaurant again. This place is where Finn discovered his love of Red Snapper. He wanted the same fish again so he and Kevin split that for dinner. It was huge and it made Finn a happy boy!
These photos are from the nicest day we had at the beach. Warm sun, little wind and waves. Some of these photos are from Amy 🙂
Amy took our traditional Family Photos. This year we were in the pool area of our house which had awesome large tropical trees. 
Another periodic check in on the pups and I found Brutus being all rough and tumble with the blanket. I can pretty much guarantee he was playing hide and seek with his nylabone :). 
Our flight back to Ohio didn’t leave until 9 at night so we had all of Saturday to explore. We started with breakfast at The Broken Egg and then we drove north to the Mote Aquarium. It was h-o-t! We saw a lot of fun ocean creatures and enjoyed the exploration. Griffin loves stingrays and wanted to pet them. They can be rather shy but they do occasionally swim up the sides of their enclosure. Finn and I were surprised when one swam nearby, only to have a spat with another stingray, and he ended up getting soaked with water! He was initially upset and a bit embarrassed as everyone chuckled. But we then began to laugh ourselves and thought it was pretty cool. 
Our drive to Tampa was a quiet one as both boys fell asleep in the car and took in brief naps. We encountered a big storm shortly after we arrived at the airport – but thankfully it was after we’d taken the tram and arrived inside the terminal. Shout out to the airport personnel for directing us to the “express” security lane where we were able to by-pass a huge line in order to go through security and get to the gate. Yay for traveling with young kids!
We arrived home around midnight and moved the boys from their carseats to their beds. Sunday morning Kevin and Finn quickly hopped on the mower to whip our yard into shape for the days visit from Jim, Pat, Sean, Max and Charlotte. Sean and the kids were in town from New Mexico for the week we had been out of town. Luckily we were able to enjoy the day together before they headed back on Monday. Griffin and Charlotte spent a lot of time driving around the yard. Max is a bit too big and heavy to drive the car, so instead, Kevin hopped on the mower and let Max drive. He thought it was awesome :). And no worries, they are both safely seat-belted in.
