A few fun pictures from our trip.

 I love Quinn giggles, and she loved the trip.

 She loved listening to the water and watching out the window when we were inside.

 We were at the pool a lot!

Quinn loves the water and all the kids were in the water quite a bit!

 Grandpa was in the water with them as well!

 If they were not in the water, they were loving the deserts!  They had a lot of ice cream!

 Made time for some chess games and Monopoly!

 Then had to venture out to the go carts.

Denali said she is not riding with Grandpa again, he is a crazy driver!

 But then back to the beach to enjoy the moments!

 Lots of love over the trip!

 Two exhausted girls by the time we were getting ready to go home!

A few more fun stories and pictures to share soon!

Thanks for checking in!

The whole point of us going to the beach was to get some sun, but mainly spend time with family.  Two great things to do, which is good, as it was a 20 hour drive.  

 Spending time with my Mema is so precious.

 Grandma, Grandpa Ron, me and the kids make up four generations.

 Here is just part of the family that we got to spend some time with.  So grateful!

So last week, we went to the beach, and we took my nephew Kaleb along.  I was lucky enough to take his senior pictures and so I had to share a few.  What a great kid.

We had fun taking pictures.

Next up is our trip to the beach for a family reunion.

We just drove all day to get home from a great family reunion at the beach, so I have lots of pictures and stuff to share.  The bummer is that Quinn got a sore on her back from scratching it on her chair.  I will get more on here ASAP!  Thanks for checking in!

Susan

 The girls have been practicing their dance number this summer between all their adventures.  We are getting ready for our next adventure soon, so we are ready to keep the adventure going!

The girls had fun on their own last week, but are back together and have to hug every few minutes it seems.  So all is well again.  Denali had lots of fun at two different camps.  I am glad to report that going back to back went ok, and she loved both camps.

 So today we had Quinn's chairs worked on again.  It is looking like we will be getting new seating soon.  Soon is a weird term in special needs equipment, because it takes so long to get anything done.  Letters need to be written showing how it is important and why.  Then it needs to be fitted and measurements taken.  Then insurance has to approve it, then it gets ordered, then it gets put on the chair and the chair needs to be adjusted again.  So maybe by Christmas we will have new seating, but we have to make what we have now fit.  So after hours of hard work, we have things mostly working.  We are going in again tomorrow for a bit of tweaking.

 The kids waited patiently for the most part.  

Now we are starting to sadly count down our summer.  We still have trips to the zoo, trips to the beach, a summer camp for Isaiah, meetings with friends, and a few other things, but we are also scheduling final doctor appointments before school starts, classes I am taking, getting my classroom ready, finishing up summer projects, and getting back to school stuff.  Oh how I appreciate summer!  I love having this time to decompress from teaching, and am so thankful to have this time with my kids to really hang out with them, and be the mean mom when I need to be, but they all three are such unique people, I am so thankful to get to be with them.  I am so thankful for this time.  

Well, it's just these two girls with me this week, as we dropped the other two off at our church camp.

So we are working on standing, eating, cuddling, and relaxing.

 Before kids left we had a fun night swimming with friends.  It's hard to take Quinn swimming because she can not get splashed with her trach, but we had a special night where kids with disabilities and their families could go swim.  It was such a sweet night with great friends.

 Time is speeding by, so we are trying to take it every moment.

Trips are so fun, and educational, and exciting, and exhausting.

Quinn needed a good 5 days to get herself back in gear.

The other two needed some chill out time as well.

We were thankful to be able to celebrate Amelia with her family and her church.

Amelia and Quinn were the best of friends until she passed away 3 years ago.

In some ways it seems like just yesterday.

We love that family so much, and are so thankful to spend the evening remembering Amelia,

and seeing the hard work they did with their church to get an elevator installed.

They talked about how isolating it can be having a disability, and I don't like to dwell on it, but it is so true.  We have to think about everywhere we go and if her chair can work, or will the space be to crowded, will it have stairs, will things work for us.  So listening to their words, and seeing their church family support them and their passions was so very powerful.

Thank you Jen and Steve for being such amazing people and including us.  You are loved!

 Amelia we talk about you so much and think and pray that we will see you again!

We are trying to get back into our routines of stander time, getting standers adjusted, getting wheelchairs adjusted, getting our therapies done that we do at home, getting paperwork turned into the state for Quinn.  Getting to a few doctor and dentist appointments.  The list is never ending and I am thankful that John is ok doing most of the paperwork, because it honestly makes me a bit crazy.  I will tackle all the appointments.  

We are thankful for the church behind us that puts flags out, it is so beautiful for a background.

Happy 4th of July.

 We had fun with smoke firecrackers and catching things on fire for a bit.