This must be a record

Well. I'm back with another post after only 8 days. This must be some kind of record. But if you were looking for something exciting, you may as well move on to the next blog on your list because I'm continuing on this summer recap until it's all been RECAPPED. For the family scrapbook. Sorry.

A week ago, we left off with our Sioux Falls soccer tournament. During that weekend, I started a course of steriods to attempt to fix my inner ear problem and those 9 days were AWFUL. Some people like the stuff but I couldn't stand it. Yuck. Then, knowing we had a vacation scheduled, a family friend physician ordered an MRI for me so we could go with peace of mind knowing there wasn't something more serious going on. So, at the end of June, with a clear MRI under my belt and the steriods behind me, we headed off down the road to Colorado Springs for a week.

The night before we left, however, we made a quick trip to Cabelas for some last minute supplies and when we returned home, our neighborhood looked like a hurricane had come through. Trashed vehicles, broken windows, branches and leaves and debris everywhere. Turns out we'd missed a massive hailstorm. The kids immediately began gathering hailstones from our yard that were between golfball and baseball size (I wouldn't have believed there was hail that big unless I'd seen it with my own eyes). Meanwhile, Mark and I began assessing the damage to our house. Yikes. Finally got our windows replaced last week and the new roof is going on this week. This was just one interesting photo I got:
The damage didn't deter us, though - we went on vacation anyway! This was our first hotel in Colorado Springs - nights 1 and 2.

Day 1 was spent traveling and at the Castle Rock outlet mall. Oh happy day! :) Day 2 was spent at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. LOVED it. ALL of us. By the end of that day, I would have been happy had that been the whole vacation. At the entrance of the zoo was the giraffe exhibit where we could actually pet and feed the giraffes. AMAZING.

(Jack on the left, Noah on the right)

They were such sweet, funny creatures. Hilarious with all their tongue action.

(This one below was the baby of the bunch)

The zoo had a chairlift you could take up the mountain for a great view:

On the way back to our hotel, we found this house for sale. And promptly bought it. Oh I kid. But seriously, GORGEOUS houses around there.

Day 3 we went to the Royal Gorge about an hour away. SO WORTH the drive. This is the view from the middle of the suspension bridge (that's a river waaaayyy down there):

On the bridge. Quite the experience. The thing MOVES, people. And moves even more when cars drive by on it. Yes, they allow cars on it. Amazing.

That little dark spot over yonder is a tram-thingy that runs across the gorge on a cable. We went on that too.

Another shot from the bridge:

Looking the other direction:

I could have stood there forever taking in the scenery. It was spectacular.

Jack (our fisherman) got a bang out of this sign.

The boys on the aforementioned tram car:

That's a view of the bridge from the tram car . . .

Then to top off the experience, we took this funky traincar thing DOWN into the gorge to the river . . .
At the bottom.

Looking at the bridge from the bottom.

The railway going up/down the gorge wall . . .

The rest of the week was spent in a state of complete relaxation at the Broadmoor. More on that next post . . . .

Back Again . . . (after a relapse)

Good grief! Every time I think I'm going to get BACK ON TRACK with this blog, something happens to derail my efforts. This time was 1) a relapse with my "condition," 2) our absolutely crazy, certifiably insane fall schedule happened. More on that later. But since we finally have a quiet Saturday night at home, I thought I'd keep going on the summer review . . .

Picking up where I left off, after the boys' birthday, we checked in to our summer escape, Hart Ranch. This is part of why the boys LOVE it there:
Lots of time with lots of their buddies. Just boys being boys. The freedom of riding bikes, scooters, playing on the playground, playing mini golf, tennis, swimming, catching frogs, running around with flashlights at night . . . this is their little city. And us moms don't worry about them - it's a great, safe little environment. Even Murphy enjoys it:
Mid-June, we headed to Sioux Falls for another soccer tournament. This one was really special, though, because Grandpa and Grandma Roisum from MN joined us, and so did Great-Grandpa Bill from Worthington (and he's 87!!!).

So here's a bunch of action shots . . .

They did awesome!

I'm back!

Sooo . . . hi!

Yep, it's been a while.

And now you are in for like, the longest post EVER.

It's been a wild summer y'all. So many things to update on! My goal is to get all caught up here in the next week or two.

The biggest "adventure" started last spring when I started having trouble with my ears. Yes, my ears. No, I'm not 80 even though I sound like it. My inner ears malfunctioned. At first it was a minor annoyance, but it became a serious issue when the dizziness kicked in mid-May. And didn't go away. And it's finally just in the past couple of weeks I've started to feel better. So, this summer will go down as the one in which I struggled to balance my condition with the needs of my VERY ACTIVE family. It was rough, but I learned a lot.

I learned that each day of "normalcy" - no matter how boring it may seem - is truly a gift from God.

I learned in a first-hand way that we are sooo not in control. And have no say in whether or not we will have another year, another month, another day, or another 5 minutes of good health.

I learned to pray even more than I did. And more. And some more again. And to keep at it and not give up.

I learned to fully rely on God - on a daily and sometimes hourly basis - for strength, for peace of mind, and for the ability to keep moving. It is only by His hand that I was able to keep up with my kids this summer.

I learned to find the good amidst the bad. To focus on what I could do instead of what I couldn't.

I learned I'm stronger than I thought I was.

I learned to have a greater amount of patience and empathy towards those who are struggling with health issues.

I learned how incredibly patient my precious husband is, and what wonderful friends I have.

Even though this wasn't a life-threatening thing, I have learned that life should be LIVED. Right now.

I've learned to have patience with timelines that are not my own. I would have liked to have been done with this in, say, 2 days. But, like I said, it's not up to me.

I'm still not 100%, but at least I'm moving in the right direction, and I'll take that. I've been told that inner-ear issues can take months to resolve. I'm just grateful that I've seen an improvement!

So, enough on me. Let's get to my favorite blog topic - Jack and Noah. We're going to head WAAYYY back to May when we were finishing out the school year. The kids' favorite year-end event is the track meet. I wasn't so great about pictures this year, but these first two are Noah:

And Jack . . .

This year they tried the running long jump:

Then we had volcano-eruption day - the kids built homemade volcanoes (even made the molding dough from scratch) and then put some combination of liquids in them to make them erupt. (Noah is in the red shirt)

(Jack is in the white striped shirt)

And this spring we started traveling for soccer. Our first trip was to a huge tournament in Denver over Memorial Day weekend. The boys' team made it into the championship game - and lost 2-1 - but we were all so excited that they took 2nd place! It was a HUGE accomplishment with all the teams that were there. (Jack and Noah are in the black)

That brought us right up to birthday weekend. Because they were turning 10, we tried to make it a little more special. We started out Friday night with turning the office into a huge fort. Which they thought they were going to sleep in. But that only lasted until about 11 p.m. :)

Saturday morning we took them to the air show at the Air Force base with one of their best buddies, Christi (her husband is the B1 pilot who was deployed at the time).

Saturday evening we had a big party for them at a bowling alley - we invited families who have played a big part in their first 10 years - it was a wonderful time and really reaffirmed for us how blessed our kids are to have such fantastic people in their lives!

One of the things I've been praying for is that Jack and Noah would have really good buddies in their lives, and so far, they do. They have friends who are really good kids, and I'm so thankful for that.

Sunday was their actual birthday, and we let them dictate the day. We started out with church, then went to Taco John's for lunch (Noah's pick), then headed to Flags and Wheels - an indoor go-kart place.

I stood on the side with my camera - didn't want to drive with my dizziness - and came to some conclusions about my kids driving. Noah is very calm and focused and careful:

Jack, on the other hand is a maniac. I wish you could see his face better in these pics. Oh my word.He won't be getting his driver's license while he lives in our house. Meanwhile, Mark was a good sport in his pink car.

Next up: Pirates Cove mini-golf.

Then we had Armadillo's (ice cream place) for supper (Jack's pick). And headed home to open some presents.

I won't bore you with a bunch of gift pictures, but this one was a special one - "real" basketballs (aka expensive) from Dad.

Okay, so I'll be back! Very soon! Lots of summer still to cover . . . yikes . . . .