Summer 2014

After we came back from Chicago in May, Samantha had a month left of preschool.  She had a couple of field trips in there that Jim was able to join us.  We had a great time at the Detroit Zoo.  It started off as a beautiful day.  We walked through the zoo, had a nice lunch, a nice ride on the carousel and then it started pouring!  We got drenched.  We had a long way to walk back to the car!  The kids thought it was great, and I will say so did I.  It was fun watching them laugh, dance and stomp in the puddles!  It's not every day you get to do that.  At the end of May, Samantha graduated from Peace Lutheran 4 yr Preschool.  Her teacher, Mrs. G., was wonderful!  She was so good with Samantha this year.  We had a lot of traveling to do this past year and she accommodated very well and help keep Samantha on target.
In the beginning of June we took a quick 24 hour trip to Chicago for Alec's graduation from Paramedic school.  It was a wonderful graduation.  He graduated at the top of his class. So proud of him.  Samantha stayed with my parents for 2 weeks in the beginning of June as well.  She LOVED it and so did my parents.  They spoiled her!  She went shopping, got her nails done, went to a couple of carnivals, spent time with Auntie JuJu and Uncle Matt and then Uncle Awesome took her to Toys R Us, Dave & Busters and then out to lunch.  She loved having just one on one time with all of them.  It was nice for me too, to have some one on one time with Nicholas.  We played a lot, went to speech, and i got a lot done around the house.  Jim had some time off in June so we all traveled to Chicago and spent some time there with family.  Jim golfed and relaxed a bit before getting ready to start his FINAL year of residency.  The kids and I stayed until middle of July.  Samantha was also able to enjoy VBS at Calvary and Nicholas and I spent time in the nursery  with other kids too.  Samantha had a blast and enjoyed learning more about Jesus.  The week ended with a picnic lunch after church on Sunday.  When we got home from church on Sunday, I noticed Nicholas had a bad rash on his butt.  Turns out he got Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease.  This was not fun. I did take him to Urgent Care to make sure that's what it was.  Poor little guy had blisters on his feet and a couple on his hands.  Most of them were on his little butt.  After we got over that he was good!
 In July, Jim was able to come and enjoy the 4 of July weekend with us.  We enjoyed fireworks & ice cream at Tastee Freeze on July 3, the Palos Heights parade and BBQ & fireworks at Jager's on the 4th.  The rest of July was pretty uneventful.  We did have to make a quick trip at the end of July because Jim had an interview for his "forever" job at Ingalls.  I can say that we are in contract talks and hoping to sign something soon!
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