The J6 Journey: Year 2, Day 172: Summer Fun!

It literally felt like a vacation day for us! We had friends come over during the morning until naptime and we played with board games, ate some lunch and played in the water with water squirt cannons and the pool. Then this evening Benaiah's school had a family outing we could all attend at a bowling alley, which was a hoot! And we ended the day with the kids catching fireflies! Oh, and our doggy, Socks, is living with us again! Yeah for us and a little sad for Grandma and Grandpa.

Socks is coming home today!

I haven't used a flag on a mailbox since I left home 18 years ago! We always had a box up on the house itself with no flag. So, here's the first piece of mail going out from the new house!

Loving on the puppy.

Showing Socks all of our rooms.

The little guy on the left, Neso just turned 1 this week. Abishai is almost 2 1/2. And Neso wears bigger diapers than Abishai. That's crazy! Cute babies though! And Neso is the calmest baby I have ever seen!

Berkley had a great time playing with Socks. We got Socks from this family 7 years ago this month, which means Berkley was 7 years old at the time. He remembers Socks and his litter mates, and their mom, Natalie. So, it was a special reunion.

This family has 8 kids, 7 of which came today, so the yard was full of fun, noise, tears, fights, siblings, water balloons, etc etc

A boy and his dog. We have to put Socks on a long line for now because the fence isn't done, but we did have him off the leash when we were out, especially so he could get acquainted with the neighbor dogs. 3 out of 5 homes around us have dogs.

Abishai loves taking care of his doggy. In fact, he ended up feeding the dog 3 large biscuits before I was able to put them out of reach.

Great wind today, so it was perfect for kite flying! We lost a piece to the kite though, but thankfully, it was only a $1 kite. We'll keep looking for it though.

Berkley is the water balloon tying expert.

A dog in his new home.

Bowling time! Abishai had never been to a bowling alley before (at least that he can remember) so he was fascinated and LOVED it. He does "bowl" on Grandma's tablet and down her hallway, so he sort of got that part.

Look at those cute new shoes!

Little clown feet!

We put bumpers up for both sides, which was fine because then we all got higher scores. 7 of us bowled, so we did take up two lanes! Keturah bowled with her left hand for some reason. She writes with her right hand though. But I am also known to be stronger in my left side than my right and bat facing right, and I'm right handed when I write and cut and such. So, who knows.

Biggest Boy Benaiah enjoyed himself immensely and got some great scores. He did get a chance to say hi to his friends as well. They weren't many there though.

Cutest ball rolling thing ever! Abishai used it for about half the time, and then he wanted to bowl without it like the rest of us. He got so into this bowling thing and wanted to take everyone's turn for them!

The green ball was 6 lbs and his favorite ball.

Watch the ball! But Abishai was content that it was just rolling down the lane.

Justin got several strikes tonight and did really well! His footwork needs a little work though.

Nice form, Jared! Jared, Matt, and Chad bowled often while they were in high school. Chad much more than the others. But it definitely was a cheap activity for them. I LOVE bowling (and putt-putt/mini golf). So, I bowled a whole game and then let Abishai take my turns during the 2nd game. He was relentless in wanting to take everyone's turn for them.

Nice socks, Justin.

Like father, like son. Again.

Trying to keep little man out of people's way.

Lots of family, lots of different colors and weights for bowling balls.

Cutest little feet ever!

Wow, everybody did great on their first game!

Abishai did really well respecting the ball retrieval thing. He only got his fingers crunched a tiny bit one time. He would stand there and wait for this green ball to come, and then immediately pick it up and CARRY IT all by himself to any lane with pins standing. And then he rejoiced with a big dimpled smile each and every time he rolled a ball down the lane, regardless if he got any pins or not.

Abishai saw Justin's water hanging out here, so he figured the rest of the waters go there, too.

Our scores for the first game. That a pretty decent score for me.

The ball helper came in handy as a chair fr little one to watch big brother from.

BB8 Star Wars socks.

Her shoes match her outfit!

Cars, water bottles shoes - they all have to be lined up in Abishai's world.

This was his reaction each and every time after he rolled the ball and turned around. So much enthusiasm!

He's so happy that "Abishai do it!"

2nd game scores

During this game, Abishai took a lot of my turns and Benaiah and Jared switched around a bit because Benaiah was talking with his principal and friends.