4th of July Festivities!

Well we held our 4th or 5th annual July 4th weekend on the Caddo River for the Oosterhous side of the family. Including our family there were 22 people present (not everyone stayed here though I wish they could've)! It is the first time that we've all been together in over a year!

It was so much fun... lots of good food, conversation, swimming in the river, soccer games, and canoe trips on the Caddo. Lucky for us, Wimbledon always coincides with our 4th weekend. It is always fun to observe the Oosterhous crew watching tennis together, especially when they are rooting for different players! Oh and it wouldn't have been a 4th without stitches... poor Grae had to get 21 stitches in his hand... two years ago Alex and to get them in his knee.... yikes its the 4th of July Curse of the Stitches!

Not only did we celebrate the birth of our country (complete with a FABULOUS fireworks display by our neighbors) but we celebrated George and Judy's birthdays! All of the families worked together to complete a scrapbook for them which turned out really great.

I am blessed to have such wonderful in-laws and I'm already looking forward to and planning for the next July 4th reunion!

June 2010............

Once again another month gone by! June was INSANELY busy.... canceled trip to Florida (oil spill); restaining the house; flood at Albert Pike; Football Camp; 2 weeks of swimming lessons and lots of stuff in between!

Due to the huge oil spill and the oil washing up on to the beaches, we decided to cancel our trip to Florida and Tim decided to spend his "vacation" staining our house instead. In hindsight, it all worked out for the best. A lot of things happened and thank goodness Papa Doc was there to help complete the project (Nana too as she helped watch the kids so I could paint)! We were so bummed to miss this trip but we are already looking forward to our Florida trip next year!

The next week, Jen and crew came to Arkansas. Papa Doc decided that it would be fun to send the big boys to football camp at OBU for 3 mornings (Thanks Papa Doc and Nana)! The boys had a blast! It was so fun to watch them. Nate LOVED it and always played with his shirt off if the opportunity presented itself! He did great and really learned a lot from his coach, Coach Derby!

Zac was funny, he enjoyed it but he also thought it was "a lot of hard work"! I used this as an opportunity to remind Zac that some things worth doing require a lot of hard work and you have to see something throug to the end (he wasn't sure he wanted to go back the 2nd day)! Zac did great and had a wonderful time with his coach, Coach Shockley!

The next two weeks were spent taking swimming lessons at the Arkadelphia Aquatic Park. Nate and Zac did GREAT this year. Nate learned how to dive and really worked on his strokes. He's a good little swimmer and loves jumping off of the diving board. It is so nice to not have to worry about him in the water.

Zac did great too! His confidence improved a lot and his strokes did too. Zacs mantra was, "Big Arms, Fast Feet"! He loved his coach, Coach Matt. He loves jumpping off of the diving board this year. Go Z!

Ben also took lessons this year. He LOVES the water but he LOVES his mama more! I had to sit at the edge of the pool for the first 5 days (only 8 total) with my feet basically in. It took a lot of coaxing and bribing to get him to do anything. By the last day, he had warmed up to his teacher (and I was not there) and he did great. His teacher even told Papa Doc "he was a different child"! Little Stinker! They had fun!

We had a fabulous 4th and I'll blog about that next!