simple summer joys

camping; the simple, constant joy of summer.  no summer is complete without at least one camping trip...or three!  camping brings out the simple joys i miss in my everyday life.  the baseball games, the tubing-induced screams, and the silhouettes as the sun slowly sinks below the mountains.

this little boy is growing up so fast.  it seems like it was only yesterday that Jett Alexander came into my life, but in truth it has almost been two years.  that astounds me.  i can't believe the months have slipped by in unison.  a constant blur until one takes time to focus on the time passed.

and this kid; our artist, comedian, swimmer, and now runner.  Nate did a triathlon a couple weeks ago, and even though he finished last (come on, how many ten year olds really do these things?) we were so proud of him.  God has great plans for him.

yes, Jett really likes brushing his teeth.  and he doesn't always do it with his toothbrush either!

and combing hair.  our future barber?

And all that teeth-brushing and hair-combing naturally wore the fella out.  Awwwww....

Noah Dean

some of my church friends came over for the day.

and i let Jillian use my camera so there are actually pictures of me...remarkable!

and my "brother" seth.  this kid cracks me up!

more baseball.  :)

Yeah, we get into it...

and that's my crazy "family."  you gotta love summer.

i'm a freshmen :)

yes, you heard me right.

And this is what this freshmen wore on the first day of school.

minus the guitar of course.  i love playing the guitar.  love it.  i just learned how to play the song, Hallelujah and i love it!  i'll have to post a video of me singing it for you all sometime.  :)

oh, and don't you just adore polaroids?

i spent a lot of time with my new best friend Hadley this summer!  i've only known her for around six months but i feel like i have known her for years!  love her!

this picture was taken with my sister's new Ipad {yay} when Hadley was over some time this summer.  we were trying to do our cheap imitation of freerunning and look like gangstahs at the same time.  we are so cool.

 

 i also got to go back to Doe River Gorge for a day with a bunch of my friends!  we did a bunch of ziplining and yes, i even got blobbed...you should have seen my face...that's all i'm saying.  

when i got out i started taking pictures with my new ipod {i'm in love} and this is what came out.  isn't it interesting?  i love it!

 and then my friend, Morgan joined in on the action and we took some really cool sunglasses photography.  and yes, i was in a way copying D.J.  sorry...i couldn't resist, his phone photography is so amazing!

that's it folks!  i'm going into the third week of school tomorrow.  I adore my class---all eleven of them {i go to a tiny school but it's a jump from eight} and i think i'm really going to like all my new subjects and my teachers.  

one more thing.  i probably won't post for a week or two.  my class is going on a retreat to Wesley Woods on Thursday and Friday and then i leave to go camping.  Oh, how i love camping.  i promise to bring back lovely pictures to show you all when i get back!

cheerio!

swim meet at UT

Ross, Nate, and Kenzie are all part of the local swim team and today they went to their last swim meet at the UT professional pool.  Yeah, you heard me right.  Totally cool!  Nate and Kenzie had meets today and I borrowed my sister's friend's telephoto lens.  Man, do I want one of those things!

Nate's awesome dive.  This picture made me very proud.  haha.

 Love this picture.   The framing is so original!

The pool...and the diving boards, and that massive thing they do flips off of in the Olympics...Farthest pool was 17 feet deep and the other two were 8 feet.  Let's just say that it was VERY impressive.

Kenzie swimming past the flags.

Nate's swim coach telling him...something.  I'm not quite sure what kind advice he could have been giving.

Travis wishing Kenzie good luck.

Kenzie's "oh no" pose.  That big blur just happens to be someone's foot.  It looks pretty cool actually.

 Kenzie's swim coach encouraging her before she went.

 Kenzie taking off.  She came in an un-official first once actually.  It was un-official because she didn't hit the wall where she was supposed to so that the timer went off on her lane.  But it was first none-the-less.

 And I shall leave you with this warning.

the barbed wire pool and too many braids

My Summer

diving boards and swim suits

interesting dives and cute kids

 jumping up and down

 VBS and sticky tape

a lot of crazy third graders

staring contests

little kids and juice boxes

 two and a half hours worth of braids (27 to be exact)

barbed wire protected pools and interesting faces

very talkative little boys

jumping pictures

and

CRAZY FRIENDS

Went to the mall yesterday and bought a ton of stuff that I'll show you all later.  Going camping tomorrow and I'll be gone until Wednesday.  I'm going to try to capture the fireflies mating in the Smokey's with my camera...I hope it works!  Fingers crossed! 

Cheerio!