Summer Fun

 Volleyball season got off to a great start.  I was super busy in August and the girls were at home at lot and a bit bored.  They missed having activities planned for them every day.  In-between volleyball, I found time to do fun things with the girls.  We all went to a George Mason volleyball game.  Hector and the girls came and the volleyball players.   

Sienna really missed her friends, so she was really happy to reconnect with them.  We tried to get to the pool as much as we could in August and there are always friends at the pool.  This helped feel the void they were feeling for socializing.   The kids would make all kinds of fun plans with their friends when they saw them.  Sienna went out to dinner with a bunch of her friends.  Estelle bugged be every day to set up playdates with her friends.  

We made snack time fun.  Estelle thinks she needs a smiley face snack every time a friend comes over.  Both Natalia and Sienna like to help make these snacks.  

We went snapping turtle fishing...not as exciting as it used to be.  The girls are discovering that they are outgrowing some traditions.  Life changes and that is okay.  We have to adapt as we grow and change, but that does not remove the good memories that we have from the past.  Those memories cannot be taken away.  

And the girls still got to spend lots of time at the gym this summer.  Estelle always finds a way to have fun.  Natalia and Sienna even got to jump in with the high school girls for a few activities.  

And Hector and I found time for some fun too.  Hector jumped back into a tough project at work and that was a rough transition from living on the road.  Thankfully we still had some fun things to look forward too.  We got out on the water with a group of friends to celebrate Clark's birthday.  An afternoon of boating and swimming on a beautiful day was a great way to celebrate.  

Summer was fun, but the girls were actually ready and excited to start school.  Not for the school part, but for the socializing and activities part.  Summer back at home was just a little too slow for them.  Which is more than understandable after traveling around the USA for five months.  

Volleyball Camp, Grandpa and Hailey

We picked up Grandpa and Hailey from the airport the day after we got back into town.  I had just enough time to get things put away and beds set of for guests.  It was a quick turnaround, but totally worth it because we love having Grandpa and Hailey here.  And they came with us to volleyball camp all week.  I didn't get any pictures of volleyball camp, but it was tons of fun.  Hailey helped do some coaching this year; she is amazing and Grandpa does so much with my varsity level players while I run the younger camps.  I love doing volleyball camp with them.  Natalia, Sienna and Estelle all participated in camp this year and they each did great.  They all have friends that play volleyball with them, so camp week is just loads of fun for everyone.  It's fun for me, but exhausting too.  

We had a couple days with Hailey and Grandpa after camp ended before they had to go home.  We went into the City with Hailey one day and went to Ford's Theater.  Hailey got to earn a junior ranger badge with the girls.  

We played lots of games, hung out with the Van Dams and even went out to dinner at our favorite Cajun Seafood Boil place.  We made fun of Grandpa's white legs and we all had a good laugh when we compared to him to Natalia who always has a nice tan by the end of summer.  

We were sad to see them leave, especially since we knew we would not be seeing Hailey for awhile.  Grandpa was sick the last couple days he was here (Covid with mild symptoms).  The day after he left, Natalia got sick and then the day after that the rest of us were sick.  We had one week of unscheduled summer and we were all sick and lethargic and just stayed home and watched TV and napped.  Not how I saw the week going, but I was grateful at the same time.  It would have been really hard to be sick during camp week and even worse to be sick the following week when volleyball tryouts began.  So even though our one week of summer at home was kind of dud, at least it was a week that we could just sleep and not worry about things.  Thankfully it passed after just a few days and we were back to normal by the end of the week and ready for life to be busy again.