Silver Dollar City

This summer we took a short family vacation to Branson. We stayed in a really nice condo at Point Royale. The boys had their own bedroom and bathroom and we had lots of room to play and eat our meals and just hang out. There was also a really nice swimming pool that we used a lot. We got some pretty hot days but we still had fun. We have season passes to Silver Dollar City, so we just went for a few hours each day so we didn't get too hot.

Camping at Perryville

Grandma and Grandpa Bradley took us on a special camping trip July 4 and 5. We all stayed in a cabin by the lake. Let me clarify. Each family had their own cabin. The boys loved it because they had a bunk bed to sleep in. Logan loves to be outside and play in the dirt.

Nick kind-of shocked me when he decided to poor the whole bucket of sand and gravel all over his pants. He usually likes to stay clean.
Nick sat with Grandma and had a long conversation. Of course, this meant he pretty much just asked her four million questions. I'm always glad when he finds someone else to answer his questions :)

Nick and Alex had a lot of fun being with their cousins Logan and Tyson.

Alex took his digging in the dirt very seriously. He is a hard worker.

Ryan and Greg caught a fish in the lake.

Alex loved fishing and was pretty good at it. He would go over and cut off part of a hotdog, bait his own hook, and cast his line all by himself. I think he could have fished all day if we had let him.

Nick always enjoys being with Grandpa Bradley. He has a short attention span when it comes to fishing- kind-of like his mother.

Fazoli's Fun

Things I don't have pictures of

Vacation Bible School
Nick and Alex LOVED VBS this year!!!!! Since I taught preschool music, I got to have Alex in class everyday. The theme this year was High Sea Adventure, so that really appealed to Nick and Alex.
Swimming
We have been doing a lot of swimming in our friends pool. I am amazed at how great the boys are doing.

And the big thing...

We celebrated Alex's Gotcha Day! On June 21st, we had to do our 12-month post-placement home visit. It was funny that we did it on the exact one-year mark of having Alex. I guess I can sneak one picture in of the day we got Alex. He is an amazing kid!

We interrupt this blog...

Ok, I try to keep this blog about the boys and they were not with us in Hawaii, but I'm going to post a little about our trip anyway. Sorry! We stayed at the Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki. It was amazing. The picture above is taken the day we arrived in Hawaii. We walked out the back of our hotel onto the beach and couldn't believe it looked like this. Diamond Head is in the background.

We did two great hikes. You can't go to Hawaii and skip the hike to the top of Diamond Head. It was a nice hike and the views were great although it was crowded at the top. We also hiked to Manoa Falls. It was a beautiful hike in the rainforest.

Above: Michael and Kerry invited us to come with them to Hawaii. They were really good traveling mates. Mostly because they let me plan the itinerary and boss everyone around!

Below: So, I knew all about Michael's plan to surprise Kerry with a vow renewal ceremony on the beach. I didn't know that Ryan was planning to surprise me, too. We had a wonderful night.

Here is the whole Nickelson family enjoying Hawaii. Even Zane was there! Kaitlyn and Hannah were good travelers, too! Every time we talked to the boys on the phone, they would want to know what Kaitlyn and Hannah were doing.

What happened to June?

June was a great month. It just went way too fast. Apparently, I was too busy to blog!
Nick and Alex had a great time vacationing in Branson with Grandma and Grandpa Bradley while we headed off to Hawaii. The boys spent the second half of our time away with Grandma and Grandpa Pruett who took them to Cape Girardeau for a few days.
Nick and Alex had a great time. Nick discovered he loves the log flume at Silver Dollar City and Alex discovered that if he tells Grandma Pruett he doesn't want pancakes that morning, she will send Grandpa to the store to buy sausage to make biscuits and gravy instead.
Ryan and I had a wonderful, amazing time being together and with our friends in Hawaii. We were happy to get home and see the boys and felt re-energized after the time away!
The boys thought it was funny to stuff dirty shirts down Ryan's back and then he would act all grossed out- or maybe he really was grossed out!

We bought the boys Hawaiin outfits complete with shark tooth necklaces.

AWANA Awards

Grandpa and Grandma Bradley endured part of awards night. We all left as soon as Nick and Alex got their awards. I was surprised to find out that Alex loves being on stage. He smiled and waved to us the whole time. I think he was trying to tell me something but I was sitting on the back row. We are very proud of the boys for how good they have done learning many, many Bible verses. And we are very thankful for Mrs. Pam and Mrs. Christy for all their hard work! They both also have great Sunday school teachers that we are very thankful for- Mrs. Sara and Mr. Ed. Nick has memorized a lot of Bible verses in Sunday school, too. Alex learned this week that he is suppose to obey his parents. He seemed very amazed by this concept.