Stephen came home for a whopping 12 days over the summer. He went to Kentucky for ROTC in June/July. After heading back to school to finish out the summer water polo he got to come home for a quick 12 day visit before heading out with Bill for their Alaska trip. This was supposed to be his high school graduation trip but they'd never been able to pull it off until now. When the trip was over, he had to fly straight back to school to report in for polo again. In a few short weeks, he'll be beginning his third year of college. It's hard to believe but there he is.
Nikki has reported in to University of Redlands. Ali and I went last night to watch her first scrimmage. It was really fun to watch her play again and the team did well. Nikki made the most of her summer of her senior year. She was rarely home and did lots of fun things with her friends. She moved into her dorm with all of the girls from soccer. The other sports teams would move in over the following four days. So she had a nice, big dorm building with all of the CA's and one other teammate to herself the first day. Once football got there, things weren't so quiet. But she doesn't mind. She's getting to meet tons of new people and working her butt off training. Over Labor Day weekend her roommate from OR will be arriving. I think Nikki is looking forward to that! She's left her walls blank waiting until she and Elizabeth can decorate together. Ali has done okay with Nikki leaving. It helps that they have social media to stay in contact. They tweet & FaceTime each other pretty often. Ali is hoping Nikki will invite her out for a sleepover soon. We'll see!
Nikki went skydiving the weekend after turning 18!
Got to go to Hawaii while Stephen was in Kentucky.
Had a fun going away party before Nikki headed off to Redlands.
Now onto the next chapter...
And then there was Ali! She is now an only child and not too thrilled about it. She was distraught about the idea of Nikki leaving. We agreed to get her a dog to help alleviate that loneliness. So we've added Cooper to our family. He's an adorable Australian Shepard mix we found at the Rancho shelter. He's about a year old and is awesome. But back to Ali. She has started her Sophomore year of high school at St. Lucy's. It's been two weeks, which sucks since she had to start so much earlier than the other two. She had a fun filled summer herself. We went to Hawaii at the beginning of summer. Then she was home for a brief time before heading to camp. She got to spend 12 days being herself and having a fabulous time!
The rest of the summer flew by with her spending as much time with her big brother and sister as possible. Then back to school she went:
So here we are. People say to enjoy the kids because time flies. And when they're little you see it, but boy it takes on a new meaning once they hit high school. I'm loving watching our little kiddos turn into wonderful adults!
