We have been having some HOT summer days! To make matters worse, someone with a temper kicked down the pool gate door, and so the pool had been closed over the past few HOT days! I filled up our little inflatable pool that we got when we had Shane's birthday party for the kids to play in. They had a lot of fun! For the most part, I have kept the kids indoor. We have been under heat advisories, and I just don't think it very healthy for us to be outside... so the kids have been bouncing off my walls!! But, at least the pool gate got fixed yesterday, and since the hot days are not gone, at least we can cool off at the pool again and the kids can get out of the house for a bit!



Today we had our mud volleyball tournament. It was SO much fun. I am pooped out! Its amazing how sun and mud can tire you out! It was so hard to move around in that mud!We played 8 games and won 1! Lets just say that staying up on our feet was an accomplishment on its own!! And as the day went on, the mud was just churned up and the water over it just got warmer and warmer and the smell of mud was all up in the air, and all over our clothes.. pretty nasty! By the end of the 8th game, we were ready to go home and take nice LONG showers! My ankles are really sore from trying to keep myself up, and I have had them up since we got home. I was fine while we were moving, but as soon as I sat down, I could feel them throabing. Jim took a nice little nap on the couch and I even ordered pizza from my computer so that we had to do VERY little moving!!

Here is our team.. notice we are still clean! From left to right - Blake, Christine, Meredith, Jim, me and Brian.


The mud courts!


Here are a few pics of us playing.




They also had this mud hill, which they had turned into a slide. They had a sprinkler going to keep it muddy and I went down it twice with Meredith and Christine went down it once.







For some more pics, visit Nicole's blog

Shane and Kayla got to spend all day at Kelli and Kayla's house. They had a blast! We got back at at around 2:30pm and ran home quickly to shower before we went next door to get the kids. Shane was playing video games with the girls' little cousin, Colin, who is also 5 and Kayla was just having a ball playing with the girls. Kayla ended up coming home with us so she could nap and Shane wanted to stay and play with Colin some more. It worked out great for us because the house was really quiet!