Agnes's First Soccer Game

Agnes missed her first 2nd grade soccer practice while we were at Big Cedar, so she jumped into her first game without a practice and meeting her new coach for the first time. Even though she hasn't played any soccer since last season, she declared she is very good at it. She likes playing goalie and was excited to play in the field at church since we've never had a game there.

Onondaga Cave

On the way home from Big Cedar we stopped for a tour of Onondaga Cave. The big kids have visited before but Agnes has never been and if Edie has been she was too young to remember. Grandma opted out, but thanks to her preferred hotel room temperature we had all packed the hoodies necessary to be comfortable in the cool cave. We love you, Grandma!

Missouri has some very cool caves, but this is one of my favorite to visit because the walking tour is slow enough to really see everything up close, but short enough that the kids don't get bored. This time I think they would have been happy to continue exploring for hours. They were all fascinated and want to go back to Onondaga park to tour Cathedral Cave, which we have never been in because they only have those tours on the weekends.

These are two stalagmites called The Twins.

Agnes wanted pictures of everything, but I culled it down to a few.

Beautiful flow stones.

Beautiful, massive flow stones.

The the Lily Pad room with a ceiling covered in soda straws and a floor covered in pancake stones.

Obligatory cave pic in front of The Queen flow stone.

More Big Cedar

We tried a new Big Cedar activity this year: a property-wide scavenger hunt. We started with clues that led to five different locations around Big Cedar, then we had to use something at each location to solve a puzzle, and at the end the answers to all those puzzles were used to solve the final puzzle. 

They even used an old rotary phone in Falls Lodge.

We found the locations prettily easily but the puzzles were challenging enough that we all had to work together for a bit and try a few different approaches before we solved them. It was actually a lot of fun, and the kids each got a pocket compass at the end.

Today we had lunch in Arkansas at a mercantile known for their desserts. Edie, Michael, and Gussie got cinnamon rolls, mostly because they were each the size of four cinnamon rolls.

Grandma got her favorite pecan cheesecake and Agnes got a cherry opossum cake, which was layers of custard and cherry filling and whipped cream. She loved it.

We also played at the beach, took the paddle boards and kayaks down to the cove, swam at the waterfall pool, and of course played a round of putt putt.

This was Gussie’s approach to lining up this hole. Honestly it almost worked.

First week of School

Catherine and Mary are in their first week of school. Catherine had pre-season all last week, which means practice and workouts twice a day, and this week starts her regular class and practice schedule. She’s actually probably a little less busy than her full time job schedule in the summer.

After we dropped Mary off on Thursday, it seems her whole weekend was a big welcome festival. Parking lot parties, bumper cars, massive slip-n-slides, free food, free fro-yo, free soda bars, a trampoline, and a school-wide pep rally. This week they actually start classes so I’m hoping the transition isn’t too jarring, although Mary said on the first day of class the campus was dotted with shade tents staffed by students bearing popsicles and campus maps. If you were lost trying to find your class they would give you a popsicle and take you to class. 

Michael has also started his regular teaching schedule at Chesterton, but the rest of us without school schedules are enjoying our “not back to school” bash at Big Cedar with Grandma.

We stopped at Two Rivers bike park on the way down. The boys mostly played on the downhill jump line and Edie and I rode some of the trails that she’ll be riding in the last NICA race of the season. We also moved two turtles off the trail.

And Edie tried a few of the features like this see-saw, and she finished off the afternoon riding the beginner downhill line.

Then we finished making our way to Big Cedar. We visited the waterfall after dinner, found a great wedding fit at the gift shop, and finished out the day at the waterfall pool. I made 9pm our pool curfew which Agnes thought was much too early because she had met a new best friend at the pool, as usual.

Rowdy at Heart

It was move-in day at SEMO for Mary today. Her first college swag shirt had Rowdy at Heart on it (I’m pretty sure that’s what it said - the day is a blur already) because their mascot, the Redhawk, is named Rowdy. Do I have a picture of it? Nope. In fact this is the only picture I have of the whole day, a dorm room selfie:

Mary is rooming with Autumn, a friend from church who is also a freshman, and her friend Audrey lives on the same floor. I think there’s a very good chance she has a fantastic time, creates some excellent art, and meets some good people. 

But I reserve the right to temporarily feel very sorry for myself at the loss of her daily presence in the house. About an hour after we arrived back home, Michael said, “When do you think Mary will be back? I just don’t like that she’s not here.” And that about sums it up.

It occurred to me that last night was realistically the last night all the siblings live together full time in our house, because by the time Mary is home again for more than a weekend, Catherine will be married and moved out. We had an ice cream party and the kids sat around the table playing card games. 

Agnes was very confused that I cried when we said goodbye to Mary in the dorms. She couldn’t focus on anything except how lucky Mary is to get to sleep in a super tall lofted bed. At bedtime back home Agnes said, “I bet Mary’s going to have a great first night of sleeping in her new bed.” She’s already planning which of her friends will room with her at SEMO in 2036.

Nobody Bachelorettes Like They Bachelorette

 Catherine started pre-season volleyball practices at Webster this week which means from this point until finals she is busy with school. Mary and several of her friends will also be away at school this fall so they wanted to have Catherine's bachelorette weekend at the farm before everyone scattered. Even though Edie and Agnes are bridesmaids, this was more of a friends' weekend. Catherine, Mary, Lucy, Emma, Audrey, Isabel, and Bernadette spent Friday night through Sunday morning swimming, 4-wheeling, watching movies, wandering the town, and making plans. I was there mostly as an emergency contact. They are all adults but the farm is kind of far out there.

Photo dump! 

Mary found this white bow for Catherine and made matching navy bows for the rest of the girls using ribbon from one of Catherine's shower gifts and some trim leftover from making the bridesmaids' veils.

They bought matching pajamas for the weekend, obviously.

These three photos have been taken at the farm with this friends three years in a row.

I think Catherine had a lovely weekend. Only 118 days until the wedding!