The Dymond Family's Busy Summer

This summer has been very busy for the Dymond family. New babies being born, parties, swimming, and just being lazy. School starts again in just a few weeks and I am trying to remember where the time went. It is the same every summer, when school ends I say to myself, 13 weeks with the kids home, what will I do and now I wonder WHAT did we do and WHERE did the time go.

Over the last few months Karl's brothers and their wives have welcomed 1 nephew and 2 nieces into the family. (We have one more on the way in October!) So now I'm going to brag just a little about the new little sweeties. Eddie and Lynn had Sam in April, John and Valerie had Sage in May, and Mike and Jaime had Emma in June (Jim and Liz will be having a baby in October). The whole family (all seven siblings) were together for Emma's Christening in July. The pictures below are from that party. Karl is helping Tenley stay cool in the pool and Katy was teaching Lilly to swim.

Okay, how do you know when your kids are staring to get bored and ready to go back to school.....They start doing strange things. One day the kids were bored and getting rowdy, so I told them to get the camera and take some pictures of themselves. They went off happy that Mom was letting them play with the camera. They had a fun afternoon, but didn't show me the pictures they took. The next day I looked to see what they had been taking and this is what I found......

After I was done shaking my head and laughing. I thought, "I can't wait to put these on my blog!!! Aren't the little rodents/rugrats creative.

This summer we also had to cancel any plans that we had for going on vacation, because Karl works for the state of Pennsylvania and had been told that they were not expecting a budget to pass, but state employees still had to work and they would get paid once a budget passed. So we decided to stay close to home this year and do stuff around here. I have been calling this summer the "Summer of Movies" since so many movies were coming out and we wanted to see them all, that is what we have been doing. We have also made several trips to Knoebels Amusement Park this summer.

If you live in Pennsylvania and have never been to Knoebels you are missing out on a great time. Parking is free, there is no park admission fee, and you only pay for the rides you go on. Mom and Gunnar come last week for several days and we were able to finally take them to Knoebels and they LOVED IT!!! Here are pictures from our time there last week:

In the van on the way to the park

Mark and his Girlfriend Amber



Steven was finally old enough and big enough to ride some of the bigger rides with Katy. This is after he rode the Phoenix, one of the top wooden roller coaster in the nation. Karl was the lucky one to go on the rides with the kids. Becca even went on the flume for the first time. Later she told me that Daddy must have been scared because he was holding her so tight. For years Steven has wanted to go the Skloosh, but Karl and I didn't want to get wet, so he couldn't get on it. This trip Katy took him on it and boy did he get wet!!

Fun was had by all. Mark even bought a hermit crab while we were there.

In two weeks the kids go back to school and another school year will be here.

A Good Week in the Dymond House

It amazes me that half of the summer break is gone. Where does the time go. I am already deep into planning for things in August and then...BAM....school is here and Drew turns 18, but that is for another time. My mind can't wrap around that thought this early on a Saturday Morning.

This has been a great week in the Dymond House. On Tuesday half the family joined the masses going to see Harry Potter. We were able to get right into our theatre, so by the time the movie was over I had sat in the same seat for 6 hours. I began thinking that I should take that chair home, after six hours isn't it part of the family?!?

Then on Wednesday Drew had his Eagle Board of Review. In our council, you go before a council board, which is sort of scary it takes over 1 hour and is very extensive. Here are pictures of Drew as he was leaving for his Eagle Board of Review: Drew did pass his Eagle Board of Review, now we just have to wait for the National Council to approve him for his Eagle Rank and he will officially be an Eagle Scout.

On Friday Steven also passed his test in Karate for his orange belt. He is so excited and proud of himself.

Here is a picture of Luke with his favorite cereal. He is a walking commercial for Wal-Mart so I have him thinking that Wal-Mart is only open one Friday every other week, and that we go and buy cereal there. Since cereal is his favorite food, it seems to work well. By Monday of the week that we go to Wal-Mart, he starts asking us, pulling on our clothes, and generally driving everyone a LITTLE bonkers that he wants to go to Wal-Mart. There must be a commercial in this somewhere!!!!

The rest of the family just had a normal busy week with activities and friends, what more can a Mom ask for.

Summertime

Okay, I am amazed that the 4th of July has come and gone and that Luke is starting summer school this morning. Where did June go? I guess that I should have noticed that summer was moving along all the signs were there:

1. My flower gardens are all planted and blooming
2. My Veggie gardens are coming along
3. The kids are out of school (though this year they went till June 16th - so I have that as a small excuse.)
4. We are staying up later and sleeping in. (When the kids were all little and getting up so early I use to say to myself -"remember when you were a teenager and slept in - someday your kids will be that age and you can sleep in again. Well, they are there now and can sleep till noon if I let them, but I'm still getting up early so that I can have some quiet "me" time)
5. My frost free freezer is full of frost from the kids opening the freezer standing there looking at what we have in there and yelling,"Mom there is nothing to eat!" (to which some days I reply, "Success, my plan for starving you is working today!" Of course, if you look at pictures of my kids you will see that none of them are starving, they just think that Popsicles and ice cream with chips, pretzels, and soda are a balanced meal.
6. We should have gone on vacation to the beach. (This year we are not going on vacation, between the economy, schedules, of yeah, and the fact that Karl works for the state of Pennsylvania and right now there is no state budget, so no state employee gets paid till the budget issue is "resolved" and even then it will take 3-4 weeks to get the back pay we are not going on an extended trip this year.)
7. Fireworks - so I was sick for the fourth and home "relaxing" in bed for the day (the familiy still enjoyed the day at Karl's parents house and didn't see any fireworks, I still heard them.

So now July is here, Katy left for a week at girls camp yesterday, the kids started swim lessons in the morning yesterday (on top of the regular swim team practice nightly), Luke is in summer school. Swim lessons and summer school go on for 5 to 6 weeks, then we are into August. Drew and Karl go to Scout Camp, and then we are getting ready for school again. Where does the time go? Oh well, I think I'll go take a nap (It is summer after all!!!!)

Dan and Jen's Wedding

This past weekend was my brother Danny's Wedding. We had a wonderful time. The wedding was in Washington D.C. at the Willard Hotel. The Willard is an old grand hotel in downtown D.C. about 1 block from the White House. The kids enjoyed learning the history of the hotel on the trip down and looking in the "History Hallway" during our stay there for the weekend.

So you don't get confused looking at the pictures, I'm starting out by showing you a picture of my parents with there spouses. The order is Dad (Andy), Step mom Lynn, Step dad Gunnar, Mom (Kathryn).

On Friday was the dress rehearsal (which we missed due to 2 hours of construction traffic.) Then the Rehearsal Dinner. Family and Friends that were staying overnight were invited to join the festivities. We took a bus tour of Washington DC after dinner. Steven had a wonderful time during the bus ride sharing all the facts that he knows about Washington and past and present Presidents.

The guy in the viking hat is my brother Jimmy. Dan and Jen are in the picture next to Jimmy.

The next day was the wedding. Mark, Drew were Groomsmen, Steven was the Ring bearer, and Katy and Becca were Flower Girls.














Just so you know that I was there, here is a picture of me and Karl. Karl was very handsome in his suit.

As you can see fun was had by all at the reception. Don't my kids clean up nice!!!


The next day was a goodbye brunch before we all headed for home.

I thought that I would end this blog with two of my favorite pictures of the bride and groom, and send my heart felt love for them to them. May we all remember the love we felt for our spouses the day we were married and carry that with us each day. Love to all.