Neeley Family Blog

Just a quick look at how our summer is starting....   My cousin Cody graduating high school.  The start of our pumpkin seeds in the garden.  Yep, a pool!  These were the teacher gifts we made this year for the boys' last days of school.  The pool is up and swimmable!!!  Tractors at Grammy and Grandpa's house that took down some BIG trees. Just a hodge podge of things, but a good start to summer so far!!!

School is out for the summer now! I am not sure if the kids are really excited about it or not.  Brayden says he doesn't want summer.  That kid would go to school all year long if he could!  Brock is kind of glad not to have to go to school, but he wants to see his friends.  He just started building some good friendships and so I am going to make an active effort to keep those going over the summer.  Brylee doesn't care one way or the other.  We have started talking about her going to school though (in the Fall) and I think she is getting excited for that.  We have some business ready to keep things crazy around here: a couple trips, visitors, summer party/BBQ, a pool in yard (yep! That is a whole post on its own- so more to come on that adventure), swim lessons, soccer, play dates, possible tennis lessons, family get-together's and I'm sure some other goodies!  Just looking at these 2 and a half lines I just typed, makes me know that summer i...

OH MY! OH MAN!!! Mumford and Sons just came to the Portland Rose Garden! I have been waiting to see them for a year or more.  They haven't been here in over 18 months. I considered going to a show that we would have had to travel to even.  Thankfully, they were coming to the NW for the Sasquatch Festival and added a last minute stop to Portland! Yippee for us!!!! Brad and I planned a date night and invited our friends, Sarah and David, to join us.  My parents took the kids and off we went. :) Here are a couple clips from various songs they played that night.  We had general admission floor tickets.  We were able to get fairly close to the stage.  About 15 people deep or so. And of course I attracted some of the drunk crazies, but we still managed to have a good time.             They played for about an hour and a half.  I could have listened to them play the rest of their songs! I would...

Well, we managed to get another quick trip in as a family.  This time our adventure took us 2 hours North to Great Wolf Lodge. Brad and I bought a Groupon recently for the Lodge and planned out our trip when there was a break in school and baseball.  These happened to be the days leading into the Memorial Weekend but we took it as a chance to have some fun and relax. We left Thursday morning and stayed just one night.  The kids were excited to be able to put their swim lessons to use and get back in the water.  We had not been there since the boys were little and Brylee was not yet a part of our family, so about 5 years! We had a Kid Cabin suite this time around, which meant plenty of space for each person.  There is a King bed, sofa sleeper, bunk beds and a single toddler/twin bed.  It worked out perfectly! We spent much of Thursday swimming.  We took a small break for dinner and were back at it until story time came around (also bed time ;)). ...

I got to take a quick trip to the beach overnight for Mother's Day! We had two baseball games in the morning on Saturday, then headed out.  We booked a hotel that was "pet friendly" too! Rogue was so excited to take a ride! We hit the beach first thing.  Saturday was a gorgeous, 72 degree day and perfect for playing in the sand, water and flying a kite.  The kids were so happy to be there! We spent several hours playing.  When it was dinner time we finally headed in.  The hotel was great! They had free movie rentals and even offered a bag of popcorn when we went to check some out.  Rogue enjoyed the dog treats that were in our room too! Here are some glimpses of our overnight stay and fun in the sand: Sunday morning we got breakfast at the restaurant next door.  It was super yummy! We then spent a little bit of time on the beach and checking out Haystack Rock at low tide.  Brad had never seen it at low tide before in all ...

We made it through! Two sports at the same time, no days off in the week, done and done! The kids just had their last lessons for Spring.  I will sign them up for more, but it will be during summer.  I did have to write this post though to show off their skills.  I was in shock and awe their last lesson as to what they were working on! Here are some videos to show their progress: I think they are all far less scared of the water than when we started.  They each made some big strides this time with their lessons and it makes me less nervous to have them in the water! We still have some work to do till they can swim on their own, but we have some opportunities coming up to spend time in the water.  So until next time!

We are well into our third season of coaching the boys' baseball teams.  The first year, Brayden was on t-ball.  The second year, Brayden and Brock were on t-ball.  Third year, Brayden has moved up to Rookie ball and Brock is still on t-ball...problem.  I knew this day would come and I still picture it in my head of all 3 kids on different teams and sports and the same time needing to be taken to practices, games, etc. every day of the week and quite possibly at the same time. Well, we are entering that vision a bit.  Brad had decided to coach Rookie ball this year and move up with Brayden.  We were just going to put Brock on one of the t-ball teams.  Well, our plan did not work out the way we thought.  They were short 3 t-ball coaches this year and so they started recruiting.  With boys in both levels they asked if we could coach both.  BOTH!?! Uh, yeah I totally thought Brad was crazy when he brought the idea to me.  I put it ...