Beginning of June

What a joy to celebrate with our good neighbor friends, the Mosts, in the culmination of Kerley's work towards earning her PhD!

Hard-working Bridgette finishing her math assignment in creative ways after badly smashing her thumb

Neighbor kids enjoying the hose on the trampoline and a little ice cream treat

I joined friends in a neighborhood garage sale and, while it was good to get rid of a bunch of our stuff, I think the best part of the sale was coming home with this childhood treasure of a game!

Shortly after scoring the game at the garage sale, Aunt Sara was in town for a visit and we played Masterpiece with her just like I used to play with her and my siblings!

We took school to the Arboretum

Birthday party time with little friends.

Rooke played in a short flag football community league.  Ryan started the season as one of the parent assistants, but after two weeks the coach stepped down and Ryan stepped up.  Both Payne guys did awesome with their Ravens team!

A trip to the zoo with friends . . .

Bridgette took this photo - doesn't it look like the elephant is smiling?!

A friend and I bought Groupons for a local go-kart track.  Our families had dinner together, then went out for some go-karting fun!  

Saturday family hike up to Sugarloaf Mountain

Jubilee Ice Cream at the Navy Yard - a special summer treat

Dabbing after completing his last math assignment on the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!  Yippeeee!

A Surprise Trip

Ryan's mom planned to retire this year after teaching for over twenty years!  We were trying to think of a fun way to celebrate this milestone in her life and Ryan came up with the fun idea to fly down and surprise Deborah.  I did a quick search for plane tickets and found a steal on a direct flight with an ideal itinerary.  We were able to get three tickets for less than we expected to pay for one - woohoo!!!!  So we surprised the girls with a special trip with their daddy to fly down and surprise Grammy Deb on her last day of school!  So much fun!

Passing time in the airport with a little game of Monopoly Deal.  Gretchen caught in the act!  But it didn't seem to matter  . . . .

. . . . Bridgette won anyway! =)

The surprise went over great!  And the girls loved their time with the Payne family, including cousins Phoebe and Cora, whom they met for the first time and were immediately smitten with!

They even got a cousin sleepover!  Aunt Jessica rolled out the royal red carpet with a pallet on the living room floor for group sleeping, and pancakes in the morning!

Uncle Ryan and Uncle Sean with all the girl cousins =)

Though we would have loved to go to Oklahoma also, Rooke and I made the most of our special days together back at home.  Food, games, movies, reading, more food, and a couple special outings made up our weekend.