All my little darlings have now gone back to school. Which means that I've deep cleaned, grocery shopped, meal planned, and now I'm turning to my much abandoned blog to update. I started to write many times this summer, but my boys unsupervised quickly turn into WWE wrestlers intent on destroying each other's lego creations, which lead to more "wrestling moves." Or my presence was requested to help build the before mentioned lego creations from the 50 page instruction books. We had a truly great summer. It was a good mix of relaxing at home, time spent with friends, and doing some exploring out of the house. My blog also serves as our family scrapbook, so I hate when I don't record our family life. How about a Hanner fam top 10 list for our summer to catch this up to date? Fair warning, lots of pictures to come:
10. Little League Baseball
Technically Benton played in the spring and finished up at the end of the school year, but I looked back and didn't post on the blog about it. Benton had the sweetest team of buddies, and it didn't hurt that we had a lot of fun in the stands with the parents! They all improved throughout the season, and it was such a blast to watch him learn and play. I loved that their coaches let them be little and just enjoy playing without taking it too serious. There were lots of little siblings for Caleb and Clayton to run around with, and they enjoyed the concession stand candy and snow cones. There's not much cuter than a little boy in a baseball uniform to a mom!
9. Benton Turns 8
We gave Benton the choice to celebrate his birthday with a big party in town, or to take a few friends to a Texas Rangers game. He picked a Rangers game, and we loaded up a suburban full of boys to the ACU alumni game vs. the Houston Astros. We sat on the all you can eat porch, swam at the hotel, and then made a trip to Cabelas the next morning. Nana and G-Daddy and Honey and Poppa both came to help with little brothers and crowd control. There was lots of popcorn, cotton candy, cracker jacks, nachos, and cokes consumed by our crew. Hunter and I loved watching Benton so happy with his friends. These are great kids right here! What a fun way to celebrate a birthday! I'm not much of a party planner, so it felt like a win for us too. You would have thought the Rangers won the world series by the celebrating these guys did when the fireworks went off. Judging by the way they all wear their Rangers shirts just about every day they're clean for the rest of the summer, I think they made some good memories as well!
8. Summer Camps
The boys loved their times spent at camps this summer. While I was in Africa, the twins went to zoo camp with their cousins, and Benton attended ACU tennis camp. Benton also went to "Learning to Lead" the week I got back. It was "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" themed, which we were reading this summer. I think it was his favorite of all the camps he did. In July, Benton did Wylie baseball camp, and then a week at art camp in August. We were thankful for opportunities to learn and have fun!
7. Road trip to Tennessee
The boys and I set off to visit Erinn's family in Cookeville for July 4th. Hunter stayed home to work, but we had a great adventure without him. The boys are pretty easy travelers, and I think we managed to watch the entire Star Wars series on the 14 hour drive. We stayed overnight in Little Rock halfway, and found a rock climbing gym that the boys ate right up. We got out some pent up energy, and sure slept well at night. The Grahams were such wonderful hosts, and you just can't beat a southern 4th of July celebration. Their town had a slip and slide that spanned an entire city block coming down a hill that the boys trekked down several time. We also went exploring in a cave, and spent the morning at the lake. Our time there went all too fast, but we love us some Mr. Tom and Mrs. Vonda!
6. Angel Fire, New Mexico
Caleb and Clayton went to Angel Fire with Nana by themselves while Benton went to baseball camp. A few weeks later in August, Benton got to go when the twins started back to school. The boys love getting to set their own agendas and do their favorite things in the mountains. The twins logged lots of playground, swimming pool, picnic, and movie time while Benton hit up the golf course, shot his bow, and tried to put a hurt on the chipmunk and squirrel population around the house with his BB gun. He also convinced G-Daddy to go on the advanced ropes course in Red River after he conquered the intermediate course the trip before. Mark was sore for a few days after that;) We are glad the mountains are just a few hours drive away!
We gave Benton the choice to celebrate his birthday with a big party in town, or to take a few friends to a Texas Rangers game. He picked a Rangers game, and we loaded up a suburban full of boys to the ACU alumni game vs. the Houston Astros. We sat on the all you can eat porch, swam at the hotel, and then made a trip to Cabelas the next morning. Nana and G-Daddy and Honey and Poppa both came to help with little brothers and crowd control. There was lots of popcorn, cotton candy, cracker jacks, nachos, and cokes consumed by our crew. Hunter and I loved watching Benton so happy with his friends. These are great kids right here! What a fun way to celebrate a birthday! I'm not much of a party planner, so it felt like a win for us too. You would have thought the Rangers won the world series by the celebrating these guys did when the fireworks went off. Judging by the way they all wear their Rangers shirts just about every day they're clean for the rest of the summer, I think they made some good memories as well!
8. Summer Camps
The boys loved their times spent at camps this summer. While I was in Africa, the twins went to zoo camp with their cousins, and Benton attended ACU tennis camp. Benton also went to "Learning to Lead" the week I got back. It was "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" themed, which we were reading this summer. I think it was his favorite of all the camps he did. In July, Benton did Wylie baseball camp, and then a week at art camp in August. We were thankful for opportunities to learn and have fun!
 |
| pointing to the square he drew |
7. Road trip to Tennessee
The boys and I set off to visit Erinn's family in Cookeville for July 4th. Hunter stayed home to work, but we had a great adventure without him. The boys are pretty easy travelers, and I think we managed to watch the entire Star Wars series on the 14 hour drive. We stayed overnight in Little Rock halfway, and found a rock climbing gym that the boys ate right up. We got out some pent up energy, and sure slept well at night. The Grahams were such wonderful hosts, and you just can't beat a southern 4th of July celebration. Their town had a slip and slide that spanned an entire city block coming down a hill that the boys trekked down several time. We also went exploring in a cave, and spent the morning at the lake. Our time there went all too fast, but we love us some Mr. Tom and Mrs. Vonda!
6. Angel Fire, New Mexico
Caleb and Clayton went to Angel Fire with Nana by themselves while Benton went to baseball camp. A few weeks later in August, Benton got to go when the twins started back to school. The boys love getting to set their own agendas and do their favorite things in the mountains. The twins logged lots of playground, swimming pool, picnic, and movie time while Benton hit up the golf course, shot his bow, and tried to put a hurt on the chipmunk and squirrel population around the house with his BB gun. He also convinced G-Daddy to go on the advanced ropes course in Red River after he conquered the intermediate course the trip before. Mark was sore for a few days after that;) We are glad the mountains are just a few hours drive away!
5. 13th Anniversary trip
After Benton finished his baseball camp, we dropped him off in Angel Fire with Nana and his brothers and headed to Santa Fe to celebrate our 13th anniversary. We spent our 10th anniversary in the RV after transplant, 11th anniversary in Houston getting his first vaccines, and 12th anniversary Hunter was just starting to use his walker instead of a wheelchair. We were a little overdue for an anniversary getaway that felt "normal.' So it was a lot of fun to golf, shop around the square, and eat a lot of good food. It didn't hurt that our hotel had a great spa, and I've never turned down a massage. We enjoyed relaxing and time away.
4. Swimming=Summer
It's been a hot summer. The boys are little fish, and love to swim any chance they get. Texas summers are just so much more pleasant in the water! We got out our underwater camera several times, but most of the time enjoyed our time unplugged beating the heat.
 |
| Eyes open and smiling underwater is harder than it looks;) |
 |
| Sometimes, it's tough to be Caleb. |
3. Playing with friends
I'm so thankful to be in the season of life to get to have friends around. We went from surviving newborn twins, to surviving transplant, to surviving Hunter paralysis and recovery. That didn't leave much room for any kind of extras. After being in survival mode or dependent on friends and family to help us with our boys for so long, it's nice to get to do more than just make it through the day. I love a house full of kids! Especially when they're outside playing;)
2. Quality time together
 |
| 3rd annual "first day of summer campout" |
 |
| High quality entertainment right here |
 |
| shooting fireworks |
 |
| taking off the training wheels |
 |
| celebrating Hudson's 5th birthday, superhero style |
 |
| Clayton passed his peanut allergy tolerance test, and Caleb passed his almond trial |
 |
| Benton lost his two front teeth |
 |
| We added a new baby cousin to the mix. Nora Grace is beautiful! |
 |
| These big cousins are in love! |
 |
| Candlelight devo welcoming incoming freshman to ACU |
 |
| nerf gun target shooting off dad's head |
 |
| legos, legos, and more legos |
1. Birthday trip to DFW
My birthday happened to fall on a weekend this year. In the midst of all the back to school crazy, I wanted to spent the day with my favorite four. So we ate some delicious food, sweated out our body weight at to the zoo, and spent the day trying out a small waterpark. Hunter walked all around without his cane, carrying tubes all up stairs, and navigated some pretty slick ground without any major problems at Hawaiian Falls. We love our little town, but also enjoy being close enough to run to Ft. Worth easily. I can't wait to see what adventure 33 brings.
Whew! Summer 2016 was a great one, and now it's in the books with all the busy that back to school brings. I know it doesn't seem like it, but this was the narrowed down version of all the pictures. I got in trouble quite a bit for my lack of posting this summer, so fingers crossed that I can keep it better updated in the near future. I love sharing our journey with so many, and I'm thankful for the outlet and memories recorded here. Please continue to pray and cheer for our family as we walk down the road of recovery. Goodbye lazy summer days, hello alarm clocks!
