Sweet Cat

  One of the things the girls love about visiting is the cats.  I like cats and I wish we had one.  Unfortunately, I am deathly allergic and cannot be in a room with one for very long.  So that is sad.  Fortunately, there is Athena.  This sweetheart is game for just about anything the kids want to do with her.  She is such a great cat!

Welcome to Arkansas

We arrived in Arkansas on Wednesday June 20.  Thanks to my lovely sister Deborah, who picked us up and drove us down.

 The girls were thrilled that the chickens hatched 5 baby chicks.  They were SO cute!

 Delaney was quite lucky to hold this chick.  The mama hen was VERY protective and would attack anyone she thought was too close to her babies.

Rylee was happy that Athena enjoyed being held and pet and played with.  Athena is such a sweet kitty.

The girls rediscovered the joys of Connect Four.  Death matches were held.

 And much fun was had.  Especially by Rylee who managed to beat Callie.

Callie helped Grandpa make cookies.  Mighty tasty cookies.

 And Grandpa showed Delaney the finer points of his technique.

Running Away

 Tuesday June 19 we ran away!  Well, I did.  And I brought three girls with me.  We were off to the US.  Dan drove us to the Naha Airport.

 Levi came with us, but you can see that he knew exactly what was going on.  He saw the suitcases and knew we were leaving.  He is already depressed.

 These three were not depressed!  they are ready to go!

 They had a marvelous time binge-watching stuff on the long flight.

It was 2.5 hours to Tokyo and then 12 hours to Dallas and another 90 minutes to Springfield, MO.   

 Still in good spirits as we transfer flights.

Rylee totally sacked out on the last leg.  Everyone was so zonked. But we made it and it went very well.

We stayed at a hotel that night before heading down to Mom and Dad's.  The girls were delighted to sleep at a hotel and most of them slept most of the night.  Callie did not sleep, but the rest of us did!

Rylee

 Rylee had an awesome year.  Her teacher absolutely loved her.  I think Rylee loved getting to be her own person without any siblings.  She wasn't the baby of the family at school; at school she was an independent, achiever who was learning who she was.  And she excelled.

She wrote a lot of stories and her teacher had a lot of the kids' work posted around the classroom. This was one of Rylee's stories.

I got to go to her class for the awarding of certificates.   

 The teacher had also purchased each kid a stiffed animal of their favorite animal.  Rylee chose a wolf.  

I can't remember why she was cranky with me.  But she was so cute while cranky! 

Her teacher also purchased and handed out special t shirts for each kid, with their favorite animal on it.  Rylee couldn't decide if she liked wolves or lemurs better, so her shirt is lemurs.  She loves it!  She had a fantastic year this year.

Volunteering with Callie

 Callie has been volunteering at the Base Shelter for a couple months.  She goes weekly to help out and play with the animals.  She loves it.  Rylee has been going as well, lately.  I usually don't go in, but she begged, and I though "yes, I would like to pet kitties!"  So I did.  And then I remembered why I do not pet kitties as I sneezed and sniffled and itched for the next 6 hours.

A lot of the job was folding towels.

They folded towels and blankets in two different areas.

And she caught me sneaking photos of her!

There were a lot of sweet cats that just wanted a little love.

And the girls loved the socializing part the most. 

 This cat was feisty!  Callie loved him. A lot.

If we could have a cat, I'd pick this one.