FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (no words. this is just too cool) Thank You, God.....thank You.

 Heading out the door on the very first day....still dark outside....uhoh (haha)

Loaded up and ready....

The first day is a family moment :)

 Samuel's new school :)

Daddy got him a special cool Army backpack :)

 Two heroes heading into the latest adventure together....fitting :)

Finding Samuel's locker

 STUDs

Love him

 Trinity is SO excited, too!

Getting his stuff all packed up

 Recon before entering....we've trained him well ;)

It's official - he has a spot in the cubby!

 Mrs. Palmer had special "First Day" play-doh for the kids to feel comfortable + settle in

Mama can't stop w/ the smooches....so proud + grateful

Making new friends...haha...Patrick turns out to be quite entertaining :)

 NO problems getting acclimated

Final words of wisdom + some fatherly love

 Proud mama + her big boy

He's on his own.........well, not entirely ;)

Beach Trip - August 2011

And the Summer Fun Keeps Rollin' Along...

Absolutely AMAZING summer....thank You, Lord....what a joy in the simplest of things :)

 pool times are always good times :)

 Armed and Dangerous

No mercy! haha

 early morning tussles :)

no mercy for the princess either

 welcoming a new "pet"

 it's an ANOLE :)

 for outside....so cute.....and sadly, this is the last we saw of him (haha)

 more pool time

 LOTS of pool time this summer, thank God

 Football basics w/ Coach Godsey

 Bonfire out back

Cow carcass from Brian's farm...

very cool science lesson since Dad brought it home and set it up in the back

Last PT Session!

It is again amazing to know that we've come so far! Samuel made tremendous progress with both his occupational + physical therapy, and he has made it to the end of that road. In May, he had his last official PT appointment (and again, such a strange mix of joy/sadness because we will truly miss seeing Ms Lori, too).

 Samuel's progress has been remarkable w/ regard to restoring most of the strength in his hands + feet, his balance is exponentially improved

 Showing off how long he can stand on one foot these days :) This is a huge success at over 15-20 seconds considering he started out only being able to hold the pose for about 1-3 seconds each leg!

 Getting SO much better at kicking too!

 The laughs never really stop...

 

 As a very special treat today, Samuel was able to "exercise" on the rooftop playground area!

  So many fun things, so hard to choose where to go first!

Samuel has been wanting to play up here for a LONG time now - this was such a cool thing for him

Took a spin on/in every possible vehicle - if it had wheels, Samuel was all about it!

big kid in a little car...haha!

Along w/ the coolness of hanging out on the rooftop playground, Samuel also learned some new "moves" to practice at home, taking his exercise up to the next level in preparation for his participation in a MARTIAL ARTS THERAPY CLASS - he's thrilled about this coming up in July + you can see his determination to get the "moves" right (even if his body doesn't always respond the way it should!) haha

learning how to do jumping jacks....

"switch jumps" - working on that ankle strength....so cute :)