All the Kegley's finished up their school year successfully. My first year as principal at Riverside was a busy one. The transition from one school to two is now complete. Starting this August I will be principal just over the junior high. I am looking forward to this very much.
Jennifer finished her first full year as school nurse at Durbin Elementary with much success. She enjoyed her first year greatly but is also looking forward to a change this fall. After much discussion and prayerful consideration she decided to interview for a part time school nurse position at Fall Creek Elementary where our kids go to school. She got the job and we are all excited about her being closer to home and about her making this change to help us all better balance our home and work/school lives.
Olivia finished her fourth grade year with much success and is looking forward to the life of a 5th grader at Fall Creek Intermediate. Sophia had another good year as well and will be a third grader this fall.
Isaiah finished a year of all day Pre-K school this year. He learned a great deal (even a little Spanish) but most importantly got to work on his socialization and seemed to turn into the center of attention at school. He will be in half day Kindergarten in the fall and spend the other half of his day in a K+ program run by the YMCA. Here are some pictures of our little guy on graduation day.
So now that you are somewhat up to speed, here is what we have been doing this summer. Aside from spending some hot days at the neighborhood pool, our first big adventure of the summer as a family was camping at McCormick's Creek State Park. It was the first time we had been camping as a family and it was a great adventure. Everyone enjoyed it and all are eager to go back for more. Here are some pictures from the campsite. Olivia is on the left showing off our tent and I am fixing some grub for dinner. We were supposed to go for two nights but cut it to one because we were supposed to get some strong storms. As I said we all had a great time. We hiked, swam, and hung out by the fire. And of course ate Smores!!
Our camping trip was quickly followed up with a trip to Kings Island. The last time we had been was three years ago when Jennifer and I just took the girls. This year we all went and my parents joined us as well. Even though it was hot, it was a great time. We went for two days and the there was basically no crowd to speak of. We could more or less get off of a ride and get right back on. Proudly, my kids are turning not only into amusement park lovers but also thrill seekers. Olivia and I rode the new Diamondback roller coaster and she also got on The Beast for the first time. Her first trip was in the very front seat. It is still the best ride in the park. By the end of the day I had Sophia on the Racer and on the Stunt Coaster. We spent day two at the water park and she asked me a couple of times if we could sneak over for more action on the Racer. Unfortunately Isaiah was not tall enough for several rides but rode the most thrilling ones hecould.
Here is the crew. And four of us on one of the tamer kids rides. (Not sure who the kid on the end is..not mine!) And Olivia and Isaiah at the water park.
Okay, now the event of the summer so far....We welcomed a new addition to our family last Saturday. Another girl to the Kegley household....Meet Bailey....
Bailey is a Goldendoodle puppy who is nine weeks old. A little background for you all. The kids have been asking for a dog forever especially Sophia who is the animal lover of the bunch. Jennifer started doing some pretty extensive research and we stumbled across a breeder in Huntington. We took the kids up to see the puppies over Memorial Day weekend. We told them we were just going to look and were NOT getting a dog (which was really the plan). However, after checking them out Jennifer and I decided to move forward with getting one and so we started Operation Canine Surprise! We told only a very few people that we were getting a dog and arranged for a day to pick the dog up. We coordinated plans with my parents to watch the kids while we went and picked up Bailey. We had one last snag that delayed us getting her by a day. My parents were wonderful in helping us out with the kids, even making another trip up to spend the day with them while we were meeting the breeder. The end result was the biggest surprise we have ever pulled off. Here are pictures of the big event. We put Bailey in a box and as the kids came back from the pool we gave them their surprise.
Isaiah at Venice Beach