Back to School 2019-2020

August 12, 2019 is the first day back to school. It feels too early to send them back already as the summer flew by and felt so short. The kids were so excited that they were ready 45 minutes early. I love how our family just doesn't know how to be late. I am so grateful that they love school so much and I hope they always have a desire to learn. I am really going to miss them around all day!

I have the cutest kids ;) 

Ella is in 8th grade and it's her last year of Timberwood Middle School. I'm grateful she has a year with Cavin to help him on the bus and show him around. 

Cavin is in 6th grade and it's his first year of middle school. He is a smart kid and I'm sure he will be just fine.  

Channing is in 3rd grade and really loves school.. especially the social part ;) 

My cute Deacon is in Kindergarten and was so excited to wake up and go to school today.  

In Germany on the first day of Kindergarten you get a schultute. So here he is with his!  

Family selfie before the big day! 

We got to walk in the elementary kids, so we got a picture with Channing's new teacher Mrs. Edwards. 

Deacon has Mrs. Adams which was Ella's teacher. She was excited to get our first and last child. She is a good teacher.

As for me..well..a new phase of life and I'm not exactly sure what it will bring. 13 years of having a child home with me has been a big portion of my married life. I am excited for a new phase, but also nervous about what it will look like. Here goes another school year, and I hope it's a great one!

Deacon is FIVE!!

On July 30, 2019 Deacon turned 5 years old. He was SO excited for his birthday. I love to watch his enthusiasm for everything. 

As in usual Hartzheim tradition we started the morning with Birthday donuts!

Then he chose to go to Chuck E Cheese with his cousins. We got there right when it opened so it wasn't busy and they could get all the tickets from when the machines are turned on.  

He especially loves the basketball hoop and soccer kicking games.  

The older kids like to get a lot of tickets off the coin game.  

Channing and Charlotte had a blast hanging out together.  

Deacon rode several rides and was so happy to be there.  

Such cute girls. 

Cai liked the train and just went around and around. 

Crew and Deacon tagged along to many of the arcade games.  

They redeemed their tickets and I think they had a good time. Deacon has entered this phase where he always wants to do a silly face in pictures.

Afterward we came home and had pizza and cupcakes.  

Here was my sad attempt at basketball cupcakes. He was happy, so I guess that's all that matters. 

When dad got home we had dinner and cupcakes again.  

We opened presents and he got a cool transformer car toy from his Oma and Opa.

Nerf guns from his Aunt Marisa and Uncle Ethan. 

A soccer book from his Uncle Corey and Aunt Stephani.  

A bike from his Grandma and Grandpa Speers. A water football from Aunt Natalie, a Bumblebee transformer from Uncle Chris and Aunt Chira and shin guards, water guns, water balloons, a backpack and other random things from Ragnar and I. He was excited to play with his presents. 

Right now he really loves games and since we couldn't go swimming because of the weather, we played games together. He is really into Go Fish, Uno Attack, and Obstgarten. 

He also sure loves his daddy. He wakes up early each morning to make sure he can say goodbye to him before he leaves for work!

For his birthday he got tickets to a baseball game. We went on Friday night to see the Astros vs. the Mariners. We had great seats so he was pretty excited to watch. He kept telling me about every single play! 

Since we had 2 pairs of tickets Ragnar and I traded boys after a few innings so they could both be with us. Both sets of tickets were great seats so it was fun for either.  

Deacon was right off the foul line on the 3rd row so a foul ball went right in front of him and a nice gentleman gave him the ball and he was thrilled! 

I am glad we have things that the boys like to do with us.  

He really wanted to stay til the Friday night fireworks and so we stayed and they were pretty cool. He was sound asleep when we got home, but didn't want to let go of his ball. :) Baseball is definitely not a sport Ragnar and I enjoy, but with that great of seats, we had a good time together and Deacon loves every sport, so we were happy to oblige.  

Since we missed the pool on his birthday and he REALLY wanted to show his cousins and his dad that he could go off the diving board, we had the cousins over Saturday for a fun afternoon/evening at the pool.

He had a good birthday/days and I hope he knows how much we love him. He is such an easy going kid and really fun to be around. He is all about sports and very competitive. No matter what you ask him or challenge him with, he says "I can do that, it's easy!" He is a quick learner and has a lot of natural athletic ability. He is so excited to start soccer in a couple weeks. Some other things about Deacon, he loves the color red, goldfish, anything Rockets and he can't go to sleep when they are playing until he knows the score. He is always shooting hoops in the playroom, or kicking a ball in the soccer goal in the backyard. If he is lucky his brother will play baseball with him as well. He still takes a nap, but we are slowly weaning him off since he starts all day kindergarten next week. He is so excited about school, but we will have a really tired boy for a while. He has a stuffed animal Wolfy that he sleeps with. He loves chicken nuggets and vanilla icecream. He wants to wear the same outfit of a grey nike shirt and florescent yellow nike shorts almost everyday and since I do laundry everyday, he thinks it's game to be able to wear it every other day. He is pretty tough when he gets hurt and doesn't usually cry. He can always keep up when we walk places and we usually have to catch up to him. At the grocery store he always uses the aisles as track lanes and races up and down, which is why he rarely comes anymore ;) He has big beautiful blue eyes and is a good kid. He is very active, but also listens fairly well. I am excited to see what life brings our boy and am so grateful he is ours. 

Annual Summer Olympics

Every summer since we have lived back in Texas we have done a summer Olympics at my parents home. The kids are pretty competitive, so they really look forward to competing with their cousins. 

We always start with the kids making their flag and the Olympic theme song.  

They were pretty creative with the flags.

We headed to the pool and did some events there. Ella won the freestyle swim and Ella and Cavin tied on who could float the longest. Caden won the race with the noodle and Charlotte the junior division.

Cavin and then Coleton got the hightest on the coolest jump, Caden and Ella won the tallest and biggest jump/splash. We also did kayak races with my dads kayaks and Cavin won by 3 seconds over Ella's time.  

They love being together at the pool!

When we got back, we did some outdoor events. Caden won the javelin and Deacon won for the junior division. Caden won the shotput and Crew won the junior division. Channing won over everyone in the archery and then a couple had enough energy to do the shooting event. 

We had lunch, watched a movie, and had an awards ceremony. It was much more low key this year, but the kids still had a good time and we kept the tradition alive!

Speers Family Michigan Reunion 2019

We've been home from Michigan for a few weeks and I think I'm finally ready to document our time there. 
We left, Saturday, June 21st and had to be at the airport at 5:15 a.m. Deacon hadn't felt well the night before, so I was a little nervous about how the flight would go. Thankfully, he and the kids did well and we had a good flight. We got to Detroit and into our rental car with no problems. We picked up lunch and drove the 4 hours from Detroit to Harbor Springs, Michigan for our family reunion. Our theme for the reunion was "Making Memories in Michigan." We got there and the kids loved checking out the rental cabin.

It was in a cute/comfortable ski resort area and next to trees on a beautiful mountain. The weather the first couple days was very pretty. 

Channing always loves babies and was happy to help with Cai! 

The kids played Mafia and enjoyed making up games together. 

These five boys went for a 3 mile run a few times and I was proud of Cavin as it is pretty steep the last half a mile back to the house! 

We spent the first couple days reacquainting with cousins and exploring the area. Sunday morning we went to church all together which I thought was pretty special. It is wonderful to see my parents and all of my siblings and their families doing their best to follow the Savior and worship Him together. After church we took a few family pictures.

My cute family. 

All of us together. 

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids. 

The 17 grand kids together again!
That evening we went to a park and enjoyed tag and baseball, soccer and just hanging out together.

Monday morning we drove about 45 minutes to an indoor water park called Avalanche Water Park. It was a really fun place and we loved it. 

They had several rides to go on. They had races with these foam pads, a couple fun slides for the adults and kids, also a kids section.

They had a wave runner to try and knee board or surf on. Ragnar and Cavin did pretty well. I tried it as well and wasn't as successful ;) 

They had a few slides. We called them the white or blue ones. The white one was dark part of the way and a pretty typical slide. The blue one shot you into a funnel and then spun you until it spit you into the water. The big challenge was this orange slide. You get inside this tube and the floor just drops you. It is pretty scary and we were trying to challenge each other to be brave enough to do it. Ragnar and I both gave it a try. 

I was scared the first time, but the more times you went it got easier as you knew what to expect. 

Cavin and Ella were also super brave and tried it. Only 4 of the grandkids would do it (or were tall enough to try). John, Coleton, Cavin and Ella did it. We even got my dad to go down!

We were having so much fun that we didn't get many pictures. We spent most of the whole day there and it was a fun memory for the kids.

That night we did our F.H.E Minute to Win it games.  

I always think it's fun to play games and compete together.

Tuesday morning, we drove to Mackinaw City. We played in the sand and saw the lighthouse and explored the area. It was pretty cold by the water with the wind.

The kids skipped rocks and looked for Petosky stones. 

There were several birds and Cavin was lucky enough to be the target of one of their droppings ;) Haha. Thankfully it only hit the back of his jacket and not his head! 

My sisters and I!
Afterward we drove across the bridge and went to the famous Mystery Spot. 

"Over the years, thousands of visitors have stopped at the Mystery Spot to experience a place where “gravity does strange things” (or more accurately, your brain does strange things as it tries to make sense of contradictory input) and tall people appear to be shorter than they do outside of the spot. These optical contradictions and odd physical sensations keep people coming back for more. It is also said that the Mystery Spot make people feel queasy and light-headed if they stay within the spots boundaries for too long."

It was cool to see how gravity seemed to be different. Water would flow upward or downward and a ball would stay in the same spot.  

Afterward we tried out the maze and it wasn't too hard to find the way out of. Unfortunately, Deacon always thinks he can go full speed on his own and he landed smack into a puddle of mud and was filthy. He wasn't thrilled about that. Overall, it was a fun tourist attraction to visit.

Wednesday was probably most of all of our favorite days. We went to Crooked Lake and rented two pontoon boats. The weather was nice and although the water was pretty cold, it was bearable in small doses ;)

Corey was our Captain and we were in the boat with his family and a couple other cousins. 

Madi, Emma, and Channing. 

Deacon enjoyed being on the boat. 

We got a new Captain.

We had a great time using the tube.  

We went out on several runs until the tube deflated and my brother was happy to go until we got tossed off.

We swam out to the beach and played in the sand and found Eagle feathers and seashells. 

Sweet cousin time! 

We got a little sunburn but not too bad and it was a super fun day!

That evening we had our reunion adult family council. This year was a difficult one. There are some things that our family can work to improve and it was difficult to hear and know where some people felt our family's inadequacies were. I am still trying to process how I feel about it and where I stand in my own relationships with each of my parents and siblings. I know for me, I will take the time to evaluate where I stand and do my best to improve myself where I can.

Thursday morning everyone packed up and headed to Ann Arbor where my brother Corey's family lives. On the way down we stopped in Frankenmuth, MI at Bronner's. It is the biggest Christmas store in the world. 

It was fun to see the German town and see all things Christmas. 

We got to Ann Arbor and got to see where Corey's family calls home and why it makes them happy. They have a beautiful home and a great yard to hang out in!

It was great having my siblings together again!

Thursday early morning, Ragnar got really sick. He passed out in the bathroom and was having diarrhea and vomiting. There was some sickness that started at the beginning of the reunion and it trickled down to him, so several were sick Friday. Thankfully his only lasted a few hours.

Friday we went ahead and went to the Henry Ford museum even though Ragnar was not in tip top shape. He really wanted to go. His father worked for Ford and he wanted to see the assembly line and the company headquarters. 

We road the bus over to the Rouge and toured it first. 

It was a pretty hot day so we were pretty sweaty waiting for the bus to come back. 

They even had several trains there. 

They had a Rockets car so of course we had to take a picture. 

All the cousins were working together. 

Channing getting the car worked on ;)

We had a voyager just like this growing up that Corey used to drive after we got the Suburban. It was brown with stripes and was a good car until it got blown up in front of our yard! Naturally we had to take a picture in front of it!

This was the bus Rosa Parks was on which was pretty cool. 

These three girls played well together in the yard after the big day and we enjoyed their big yard and soft grass. 

Saturday we headed to tour Michigan University.

It seems like EVERYONE in Ann Arbor is decked out in Michigan gear and cheers for the Wolverines.  

The Stadium was cool and we even got to go in and take a look at the field. 

My brother works for the University and so we got to go to his lab which was pretty awesome. 

There is nothing like walking into your brothers lab to a giant poster of him ;) haha! 

It was cool to see where he does his research and see a little into his world. 
That night we went to see Toy Story 4 together which was a cute movie. Sunday we went to church and hung out together one more evening. Then we headed home Monday.

I loved seeing all these kids together.  

I am grateful for the tradition of doing family reunions. They aren't always easy and family's are always a work in progress. I came away with this quote that stuck with me by Todd Christofferson "God's ultimate purpose is our progress." I know families are eternal and I will keep doing my part to make it a happy eternity. We definitely made memories in Michigan. Until next time....