Summer Bucket List Days 29-35

*The captions are taken directly from my original Instagram posts.

Day 29: Another whirlwind of a day...Golf and swimming this morning, lunch, AREA 51 with Tinsley and Jameson, and tonight we visited Kaelyn. Eli and I were exhausted by the end of the day, but we're glad we got to see all of his cousins today and have fun! #thewilsonssummer2016

Day 29: I was asked tonight by Caleb and Kailey (my youngest brother and sis-in-law) to be Kaelyn's godmother. I'm not going to lie; I got all weepy about it and heartily agreed. I'm so thankful for this sweet angel and I can't wait to watch her grow up. I'm blessed to be her "Manna" and her Godmother 😊 #proudaunt#proudgodmother

Day 30: It was a golf playing, pool swimming, playground swinging, splash pad splashing, fort building, and having fun with cousins kind of day. #thewilsonssummer2016

Day 31: And that's a wrap for LSU Golf Camp! Eli had a blast this week and begged to go back next week as well. I can't say enough good things about the coaches, the facilities, the instruction, the activities, everything. Eli loved it all! He even won in the putting and driving competition in his group today! After a full week of golf camp, we were ready to be home and see Josh :) We ate at Newk's and then hit the road. It was a wonderful week full of fun!

#thewilsonssummer2016

Day 32: Saturday at home...Family movie, grocery shopping, grilling, baseball, washing cars and most importantly...SNOBALLS from @thesnoco. We needed a restful day at home and today was perfect :) #thewilsonssummer2016

Day 33: Four wheeler riding to a fishing pond and spending about 3 hours catching more fish than we ever could have imagined. Watching Eli catch fish after fish was so much fun, especially when he reeled in the only big bass of the night! What a fun summer evening! #thewilsonssummer2016

Day 34: The highlight of our day was certainly making homemade ice cream. Yum-O!! Magformers and Snap Circuits have also been huge hits around our house lately. Eli amazes me daily with what he's able to build and create with both of these :) #thewilsonssummer2016

Day 35: Magic Show at the library this morning, which prompted Eli to check out 4 magic books 😳 I can confidently say he's not going to be the next David Copperfield, but he did perform two magic tricks successfully for his dad when he arrived home for work 👏🏼 After lunch we spent our afternoon at the bowling alley with our friends The Atkins. It was a great summer day! #thewilsonssummer2016

Memorial Day Weekend with Grandpa E

This year for Memorial Day weekend Grandpa E came in town to visit us. Eli and I had been out of school for a week at this point so we were already in full summer mode. The first thing we did with Grandpa E was go out to dinner with him at a local restaurant. Eli loves spending time with Grandpa E when he comes in town and always has lots of fun when he's here. 

Grandpa E loves fishing (so do we), so we made sure to take him fishing at our local community pond one day while he was here. He lives in the big city so he doesn't get to do things like this very often and we all had a great time. 

The fish weren't very big, but we enjoyed catching them no matter their size!

Eli caught the most this day out of all of us. He was a machine!

After a morning of fishing, we were all starving so we washed up at home and then headed to the Malt Shop. They have the best milkshakes in town (and the crunchiest ice) and we couldn't wait to have a cool treat. It was a great end to a fun weekend with Grandpa E!

Summer Bucket List Days 1-7

Each summer Eli and I make a Summer Bucket List of all the things we want to do while we're on summer break. Most of things we list aren't elaborate or even expensive but they give us purpose while we're home for 2 months. Each night he crosses off the things we did on our list that day until we're all finished. We count up how many days we're out for summer vacation and then try to list something for each day. This summer I chronicled our adventures on Instagram and I loved looking back at all the collages I made of the summer fun we had. 

The night before summer break started Eli and I sat down with our markers and made 

Our Summer Fun List for the summer. It was as long as our refrigerator! 

Day 1: We visited The Sno Co., a local snowball stand that sells THE BEST

snowballs around! 

Day 2: We rode our bikes to the library to do some reading and 

then came home and spent some time by the swimming pool. 

Barkley even joined us for some fun. 

Day 3: We took Barkley for a walk, played basketball, got ice cream at the 

coffeeshop downtown, bought some new books from the local bookstore, met Grandpa E for dinner, and had frozen yogurt for dessert! Whew! Day 3 was a BUSY day!

Day 4: We went back to the coffeeshop with Grandpa E (his favorite place when he visits) and then shopped a little downtown. Eli found this How to Build Paper Airplanes book and Grandpa E bought it for him. 

Day 5: We went fishing that morning at our local pond. For lunch we took Grandpa E to the Malt Shop and then came home to do some swimming. 

Day 6: (Memorial Day) Grandpa E had to leave but before he left he and Eli did some science together. Eli loves doing science experiments with him!

Day 7: We met Zue-Zue for lunch at Johnny's and then went bowling with the Atkins family.

Yay for the program "Kids Bowl Free"! We all had a blast! Eli asked Cooper to come home with us and these boys spent the afternoon swimming in the pool.

Boys Only Camping Weekend

The last weekend in August Josh took Eli camping. They invited Josh's friend, Guy, and his little boy,  Hayden, for the ultimate boy's weekend. They planned on camping, kayaking, fishing, exploring, building fires, and doing much more. Eli was so excited to go on his camping adventure with his daddy and his best buddy. 

After they'd been there for awhile I sent a text asking how it was going. This was the text I got back. EEK! Josh said that the boys were exploring and Eli came running up to him to tell him that he'd found a snake. Josh thought it was just a little snake and not really an emergency, but boy was he wrong! Eli had spotted a moccasin and Josh thankfully took care of it. I was a nervous wreck once I found out Eli was the one who had spotted it. Talk about make a momma lose her mind. I sent back a string of texts telling Josh not to take his eyes off Eli for one second and then I spent the rest of the weekend in prayer...not even kidding. 

I think Eli's favorite part of their camping weekend was the fishing. The pond was well stocked and Eli caught some HUGE catfish. 

The next morning they woke up and did some more fishing. This time Eli caught a lot of bream. 

Eli ended the day in the kayak. Josh watched from the dock and let Eli paddle around in the kayak in front of him. Eli thought he was so big and loved it. I'm so glad my boys had a great camping weekend! 

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

Okay, so I realize it's not a dock and it's not a bay, but every time I look at these pictures, that's the song that comes to mind, so just go with it :) After all the fun Eli had at Tim and Belinda's farm fishing, we decided he needed a fishing pole of his own so he could practice at home. Zue-Zue came to the rescue and found one for Eli and bought it for him. Eli was so excited! He couldn't wait to practice and went straight to the pool to practice his casting. I have to say, he's got a pretty nice cast :) I'm so glad he's found something else that he enjoys doing! I see lots of fishing trips in his future.

Fishing at the Farm

While Josh and I were away watching John Mayer (AMAZING concert, by the way!), Eli stayed with Zue-Zue and had so much fun. One of his favorite things they did was go to B and Mr. Tim's farm to fish. Eli had never fished before, so this was a big adventure for him. He even caught his very first fish! Of course, he wouldn't touch it to take if off the hook, but he'll get there!

Eli had so much fun on his first fishing trip that we made plans with B and Tim to do it again. This time Mommy and Daddy came, too! Daddy wanted to fish and Mommy wanted to take pictures :)

Eli and B caught the first and only fish on this trip-a huge catfish! 

Eli wasn't going anywhere near it. I didn't blame him!

We ended our night with a ride around their land to look for deer. Eli was really excited when Mr. Tim let him drive some. We didn't get to ride around too long though because the weather started to get really bad. We hurried back to our car and left before it started pouring. It was such a fun day at the farm. We can't wait to go back!