Anything But Grey: Instagram Dump January

Another year, another Instagram dump post! This post contains all the photos and captions I published on Instagram from January through June, 2023.

01/07 - These boys have been friends for over half their lives, and it was so fun to watch them play each other in basketball 🏀 today! They didn't want to defend each other, but that's exactly what ended up happening for part of the game. Thankfully, they were still happy to see each other when the game was over 😂.

01/08 - Straight facts 😂

01/10 - Whelp, this is a new kind of date night 😜. The circumstances stink, but we don't hate the quiet 😁.

01/16 - Chemistry experiment day is Bren's favorite! #homesweethomeschool #LIGHTAcademy #homeschool

01/26 - We're baking potatoes for dinner tonight, and found this in the bag. The kids all think they should be the one to eat it!

01/28 - We didn't get the W today, but he sure played hard. Love watching him hustle! 🏀

01/31 - We have a tradition that whenever the kids have a snow day from school, they get to sleep in tents in the living room. We've done this for years, and they love it! I was planning to take the tents down this afternoon, but now I'm thinking we might want to wait. What do y'all think . . . will we have another snow day tomorrow? ⛺❄⛺

01/31 - Studying the book of Isaiah with OABS on this cold and icy evening. Such a good class!

02/01 - Since the twins are home for another ice day, they got to join us for our chemistry lesson. We're making models of atoms today.

02/02 - Hmmm, must be birthday month at the Nelsons! 🎂🎈🎁

02/04 - Yesterday, my little twinbies turned EIGHT years old. They are big kids now, and it's so bittersweet. We celebrated with lots of love, hugs, yummy food, cake, and new bikes! Happy birthday to two of our sweetest blessings, Brooke and Brecklyn! 💜💓

02/10 - My favorite boy turned *E L E V E N* years old today! He had a great day riding his new bike and playing outside, then we finished the day with his favorite meal and ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Happy birthday, Brenson! 💙

02/13 - We've been studying a unit on world-changing inventions in our homeschool, and our most recent lesson was on explosives. To cap off the week, Bren and Bri launched a rocket 🚀 in our backyard. The first few attempts were unsuccessful, but after tweaking the rocket and the launch controller, it finally lifted off! 👏 I'm pretty sure I enjoy homeschooling as much as they do 🚀!

02/14 - This photo was taken at Disney World ten years ago. It pretty much sums up Brianna and Brenson in a photo, lol.

02/14 - Happy Valentines Day! 💜💙💜💓

02/15 - Brianna and Brenson are participating in BizTown through our homeschool co-op, and this week they submitted resumes and went through an interview to determine what jobs they'll have at Biz. They both looked good all dressed up for their interviews!

02/18 - My oldest baby girl became a TEENAGER today! How *13* years flew by so quickly is mind-blowing to me, but I'm SO grateful for the blessing of watching my girl grow into a young woman. Happy birthday, Brianna! 💜

02/21 - This boy finished his school work and disappeared. To no one's surprise, he had gone fishin' at the pond 🎣. He says he'd take fishing over algebra any day! 🐟

03/01 - The sky is amazing tonight 😍. #sunsetonsummittrail #oklahomasunset #homesweetoklahoma #godsbeautifulworld

03/07 - Brianna participated in her first track meet of the season today! It was chilly, windy, and even rainy at the end, but she ran hard, threw hard, and set a new PR in the 1600m. It was also fun for her to have some friends brave the weather to cheer her on!

03/08 - A few days spent on Grand Lake a couple weeks ago was just what we needed. We enjoyed exploring the outdoors, and our rental house was just right for fun, food, games, and laughter. Life is grand with people like mine!

03/09 - My college besties and I took a quick overnight trip to Pawhuska, OK to visit The Pioneer Woman's Mercantile and restaurants. The stores are beautiful, the food was amazing, and we even got to meet Ree! Time with these gals NEVER disappoints . . . over 20 years of friendship and it just keeps getting better!

03/10 - Bren really enjoys playing guitar even if performing isn't his favorite. He might have more fun if he weren't so serious 😁. I sure enjoy watching him play, though!

03/11 - I purchased a heat press last fall and have been having fun making shirts! I'm not sure how thrilled my hubby is about me acquiring another hobby . . . 😁.

03/13 - Sunset is my favorite color.

03/17 - ☘ Irish kisses and shamrock wishes! ☘

03/23 - Tonight was family game night, and all the kids did plenty of talking about how Mom was going to lose and lose hard. Well guess who won (by a lot)?!? NOT them!!! 😂

04/03 - Track & Field season is in full swing, and Bren has shown growth and improvement in every area! He also has the cutest little fan club around! 🏃

04/03 - Brianna's Track & Field season is off to a solid start. She's been reaching goals and setting new PRs, and she's not done yet! 🏃

04/06 - LIGHT Academy took a field trip to the Claremore Jazz Festival today. We were able to see Chloe play her sax with her jazz band, as well as several other jazz band performances. We enjoyed the morning of toe-tapping tunes!

04/08 - I cherish lovely and simple days like today. We were pleasantly surprised by an Easter basket from our sweet neighbor, worked on our garden, colored eggs as a family, and topped off a beautiful evening with the kids riding int he back of our truck down to our pond to do some fishing. 🎣

04/10 - Yesterday . . . 💜🐣🐰💜

04/12 - The Bigs and I had a great time at Biztown today! Bri was elected mayor by her peers and did a fantastic job. Bren worked as a service tech for OneOK and received a male citizen of the day award. I helped out at Reasor's with a crew that kept me entertained 😁. Bri and Gavon were both sad to miss out on Biztown in 5th grade, but they made the most of the experience today. We are thankful for this opportunity!

04/14 - We had a lovely afternoon exploring a local nature park and enjoying the beautiful weather!

04/22 - Despite the wind and cold, Bri and Bren held their own at the final regular track meet of the season! I also noticed while taking the photo of them with their ribbons that a certain boy is outgrowing his older sister. One of them is happier about this than the other! 😂

05/02 - Brianna participated in color guard this year through our homeschool co-op. They did their end-of-the-year performance today, and it was so fun to watch! Those pink flags were pretty in the sun!

05/06 - Hmmm, something exciting must be happening soon!

05/09 - We are blessed to be part of a great team. These kids are kind, smart, talented, and hilarious! Please pray for safety as we head to Missouri to compete in Homeschool Track & Field Nationals . . . can't wait to see what these kiddos can do. Go Falcons!

05/13 - Congrats to my niece, Kaylee, on her college graduation! You did it, girl!!! 🎓

05/17 - Smoky Mountain Dreamin' Day 1:

After a wonderful weekend celebrating Kaylee's college graduation, we headed east across Tennessee to Gatlinburg. We drove in the heavy rain for several hours, but had fun stopping at Buc-ee's on the west side of Knoxville.

Our condo in Gatlinburg has an amazing view from the balcony and has been a perfect space for our family. After getting settled in our condo, we headed into Gatlinburg to eat dinner and have some fun at SkyLift Park. Riding the lift was so much fun we did it twice . . . once inthe daylight and once at night!

05/17 - Smoky Mountain Dreamin' Day 2:

We ventured into the National Park today to take on a fun day hike to Abrams Falls. The trailhead was an hour's drive from our condo, and we saw several bears on the way there! We also drove through Cade's Cove, which was beautiful. After reaching Abram's Falls, we had a picnic beside the gorgeous falls before hiking back out to our vehicle.

05/18 - Smoky Mountain Dreamin' Day 3:

We woke up this morning to dense fog and drizzle. However, we had big things planned for today and weren't going to be stopped by the fact that our condo was literally sitting in a cloud!

First up was hiking on a portion of the Appalachian trail that goes through Great Smoky Mountain National Park. This made me practically giddy as I've always wanted to hike on the Appalachian Trail! The part of the trail we hiked crosses the North Carolina/Tennessee border, so of course we had to hike it on both sides. It was very interesting how the foliage on the trail changed as we gained in elevation.

Next, we headed to Clingman's Dome which is the highest point in Tennessee. We hiked up to the observation tower, but were still in cloud cover so there wasn't much to see.

After lunch, the clouds finally began to lift, and we travelled to the North Carolina side of the park, stopped by the visitor's center, then made our way down the famous Blue Ridge Parkway for a while. Travelling the Blue Ridge Parkway was another bucket list item for me! The views were absolutely breathtaking, and we saw first-hand why it's called "Blue Ridge".

We were welcomed back to our condo by an incredible sunset to finish off an exciting day.

05/18 - Smoky Mountain Dreamin' Day 4:

We hit the trails early this morning to hike up to Grotto Falls. This trail was so pretty, and we loved that you can actually walk behind the falls! I was definitely dealing with some leg fatigue and soreness today, but the hike was absolutely worth it.

We spent the afternoon walking all around downtown Gatlinburg. We had old time photos taken, shopped for souvenirs, ate lots of yummy snacks, had a meal at the Pancake Pantry, and did plenty of people watching.

We planned to head back to the condo fairly early for a relaxing evening, but the kids begged to drive into the National Park one more time before we leave this area tomorrow. This led to us taking a short and easy hike to Cataract Falls. This was a hike we'd planned to do earlier in the week and didn't get to. The best part (for the kiddos) was that we finally let them wade in a mountain stream like they had asked to do several times. The water was frigid, but they didn't care!

After all that, we still made it back to our condo by 5:00pm and were able to relax and watch movies the rest of the evening!

05/20 - Smoky Mountain Dreamin' Day 5:

We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise on our last morning in the Smokies and were all sad to make our way down the road to North Carolina. However, we were looking forward to our next adventure in South Carolina.

Congaree National Park is a smaller park, but well worth the stop. The main "hike" in the park is on a raised boardwalk through the Congaree River floodplain, and we were thankful the mosquito meter wasn't too high today. I did get a bite right on my cheek, though.

The bald Cypress trees were HUGE, and I've never seen anything like the "knees" before. They gave us a very eerie feeling . . . and then we saw the alligators! Eeeep!

The park closed at 4 today, so our visit wasn't long, but still a good stop. We then made our way to Augusta, Georgia, had a delicious, sit-down dinner out (👏), and crashed early in our hotel.

05/20 - Smoky Mountain Dreamin' Day 6:

We had a lot of miles to cover today, so we woke up on the eastern edge of Georgia and headed west! We made it through Atlanta with only a few slow-downs and kept driving until we hit Alabama.

Bama was beautiful, and the only real traffic we had was in Birmingham. We crossed into Mississippi around 3:00pm and were ready to stretch our legs at the lovely visitor's center. After a few more hours on the road, we grabbed dinner at O'Charley's and turned in for the night.

05/21 - Smoky Mountain Dreamin' Day 7:

This morning we worshipped with the church in Nesbitt, Mississippi, then went to a nice lunch with the Popejoys. Although we had met them before, this was our first opportunity to spend time with them, and it was a pleasure.

After lunch, we continued our trek west toward home. Arkansas was scenic, and we always enjoy the view of the Ozark mountains from I-40.

It was about 7:30pm when we rolled into our driveway, grateful to have had a wonderful trip and grateful to be home. 💖

05/25 - Bri and Bren finished their track & field season strong! I wasn't able to go with them to Nationals this year (translate: very few photos), but they enjoyed it even with the crazy weather. I'm pretty sure Bri likes socializing with her team mates as much as she likes participating in the events 😜. Bren has buddies on the team too, but adolescent boys aren't really into photos. Who knew!?! 😝

05/26 - Today is the end of an era for us. We've been a Catalayah Elementary School family since 2015 when Bri started Kindergarten there. So many hours have been spent in that building . . . countless mornings of Rise & Shine, lunches, parties, volunteering, etc, and the relationships we've built are precious to us! Of course, a lot of things changed with Covid, but we will always cherish the positive experiences and memories at our favorite elementary school. Our family is off to different things now, but the past 8 years are dear to us!

I had literally hundreds of photos of us at the school. I picked my favorite 50 to share 😊.

05/30 - LIGHT Academy wrapped up another school year the last week of April with the end of seventh grade for Brianna and fifth for Brenson. We had a great year!

Brianna loved 7th grade and really thrived this year. She did well with all her studies, including pre-algebra that she claims to dislike even though she aced almost all her daily work and exams. One of the highlights of her year was participating in Biztown and serving as mayor. She took a semester of Spanish through our co-op, then continued her studies independently. In addition to her regular studies, Bri enjoyed running cross country and participating in track & field with the Falcons, being part of color guard, taking an apologetics class, and taking two Bible classes online through OABS.

Brenson did great in 5th grade, and really learned how to manage his time and complete tasks more independently. He loved our unit on inventions and inventors, and was always eager to dig deep into those studies. The highlight of his year was also participating in Biztown, but he also took one semester of Spanish and a guitar class through our co-op. His favorite school subject was Chemistry, and he also really enjoyed the apologetics class he took. He ran cross country, played basketball, participated in track & field, and did a lot of fishing this year!

We are thankful for another blessed year!

05/30 - Brooke and Brecklyn both finished a good year in 2nd grade last week. It's crazy how much they've grown since August!

Brooke was in a class with several rowdy boys and would come home with stories every day. She loved to show them up during recess, and her teacher told me that they wanted her on their team so they didn't have to play against her 😜. Her favorite subject was art, but she ended the year with all As in every subject.

Brecklyn stayed out of the business Brooke was always in and stuck pretty closely with her friend, Gentry. She was definitely the quieter and more reserved sister at school! She aced nearly every paper and exam she completed, but she said she was never born or restless. Her favorite subject was reading, and she ADORED her teacher.

We are grateful for another wonderful school year!

06/05 - Lately . . .

🌞 fishing 🎣

🌞 birthday parties

🌞 tree climbing

🌞 kayaking with friends

🌞 Tulsa Driller's baseball . . . on fireworks night!

🌞 More fishing 🎣!

I'd say our summer is off to a great start!

06/12 - I've been wanting to put a few new things in my entryway for a couple years now, and I finally got it done! Those of you that know me know I love photos, so for Mother's Day my kiddos got me a Mixtiles grid of photos from our travels. I was soooo excited when they came in the mail, and I'm thrilled with the way they look hanging over the cedar-lined hope chest my dad made for me as a gift in 1998. We have a little shelf (also built by my dad . . . he's quite the woodworker/craftsman) hanging on the other side of our entryway, so I freshened that up with some new decor, too. I love remembering the trips we've taken when I see the photos!

06/14 - That would be a banana peel on my leather furniture. Because kids.

06/15 - Recently, I decided to jump out of my comfort zone and pick up an old hobby. I was so nervous, but with some encouragement from my husband and a few friends, I dusted off my trombone and started playing with the Claremore Civic Band. It's quite the mental workout trying to recall things I haven't used in many years, but it's coming back to me quickly and it's been so fun!

We do free concerts in the summer in Gazebo Park. They are every other Thursday at 7:30pm, and we have one tonight! Bring your lawn chair and come watch us play.

06/17 - Yay for summer tie-dye projects! 🌞👏🌞

06/22 - It was Will's Wild West Camp week at the local Will Rogers Memorial. Brooke and Brecklyn had a fun time making ropes, learning how to tie knots, listening to storytellers, taking a stagecoach ride, being sprayed by a fire truck, and more! Thanks, Claremore, for a fun camp!

06/22 - Food Truck Thursday! 🌞🥨🌭🍕🌮🍔🍹🌞

06/23 - 💗💗💗💗💗

06/26 - Daily scripture writing with my kiddos . . . we did this consistently for several years, but haven't for a while. We are getting back to it now, and I remember why it was a valuable part of our daily routine!