Jackson Rigby Nesmith: 201606

I cannot believe that we are a month into summer! It is going by way too quickly!! We have had so much fun already!! Jackson finished up baseball with a championship! Way to go Crushers! He did awesome this year and loves playing the game so much!! He has also made some really great friends along the way. Our team name was the Crushers and they sure did live up to their name. They won the championship game 18-7!

Number 1!!

We had such a great team and are hoping to be able to keep these kids together next year.

Proud parents!

Beckett is always right in the middle of everything!

Jackson getting a game ball. He had an awesome dive and backhand stop and then threw the guy out at first.

Even though we beat them, these two are still buds! RJ was playing catcher and he high fived Jackson when he came up to bat. So cute!!

Sweet friends.

Look who made the paper!

We have had a couple of camps already. This is Beckett at VBS. I was his counselor this year!!

First sleepover! Jackson and Beckett slept over at the McDonalds'. This was Beckett's first sleepover and I thought for sure we were going to get a phone call in the middle of the night to pick him up, but we didn't! He slept the whole night!

Brandy sent me these pics of my boys because her children are early risers. They get up at 6 and this was my boys still snoozing at 8.

The next morning she took them to tennis lessons. Beckett was supposed to do the lesson with Ava, but he chose to sit and eat veggie straws instead.

Silly kid!

Beckett and his buddy Ava. So sweet!!

Jackson had a playdate with his buddy Aidan and they got to play on a slip n slide!

So fun!

Beach trip to Panama City. Our great friends the Moffett's invited us to stay with them for the weekend. It was a rough start,though. The play was for me to drive the boys down on Thursday and Greg was flying in on Friday. Well, Wednesday at 7 am I got a phone call that my Uncle David was not doing well. He has been battling metastatic lung cancer for the last 2 months and they had decided to withdrawal care. I immediately got a flight that day for noon. Before I left, I quickly packed myself and the boys for the beach trip, so we could leave as soon as I got home. I landed in Chicago at 4:30 and my sister and I headed straight to the hospital. They discharged him to home hospice, so we then headed to Aunt Patty's.We stayed there until midnight. He was still aware when I was there and so happy to see me. I was able to hug him goodbye and tell him I loved him. He died the next day. I flew back home and was supposed to arrive at 3. Several delays later and a grounded plane due to a cargo water leak, I didn't get in until 5:30. I made it home at 6:30 and decided to go ahead and get in the car and go! We made to the beack around 12:30. Whew!!

The beach was beautiful! White fluffy sands, great friends, and endless sunshine!

We also had endless boogy boarding!

Surf dude! I didn't get any pictures of this, but we rented Jet Skis for the first time. This one loved it! The faster the better! I was able to go upwards of 25 mph with this one. Jackson, was a little more fearful. We kept it a cool 10 mph max.

Catching some waves!

It's a little sad that he doesn't need our help anymore...

Beach selfie!

I tried so sneak one with him, but he was not having it!

Friday night we went out to dinner and then headed to the airport to pick up Greg. Waiting on daddy!

Greg's flight was delayed. All the kids were so tired from the long day at the beach and fell asleep.We were supposed to meet the Morgan's for a drink, but when I looked down and saw Jackson sleeping on the floor, I knew that was not happening!

Another beautiful day!

Catching a good one!

This one was much less fearful this year, but still loved sitting on the sand playing with his toys.

The dudes!

I tried to get a pic of the kids, but Beckett was not having it!

Every time I tried to take his pic, this is what he would do...

Maggie and Jackson catching a wave!

Waiting for a good one!

Nice!

We were driving home from the beach on Father's day, and because of my Uncles passing, I didn't get to do much for Greg. I could not have asked for a better father for our boys. They just idolize him! We are so blessed that he is ours and we hope he knows how much we love him!

We kept seeing people do this while we were in Cancun, so we had to see what all the fuss was about! Next week we leave for Kiawah and we can't wait!!

School is out and we couldn't be happier! This is by far the fastest year ever!! I feel like school just started and now Jackson has finished 1st grade and Beckett 3K. Both boys did great in school and I couldn't be prouder of them. Jackson finished up this soccer season with a tournament. He did great! Scored 5 goals in the first game and the only goal in the second game. He loves the game just like his daddy!!

They weren't the best team, but they all improved. We played up this year and Jackson held his own!!

This one is ready for his chance at baseball!

Sliding into third! He always asks me if he was safe..

My sweet prekindergartner. I just can't believe he will be going to Walker full time next year!!

I was able to go to Beckett's end of the year party. It was a summer themed bash!

Beckett loved his teachers Mrs GraceAnn and Mrs Lisa. He is really going to miss them next year. He already told me that he wants to go back to his old school next year and not Walker. Hopefully after a few days he will love his new school as much as his brother does.

School's out for summer!!! When I told Beckett he was done with school for summer vacation he kept asking me, "When we are going to the beach? We always go to the beach for vacation!"

Jackson's regular baseball season ended and we hosted an end of the year pool party. We may not have won the championship, but we really had a great group of boys and some awesome coaches. We are excited to keep working with Coach Brent on the All Stars Team!

Coach Brent giving Jackson his trophy. He always has something so positive and kind to say about each kid. He said he was most proud of Jackson's tenacity. He got hurt a couple to times but he never came out of the game.

We had Christopher sleep over one Saturday and the boys woke up early to have a sprite, popcorn, and popsicle stand. They made the sign and stand all by themselves. It was really quite impressive.

They first had a sprite and popcorn for the bargain price of only $20. I told them that may be a little pricey so they cut it to $7. Eventually we settled on $1 and all proceeds going to sick animals. The reason they wanted to give the money to sick animals is because we had quite the tragedy with the loss of our sweet Fireball. He woke up yelping at 3am and his front paws were paralyzed. We took him to a neurologist who thought it may be an infection. He was placed on steroids and abx and for 5 agonized days and nights I was up with that dog trying to soothe him. He didn't understand what was wrong with him and it was really sad. We had to carry him outside and he would cry whenever we had to pick him up. I took him back to the neurlogist and we did an MRI since he wasn't imroving. Unfortunatley, his spinal cord was full of a rare cancer and we had to put him to sleep. We were all devastated including his brother Lavaball. He wouldn't eat and seemed lonely. We are all better now and know that he is in a better place. My sweet friends bought the boys books explaining where dogs go when they die. Jackson read the one book and asked me if I knew that God will let dogs come back to earth to see their owners. He said he just knew Fireball was in his room sniffing around. We told him that Grandpa Rigby, Grandma Cindy, and Glo needed a good dog so he's there keeping them company.

Back to the sprite stand. We only had 1 customer, but it was a good one! The train conductor. He stopped the train and came over for a popsicle!

This one finished his first Fuse soccer! He had a love/hate relationship. He played most games but 1 game he just sat on my lap the whole time!

He sure looks cute though!

End of the year chess party! Jackson got top 5 for bughouse!

Sweet friends!

The last day of school we celebrated with some friends at Hibachi. Our kids loved it!!

We also had an end of the year party at the Holle's house. They had all sorts of games. This one was too funny. The put shaving cream all over a shower cap and the kids tried to see how many cheese puffs they could get to stick to it.

This one loved the water slide!

Bid 2nd graders!!

Daddy was jealous he couldn't get in on the 4 square action!

These kiddos celebrated the last day with a trip to the MCC pool!

Who doesn't love a water hose fight?

We also hosted Jackson's end of the year first grade pool party. Each class has an annual end of the year party somewhere and the first grade class is always a pool party. Wednesday at 11 am all the kids got on a walker bus and headed to our house. The school provided the food and lifeguards and the parents were welcome to join. We had 40 kids and about 30 parents. It was so much fun! The kids had the best time. What was even more impressive was seeing how well behaved they are with their teachers!

Even though it was 90 degress all the kids still loved the hot tub!

Jackson also had his end of the year singing showcase! The entire lower school participates and their is both singing and choreographed dancing. The theme was "Night at the Museum" The fifth graders actually had acting parts and the other grades sang songs. The first graders were fish.

So proud of these kiddos to sing and dance in front of the entire lower school!

My little fish..

Our normally routine is the last day of school we head to Kiawah for our first beach trip. This year we could'n't as Jackson's all star team, Crushers, was in a tournament. These kids played in an 8U tournament and did great! They mercy ruled their first 2 teams to be seeded 2nd!! Before the semifinal game, the kids had a big surprise. 2 former and current Braves players came to cheer them on! Here they all are waiting for them to arrive.

There was a band and everything before they came out. The players included Matt Wisler who is the starting pitcher!

Homer was also there!

Javier Lopez then pitched to each kid. They then got to run the bases and high five them. Unbelievable!

They then posed for a pic with each team! The Crushers unfortunately did not win the tournament, but had a great time. The team we played in the semifinals was the biggest bunch of 8 and 9 year olds I have ever seen! The first 3 innings I think our boys were just too intimated and we were down 19-0. Coach Brent gave a quick peptalk and the 4th inning we scored 7 and held them to 0. Going into the 5th, we scrored another 2 before they had to call time. We were so proud that they dug deep and started to really play ball!1