LAST, BUT NOT LEAST!

This will be my first post, but last to read. I guess for Alayna's sake, we'll just say that we saved the best for last. Since it so hard to recap the last 4 to 5 months that have swiftly passed by, we will just give you the highlights.

In May, Alayna took her last field trip of the year. We went to Galena (for those of you who don't know about it, it's a historical city) and did quite a bit of sightseeing. We saw Ulysses S. Grant's home and took a tour of that as well as various other places. I have included some photos for you to see.

Alayna's partners in crime (Elizabeth & Mackenzie)

Partial view of Galena's neighborhood from Grant Park

Downtown Galena

Next on to more big adventures of her exciting (almost) 11 year old life:

She had the fortunate opportunity to have a scuba diving lesson (in town) for a field trip for Girl Scouts. They used the snorkels, masks, flippers & air tanks. All of the girls had a great time. I was the resident photographer for the group, so it was fun watching everyone.

Alayna all decked out in scuba gear.

Alayna was able to bring her friend Mackenzie, as a guest. They are quite inseparable.

School is almost out and Alayna has big plans to hang out with her friends over the summer. Her bike is all ready to go and hopefully she will have a lot of fun. We have decided that she is old enough to ride her bike around the neighborhood as she pleases. She is smart & very cautious. With the price of gas these days, this might be the only way she can go see her friends. She is probably the most excited out of all of the kids to be out of school. Her birthday is next month and we still haven't decided what big plans we have for her. I guess we'll just wait to see. We always tell her that the fireworks are for her. Isn't that nice of us?

Jake & Alayna are headed off to Girls Scout camp tomorrow. He is spending some "quality" time with his little girl. He will have the pleasure to help chaperone 2 troops (with 3 moms & 2 other dads.) Hopefully, someone might be kind enough to take some pictures for me and I will post them soon. I can't wait to hear how it went.