Charlie at the Lake!

Getting all the love from Ann .... he really LOVED her blue bottle!

Bonnie let Charlie DRIVE the boat!!!!

Found the horn!

Charlie and Katie O!

Charlie and Bonnie!

Charlie and his buddy, Steve.

Charlie LOVED the water ...

especially the raft where he could sit and lounge while Steve pushed him around!

Dr. Bob

Today I attended a Memorial Service for Dr. Bob Frederick. Dr. Bob was my graduate school advisor at KU and was the former athletic director at KU and Illinois State (in my hometown). Throughout the past 5 years, I have had the privilege of getting to know him better, both in the classroom and through other functions. I can honestly say that he was a great man. Never did he have a bad word to say about others. He took great pride in his work as a teacher and was a tremendous influence to his students. He left his mark on the world and nearly 1,500 people came out to pay their respects to this great man.

I feel priviliged to have known him. He left this world a better place and for that I am grateful. I hope that I continue to practice the lessons that he taught me ... be good to ALL that you meet. You never know the impact you will have on those people. From the most important person to the least known, all should be treated the same -- with great respect. Never compromise your values for something you don't believe in. Live life to the fullest -- you never get a hint about when you time on earth is gone.

Dr. Bob was one of the healthiest 69 year old men I have ever met. I tragic bicycling accident claimed his life late Friday. He was wearing a helmet, but even it was not enough to protect him from a fall from what he loved to do best.

Rest in Peace, Dr. Bob ..... you have left the world a better place!

In Between!

One camp down .... three more to go!! Elite Camp was this past weekend. It is the smallest of our four summer camps, but a challenge to run as we have several "recruits" and their coaches in so we need to look good and everything has to run perfect! I am happy to report that things ran great and I have gotten some emails from parents telling me how much they enjoyed the camp!!

Next week is what I affectionately call "Hell Week." I will be running our two largest camps back to back. Our Individual Camp (girls grades 5-12) will run Sunday through Wednesday and then we have our Jayhawk Jamboree on Saturday. We are expecting nearly 250 girls for the first camp and then close to 500 for the one-day deal. It is ALOT of work to get it all ready, but I have been planning for months so it is coming together nicely! Talk to me on June 28th though and see if I am still saying the same thing!

Charlie is still practicing the walk! He is becoming more adventurous every day so we are on our toes! I will admit that he has the BEST laugh ... especially at night when he is tired. It is almost as if he is so delerious he does not know how to control it and he just lets out these "belly laughs."

Walking Man!

Charlie took his first REAL steps today. He has been making his way around for last couple of months, but today he took off from my hands into Eric's and got so excited when we cheered him on in his first steps. He was so happy that he turned around and walked right back to Eric! While he is not going by himself all the time, it is just around the corner.

In other news, camp is starting on Thursday. I will admit that I am not AS stressed as I usually am this time of year. I look back at last year ... Charlie had just been born, I was on "maternity leave," and still planning/running camps. Last year was way more stressful than this year so far! Keeping my fingers crossed that smooth sailing continues .....

Funny story of the day .... I picked Charlie up last night from the babysitter's house. When I arrived, Candi told me that she thinks Charlie may have bit another of the kids -- a 2 year old boy named Finn. She noticed a couple of bruises on Finn's ear while they were out for their morning walk. She asked Finn what happened to his hear and Finn replied, "Charlie bit me." She had not seen Charlie bite him and did not remember Finn crying out at any point that morning. She waited awhile longer and asked him again what happened to his ear and again, Finn replied "Charlie bit me." Of course, I felt horrible. Charlie has chomped down on my finger a couple of times, but only because I stuck my finger in his mouth to check his teeth. I really couldn't believe that he had done it. When I asked him if he bit Finn, he just looked at me and smiled ... ughhh. So, home we went. As I was pulling into the driveway, Candi called and said that she had showed the alleged bite marks to Finn's dad when he was picked up after we left. Candi explained what happened and apologized that Finn was hurt in her care. Finn's dad started laughing and told her that Finn had hurt his ear at the playground yesterday!!!! Candi told Finn's dad that he had blamed Finn for the injury and he informed Candi that Finn has been blaming Charlie for alot of things lately (even when he is not around!!!!) Poor Monkey man ..... he gets the bad wrap all the time!

Charlie and friends riding in the buggy at Miss Candi's house.

They go on at least one walk a day and Charlie has recently been moved to the

front as he has a tendency to "mess" with the other passengers.