Summer in Review

Here's a short re-cap of summer 2015 (after our vacation to Texas and Utah).  Sorry to say I was not diligent about doing this along the way, but with three kids I barely keep everyone breathing.  Truthfully the only down time I have is either when Alex is napping or asleep for the night, and my "to-do" list is usually so long and overwhelming I'm either frantically trying to get a million things done or I've just given up and I'm napping with him.  Then at night it's precious time with my husband, so blogging goes to the bottom of the list.  There are so many times I've wanted to share a random thought, but unless it was recorded in heaven it's not happening here.  Blogging is really therapeutic for me, so I hope I can move it back up the list slowly as I start to feel like I've got things more managed now that school is back in session.  But enough yapping, back to photos from the summer.  These are in no particular order.

The girls enjoyed lazy days in their pjs, playing on the playground at my friend's house.

Alex has grown even cuter if that's possible.  He started walking in July just shy of 11 months.

 More "monkeying" around at the playground, this time not in pj's


Amelia enjoyed some play dates with her friend from pre-school, Myles.  Here they are getting ice cream at the Carousel (ice cream place in town) and at the library.

We all loved the library this summer.  Here the kids are outside the library on a hot summer day.  I read TWO whole books (pretty good considering three kids I think), and the girls always love the summer reading program, not to mention story time and the free cookies from Great Harvest for coloring pictures at the library.

 On days I had to work they went to Miss Becky's.  But they had lots of fun there too.

 Alex is sporting his new mohawk look and I have to say he's pulling it off like a champ!

 We went swimming at Miss Becky's pool on days I was off, and on days I worked Miss Becky would take the kids if her husband was home to help.

We got to use our fire pit one night and did smore's in the backyard with Miss Becky and her family.  The kids loved playing and laying on the blanket.

My friend, Kristin, came into town with her kids and of course we took them back to our favorite ice cream place for a cool treat on a hot day.  Here are my cute girls at the Carousel... again!

 Look at all those cute kids filled up on ice cream

 So we took them to the park to get some of the sugar out of their system.

And random selfies because, well, because why not?

Alex has started having solids and he LOVES. HIS. FOOD.  It's serious stuff when this kid sits down and eats.  He's a happy healthy little man.

Also, he climbs everything.  Examples include but are not limited to climbing in my dishwasher, climbing on his toy car (see below), scaling and climbing the baby gate, climbing the stairs whenever he gets a chance, and climbing onto the table if chairs are angled just right.  Also, he does not like being taken down from whatever he has climbed on.  Busy, busy boy!

We rode bikes.  Here the girls are on the walking trail in town.  There's a train caboose there that's fine to climb on and explore.

The girls enjoyed going up to Skyline Drive with their papa, who took them on a pony ride and then a short nature hike.  They LOVED it!  No pictures on the ponies, but here are a few from the trail.

 I don't know if you can see them but they are both inside this hallowed out tree.

 My two peas in a pod!  Papa also took them to the fair but I didn't get any photos of that.  Needless to say their papa spoils them rotten, but they had a wonderful time!

And then, before we knew it, school was around the corner.  After fun days of swimming, hiking, going to the fair, playing with friends, and playing Minecraft, all of the sudden it was back to school night and time to meet the teachers.  And my sweet precious little Amelia is getting ready for Kindergarten!  Seriously, how did this even happen?  It's very exciting but my heart aches a little all at the same time.