12of12 | July

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01. Megan had the hardest time getting up this morning. Even though it's summer we still have violin at 6:45am. Bummer.
02. Found these flowers on the way into violin. The one perk about being up early in the summer -- you get to watch the sunrise.
03. Bella has been joining me in the front passenger seat lately. I've quite enjoyed her company next to me.
04. We went to boondocks today and Tess and I couldn't stop laughing on the race track. We had the slowest car and kept getting passed up by everyone. She can't wait until she's tall enough to ride the big cars herself.
05. It was such a riot on the bumper boats. How come it is so much fun to attack your family with water?
06. We all got seriously soaked on the bumper boats, but it was nice for once to not feel so blasted hot.
07. Spent some time in the batting cages. I have to say I did fairly well for a girl who hasn't picked up a bat in 20+ years.
08. Laser tag continues to be one of the funnest games we play together as a family. So much smack is happening at the beginning of the game about who will dominate. You won't hear if from me though. I don't know what it is, but I'm horrible at this game. Even my girls beat my highest score. Pathetic!
09. Taylor, my 15 year old niece who has a drivers permit, is a ruthless driver. Should I be afraid of her on the road? She saw an opening and edged Amy and Estee out of our way. Can't say it wasn't fun.
10. Sweet little Lewis. He was along for the ride today and was, for the most part, happy about it. Have really enjoyed the extra time with him. What a delightful boy.
11. Megan counting up her tickets -- she ended up with 456. I thought it was a ton for her, but she was quickly disappointed when she realized the big bear she wanted was 5000 tickets. Keep in mind the big bear can be found at Costco for close to $20. Looks like I know what to get for Christmas.
12. My dad and sister Jeni being, well, being them. I adore these two. So wish she lived close. I had it when our time is over.

What a fabulous day! When my sister suggested we go to boondocks Thursday I didn't realize it was the twelfth. In fact, I'm actually not a fan of having a big activity on the twelfth. I prefer to capture daily life, but then again, I suppose that's what we were doing. The best of times!

Hope you all had a great day!

the last two weeks | photos

12of12 | august

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01. I got a late start on my day, 9:30 is when I woke up (late night). Luckily it was a slow morning and I was still able to get a workout in. P90x legs.
02. Taking all the kids, my girls + cousins, back to my moms.
03. Every time I tried to take a picture, Alan would fling his sticky hand at my lens. He never did get it, but it was sure fun watching him try.
04. My sister Jeni and I after some shopping.
05. The kids shucking the corn.
06. Alan was helping Megan ride his new Rip Stick. I actually want one for myself.
07. Flowers that greet me every time I pull into my mom's driveway.
08. Little baby Lewis. It was fun to watch his subtle changes over a two week period.
09. Caprese salad for dinner.
10. Megan and Estee making water balloons.
11. My last chance to get our annual photo of Tess and Alan together.
12. Taking a late evening walk to the park.

Today was my sister's last day--she leaves town tomorrow. I can't even tell you how sad I am to see them all go. My girls were teary all the way home--every year they get a little bit closer and every year it's harder to say goodbye. I was really grateful today was the 12th so I could document a bit of our time together. Man, I'm going to miss them.

I hope it was an equally great day for all of you. Looking forward to seeing what your day was made of.

Lately

--My sister's in town with her family and I've been MIA because of it. I always enjoyed this portion of our summer, but it seems this time has gone by too fast and I don't want it to end.
--I've been listening to a lot of Selena Gomez & Justin Bieber in the last week thanks to my niece Taylor.
--Our big primary parade has now come & gone, it was over the weekend, and I'm feeling like I'm breathing a bit easier now.
--Megan and I have been butting heads this last week. I feel like she's testing my resolve and consistency, luckily though, I have yet to give in. Hoping it's just a stage.
--Just made a Texas sheet cake and accidently left out 1/2 a stick of butter. Such a bummer when you're craving chocolate cake.
--School registration is tomorrow. I'm still in a bit of shock summer is on it's way out.
--I've been re-watching Downton Abbey with my sister and I'm enjoying it just as much as the first time.
--Just finalized my travel plans for New Hampshire. Cannot wait to go!

12of12

[Wednesday, August 12th]

On this day my sister was in town, we finished up our tie dye shirts the kids made the night before, I caught up on some laundry and helped pick up my moms house. We went swimming in the morning so in the afternoon the kids just lounged around the house. Later the kids had a water fight while the adults played games. Yep, we were still selling...

our two week in town vacation: a photo essay

Although school is in full swing and I feel like we're already set in our new fall schedule I've been thinking about just a few weeks ago when our time was all ours. Don't get me wrong we were all ready for the school year to begin (the girls especially), but there is always a bitter sweet feeling of saying good bye to the carefree days of summer.

So today I'm looking back and finally sharing some, ok lots, of photos from when my sister was in town. I'm sorry there's so many, but I couldn't help it.




shopping




water fights


slip and slide


quiet time for little ones


quiet time for big ones


we spent an evening tie dyeing




and the next revealing our designs


Have you ever played the game blockus? I think it's a lot of fun as long as I'm not playing with my siblings. They did a lot of passive aggressive blocking.




celebrated a birthday


painted my toes my favorite color of blue


stuck on the chair lift with a crazy Megan heading up the mountain to ride the alpine slide.


poor Tess struggled to pull her slide along




can you believe I was actually able to take a photos while going?





Jeni on the zip line


apparently I got to ride with Megan on all the rides.


















Amy and I joked that these two are so close in personality that they are frienemies. I figured out though, if they were alone together they were the best of friends.








my family takes miniature golfing way too seriously or I should say my dad and brother do. Too bad for them, I beat them both. My 2 holes in one sure didn't hurt my score.








She was just too cool to go on the kid rides after experiencing the bigger rides so while everyone else got on, she waited.