We've been back to school for a week-and-a-half now, but I still have some summer photos to share.
After being home from Wyoming for a few days, the kids and I headed up to Wisconsin so that Bella and I could attend my cousin's baby sprinkle. The first evening we were there, we had a cookout at my parents' house. Later on, we busted out the slip n' slide!
I'm not exactly certain what Graydon's technique was, but he was super fast and went really far.
When we stay with my parents' we go out for breakfast a lot. One morning, Bella decided to leave a little note on our table.
After breakfast, we took a little walk along the lake. Bella took some pictures.
She played around with the filters on my phone.
Sunday was baby sprinkle day! Here is mommy and big sister!
Cousins playing at the sprinkle.
While we were gone, Andy did some shopping. Our local JCPenney is closing down and they had huge sales going on. He bought a bunch of pants, dress shirts, and ties and ended up saving over $600!
Lunch with cousins at Culvers!
We spent the afternoon at the Rec Plex swimming (no pics from that). After that was a Subway dinner at Jodi and Aaron's. I ended up at the kids table! Dad joined me. :)
We went back to the Rec Plex in the evening to go ice skating. My hair was still slightly wet from swimming and I was freezing! But we had fun.
Graydon took a tumble and ended up with a bloody lip. It was early on during our time and he didn't want to skate anymore. But thankfully he came back out.
On Tuesday morning, I went with my mom to her water exercising class. Later that day, we all went to the Racine Zoo! The kids loved getting so close to the birds.
Bella doing her best lion impersonation!
I *think* they were looking at a rhino here.
Dinner that evening - Curtis ordered a Root Beer and was excited that it came in a special glass.
Graydon has wanted to learn to knit. I've learned a few times, but didn't keep up with it and have forgotten. I've tried to teach him to crochet, but that can be tricky. On this trip, my mom was able to teach him to knit!
The day after we got back home from Wisconsin, Bella got her braces put back on. Her previous round of braces did end up making room for one of her eye teeth, but not the other.
She got six brackets this time instead of just four. Thankfully, she had a pretty good attitude about getting them on again. "I'm ready for a change." she said. :)
Mabel loves peanut butter for a treat. I couldn't scrape any more out of the container, so I just gave it to her to lick what she could. Amazingly, she was able to get about 3/4 of it!
During our road trip out to Wyoming, Graydon wanted to solve a rubix cube. I tried to help him (via Google and You Tube) and ended up wanting to do it myself. I wasn't able to solve it during our trip, but finally got it a couple of weeks after we got back. I've already forgotten the algorithms, so I probably won't be able to do it again. But at least I can say that I did it!
Mable loves to lay on our bed while I'm reading on the glider in our bedroom.
On July 24th, Andy, Bella and Graydon went off for a week at church camp! This was Graydon's first year.
This was the crew attending from our church.
Curtis was feeling a little sad that he couldn't go. (He'll get his turn next summer). I declared it "Curtis and Mommy" week and we had some fun times together. Our first adventure was riding bikes to the park.
And we played Battleship (he won).
Dinner at Chick-Fil-A followed by some time in the play area and a peach shake.
He colored this picture from his kids' meal bag when we got back home.
And he completed the craft that came inside.
We also played Life. He beat me in that one too. I wasn't even letting him win!
Meanwhile, here are some from the crew at camp. . .
Graydon sustained a few minor injuries throughout the week. This one was a tennis ball to the eye.
They received the mail I sent them on the last day of camp.
Back to Curtis. . . he finished a Lego kit he was working on.
We rode bikes to get ice cream and shared this. It was our dinner that night.
We spent some more time at the park after that.
Later at home, he made some freshly squeezed watermelon juice!
Before the school year had even come to a close, this was the image in my mind of summer vacation. Sitting outside with a cold drink while doing some leisure reading. This is relaxation to me.
Curtis discovered Puss in Boots on Netflix. On the morning that Andy and the kids arrived back from camp, he wanted to dress up as Puss. He grabbed a cowboy hat from our dress-up bin and even found a feather to stick in it. And he also wanted help finding his boots. Here is our Puss in Boots!
I loved having this special one-on-one time with Curtis.
We were also happy to get our campers back home!
Bella, on the other hand, wasn't too happy. She was actually in tears for the first few hours of being home. She loves camp and had such a fun time and was sad to say goodbye to her camp friends. Plus, school was starting in a couple of days so she felt sad that summer was coming to an end. Of course, this is also the girl who cried on the last day of school because she was sad that she wouldn't see her teacher and all of her friends every day over the summer. We've discovered that the ending of things are just emotional for her.
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In other news, living in the land of farms and gardens sure has its perks. We get visited by the tomato fairy on Saturday afternoons.
We decided to make a fire one evening. Salty joined us.
Graydon really enjoyed the hotdogs they ate at church camp. He ate three in one sitting! We bought that brand and cooked them over the fire.
And of course, we made s'mores!
Andy's parents stayed with us for a few days on the way down and the way back from a trip to North Carolina. The kids enjoyed a game of Headbands with Gaga.
Curtis wishes he could keep his creations forever, but since we can't, photos of them are the next best thing. These are different "guys" that he made.
As always, it's hard to say goodbye to summer vacation. This summer was filled with so many awesome memories and experiences. But, it's time to go back to school!
