It Comes to an End

Alas, our summer vacation at grandma's has come to an end.  We are flying home tomorrow afternoon. We seriously would not have been able to pack more into the last 2 1/5 weeks. We've been to a ton of parks and hung out at fun pools.

We went canoeing at the lake.

Played and played and played with all the cousins.

We participated in a Family Olympics and
we had a fiesta!!....

Where the kids got to dress up and dance the Mexican hat dance.

We sang songs at the top of our lungs.

We saw lots of new things... like 3/4 inch hail, a deer, a bear cub on our hiking trail, and piles of snow that we actually made snowballs from.

We also saw a full double rainbow one afternoon. Jack instructed us to drive quick so we could find the pot of gold.

We toured Celestial Seasonings

Most of all we enjoyed hanging out with our family making memories, playing games, laughing, and reminiscing about old times. I sure will miss this place.

Summer vacation At Grandma's

Here we are...

At the airport, awaiting quite possibly the best flight I have ever made alone with four kids. We flew nonstop, which I was a little nervous about.

This kid was a champ!! He enjoyed his own seat and stayed buckled in his chair for at least two thirds of the  flight, entertaining himself with his airplane and his making his crayons fight each other.

The kids enjoyed their free sample of personal TV

I really couldn't be prouder of how well they all behaved, making my day much less stressful than it could have potentially been.

We landed!! We are here playing with our cousins, with uncle Jesse's massive lego collection, playing fetch with the neighbor's dogs, and running through the big back yard full of beautiful flowers.

And of course enjoying meals and treats with all the aunts and uncles.

We are also enjoying the beautiful weather where you can actually sit on the back porch to eat and play outside comfortably in the middle of the day.

We even cooked our own meal and smore's last night

Mer made a cherry pie last night for Grandpa for father's day. Grandma gave her tips as she went and taught her Grandma Lewis's secrets about molding pie crust.

My kids are in heaven, I love being home!

We love Dad!!

Today we celebrated an early Father's Day since we will be away from Doug next week on the official day. Our celebration consisted of banana and strawberry crepes, and a berry smoothie for breakfast. 

Smoothie mustaches included.

 And then of course some token gifts. A grill basket, chocolate, a new can opener, some Hot sauce to try, and current pictures of the kids for his office.

He is grilling himself some steaks for dinner.  He's getting quite good at the grill.

We love you Doug!

 Regrettably, kind of, we'll be leaving him soon.

 In this many days we are flying to Grandma and Grandpa's house for 17 days. Let me just say we are a little excited. Over and out!

Ahhh, Summer!

I love summer!! Lazy days of playing, reading, fighting, and a little bit of home school. We are studying our collection of State Quarters this summer. My newly organized sewing space quickly became home school central.  I'll have to take a picture of our setup. We are already done with 2 weeks of summer, this one is already flying by.

I snapped this shot while driving to the beach.  Ever since we visited Disney the kids pretend the overpasses and causeways are roller coasters. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! Luke is usually the one who remembers to get it started.

We are regulars at the beach these days.

Yes it's messy but we love it.

Ahhh, Summer!

Happy Memorial Day...

I think there are a few more minutes left in the day that I can still say that.  I have stayed up way too late the last few days.  We have had a nice and unscheduled weekend. I ran 6 miles this morning in honor of the Bolder Boulder. I sure do miss running that race. The family spent the day at the Beach with all the other thousands of people. Doug dug an enormous hole and we built a huge sand castle around it. Alas I have no pictures to share. But I do have pictures of another event that happened this weekend. Meredith got her ears pierced on Saturday.  She was nervous but determined and sat through it like a champ. Here she is chewing on her fingers as the lady got everything ready.

She said it hurt but she made it.

She chose little silver balls. These shots are taken with Doug's phone so they are a little blurry.  She has done a very good job at cleaning them 3 times a day.  She is still getting used to feeling them but she loves them and says she thinks she looks so pretty.

And that was our weekend.
I figured out how to make the pictures big!  Love it!

She's 10!!

We have a 10 year old here. Meredith's birthday was today, and what a great girl she has turned into. She started the day opening all her presents before dad went to work.


Clothes, sunglasses like mom's, a desk, new curtains for her room, and a pair of earrings giving permission to get her ears pierced. Chocolate chip waffles with strawberries and whip cream for breakfast.
We prepared and cleaned for her party and then headed out to see Night at the Museum 2 at the summer movies.

Then came home and finished getting ready for her Minute to Win it Party. Here's list of the events we did, or intended to do, we didn't quite get through all of them.
Here's a picture of "Sticky Situation" They had to fish for pretzels with a wet gummy worm and then lift the pretzel into their mouths with out touching it.

The funniest one was Hanky Panky, where each person was required to pull all the tissues out of a tissue box with only one hand. The fastest one to do it won.

Tissues were flying everywhere, and when everyone got done they all had a tissue fight, threw armfuls into the air, and buried each other. Really fun!


Of course Pizza, soda, and fruit were served at Mer's request.

And we made Panda Cupcakes for dessert. We got the idea from Hello, Cupcake! Love that book!!

I am so grateful she has so many great friends. They all participated in our crazy events and got along so well.
To end the night we noticed a package on our front porch, her American Girl arrived! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.
Tonight Mer was gushing with gratitude for all the events of the day, and gifts, and awesome party. I am apparently the "Best Mom in the Whole world" :) Thank you Meredith for being my best helper and sidekick in party throwing. She brings such a fun spirit to our home. We love her so much.

Sweet dreams sweet Mer Mer.

The end of the Last days