Summers End

Well, tomorrow is the last day of summer vacation. We've had an extremely busy summer, without going anywhere far. But we did manage to buy a house, move into it, and fix it up a bit. It still needs a lot of work, but nothing critical at this point.

We spent a lot of time at parks this summer.  We visited the new one with the splash pad a couple of times, but I hate crowds so I didn't take the kids there as much as they wished.  We spent a lot of time at a park with jogging paths, where we discovered Dakota can ride his bike for 5 miles no problem.

We are going to miss playing on the school grounds when school starts.  Dakota was mad when he realized moving meant going to a new school without his friends from Kindergarten.  As soon as we talked to the office staff about transferring, walked around the new school (seeing all 3 playgrounds), and played with a fellow first grader at the end of our street he was excited to attend his new school.

Racing at the family reunion was definitely a favorite summer activity.

We ate a lot of watermelon.  This girl can out-eat just about anybody when it comes to fruit.

It needs a lot of work, but we LOVE our yard.

My aunt was nice enough to let us stay at her cabin for a weekend.  We enjoyed our much needed break.

In my personal opinion, my kids are pretty good hikers for their ages.  I had all kinds of hiking plans for the summer.  Unfortunately, I didn't follow through and we only went on a couple.

As always, we spent a lot of time at the library.  One day we went to return books and find new ones, and discovered free train rides taking place.  So we waited for over an hour and went on a ride that is similar to what we could do at grandma's house (but the library is a LOT closer than grandma's house).  The kids were talking about grandma's cow train when we were waiting in line, and Bridget was disappointed to discover that grandma was not there.

The girls love picking the flowers (AKA weeds) from our grass and putting them in their hair.

We have 9am church, with Sacrament Meeting first.  It is so much easier than afternoon church with Sacrament Meeting last.  Because we feed them before church, we don't take any snacks, and only let them take books and crayons for entertainment.  I don't know about Primary, but Sacrament meetings are so much more reverent now.  After a week or two in our new ward I told Adam that being a new young mom meant they would call me to nursery, and I was right.  (3 wards.  3 kids.  3 nursery callings).  I'm OK with that!  True, it gets out of control sometimes, but nursery is a relatively easy calling.  Adam and I have thoroughly enjoyed having our evenings back.

My baby turned 2!

She loves the book Grandma and Grandpa sent her. 

Bridget's Hello Kitty Ice Cream cake.  One the very few ideas I've come up with on my own (not an internet copy-cat).

Playing at JJ's for Bridget's Birthday.   Dakota did a great job sitting with her on most of the rides, but she kept wiggling out of all the straps.  They had to stop at least one or two rides for her because she wouldn't stay buckled and kept standing up on the rides.

We finally turned Bridget's carseat around, and she loves facing forward.