August Little Things

We kicked off August with Junior Lifeguards.

This time, the little brothers joined the daycamp lineup.

The camp is a vigorous mix of ocean safety and swimming skills. The rotations switch each day and they find out immediately when they arrive each morning if the dreaded "swim-run-swim" is on the schedule.

On one of the days the older boys were at camp, Crew and Finn went to a Dr. Suess camp put on by some neighbor girls. They made "Cat in the Hat" kabobs.

We had a street ice cream social one summer evening. I love that we do these gatherings.

I don't think the kids mind either.

Finn had his fair share of battling with asthma and fevers, per usual. 

Nash decided the cliff on the beach would be a good place for rock climbing.

When he fell a few minutes later and scraped up his wrist, he second guessed that idea. The lifeguard wrapped him all up in bandages.

Nash drew quite the crowd with the lifeguard intervention. Our friends that were at the beach with us captured the excitement.

Nash wasn't down for long, it was too beautiful of a day to waste.

Maybe I'm biased, but the Laguna Beach coves have to be some the prettiest places in the world.

We ended our summer series of weekly ward beach day with one last trip to Riviera Beach.

All of the four and five year old boys played follow the leader with Blake and his friend.

This went on for hours and was quite entertaining for both the participants and the observers.

We cranked out the last of our summer bucket list items before school started. We made it over to a club pool we've been wanting to try out with inflatable water slides.

One of Blake's friends set up an inflatable slide in his front yard for a day and that was also a hit.

I love finding notes like this on the piano.

Crew wrapped up his weekly summer soccer camp.

He also thought it would be funny to wear every hat we own.

One night, Nash and I ended up on a date, shopping for school supplies. We couldn't resist getting Finn a monster lunch box with zip up teeth.

Then it was off to school. Blake and his best friend Talon ended up in the same class which they were pumped about.

Crew met up with lots of his friends from church on the first day of kindergarten.

Finn was over the moon excited to start his first year of preschool. 

With all four boys overlapping at school for a few hours, two days a week, I took advantage. My alone time mostly consisted of errands and work, but occasionally, I fit in a workout or brunch on the beach to celebrate a birthday.

We had a full summer with lots of togetherness and memories made, but I have to say, it felt amazing after more than a decade of having little ones at home to be the kind of person who could say "yes" to brunch on a Tuesday morning.

Snow Cones and Raining Lava

Before leaving Vegas, Crew and Finn were happy to try out our friends' new snow cone machine.

We sent them in the backyard with their flavored ice to prevent a sticky mess in the house. The funniest conversations took place between the two of them, as well as new, morbid lyrics to the tune of "It's  Raining Tacos."

June Little Things

The phone camera was a great invention. Sure, the pictures aren't always top notch, but that handy device in my back pocket happens to be there to grab more often than my real camera. It captures so many little things that I want to remember.

June started out with a few swim meets for Blake.

Crew could often be found at our neighbor's house sliding down their railings.

We met up with cousins at Adventure Playground and built giant block structures.

We always love Sunday evenings at Salt Creek, playing corn hole with friends.

Blake and Nash spent their annual week at scout camp.

It was Blake's last year which meant he got to do some more advanced activities like "river raft" in a makeshift river.

I volunteered two of the days, which meant Crew and Finn got to tag along and go to sibling camp. Their favorite part was joining us at lunch time and plopping themselves in the center of all those older boys, where they were given nicknames and lots of attention.

The carpool rides to and from camp were filled with obnoxious Parry Gripp music on repeat. Gotta love 10 year old boys.

I was happy to get away for a girls' weekend after a long week of early mornings, packed lunches and daily scout camp laundry. We celebrated my friend Megan's 30th birthday in San Diego.

We hit Coronado Beach during full June gloom. There was no dipping our toes in the ocean, but we bundled up and enjoyed the view.

Our first month of summer in 10 years without an afternoon napper was a success. We could leave the house mid-morning, or even afternoon, and not have to worry about getting home for nap time. That is some life-changing freedom!