Keeping Up With...Family (Summer Week 8 - July 18 thru July 24)

We finally snapped out of our vacation hangover on Saturday with a morning at swim lessons and an afternoon at a birthday party.  Our friend other Daniel had his 6th birthday party at the fountains downtown.  The boys had a blast running around in the water and playing with bubbles on this incredibly hot day.  We also enjoyed cake and watermelon.

Sunday was a productive day at home trying to finish up some stuff around the house...including unpacking from our camping trip.  Then we headed over to my brother's house for dinner and a little planning session about our upcoming 10 days of company.  It's nice that the kids are getting a little older and can pretty much go play on their own while we chill out and catch up.

Monday kicked off a week of play dates.  Daniel's friend from his kindergarten class had been asking for a play date and our schedules finally lined up on Monday.  The boys enjoyed playing with toys, in the pool and on our swing set.  The moms enjoyed time sunning themselves and chatting on the deck.  Monday also marked our first day as a non-cable family.  We cut the cord from traditional cable and now only have antennae over air channels and internet streaming.

Tuesday we had the boys' friends Nathan and Alex over to play.  The boys mostly stayed in the yard and played with the toys out there and in the pool.  They got out almost every outdoor toy we own, which was a blessing because with all the rain we had our outside toy box had some water and a few of the toys had grown mold.  Adrian and I emptied it out, cleaned it up and threw out a bunch of toys.

Wednesday AJ, Daniel and Adrian had dentist appointments.  AJ and Adrian looked great but Daniel has two cavities.  We go back in a few weeks to get those taken care of.  Zak and I aren't due for our cleanings yet, but he did have a fun time playing in the dentist's office.

Thursday we continued with our play dates and we met up with friends at the Easton Splash pads.  I took the boys to Barnes and Noble first to get their free books from the summer reading program.  Then we headed outside where the boys played a super hero game they invented about the water league.  After they played for a while, we brought them inside for some Graeter's ice cream.

Friday we headed to Zoombeezi Bay for an evening trip.  I got there with the boys around 3:30pm and Adrian met us after work.  We stayed and played until around 8:00pm.  It was nice because it wasn't super hot and it emptied out around dinner time.  We spent most of our time at the tipping bucket, where we ran into one of Daniel's friends from preschool.  We also went to the lazy river, wave pool and Daniel and I did one ride down the big blue slide that he likes.  We even got to meet an actual pirate on our way out!  Fun but exhausting night!

It felt nice to be back to doing things with friends and enjoying our summer.  Vacation is such a weird thing.  It's super fun to be there, but it's a lot of work before and after you go!