We opened August at one of my favorite place in the world - Spencer Lake. I have so many fond memories from visiting Teara's family's cabin when I was growing up and spent a couple of summers in high school working at the camp there. Now Teara and Jason have their own place and are gracious to host us each summer so now OUR kids can start making memories there. Love these girls and their families.
The summer of 2013 brought LOTS of scootering and LOTS of time at the skate park. A definite highlight for the boys.
We got more veggies from the garden.
We went to the wedding of a very dear friend (and had some serious fun at the photobooth).
We went school supply shopping (I love this activity each year; as a child I had a slight obsession with office supplies.)
More scootering with our cousins (who have some serious skills!).
Toward the end of the month before school started, we did a summer checklist check off marathon! Starting with Magic Water (waves of fun).
The day after Magic Waters we went camping for a night with my mom. Camping is her jam. And she makes he best camp breakfast ever (think eggs, toast, pancakes and bacon over the campstove). The boys fished in their jammies and I reminisced about the many years I spent as a child at this very campground. I also tried to replicate a picture of my sister and I at the campground around the same ages as the boys, but they, well, you know, weren't very cooperative with my recreation.
The next day we did Coco Key in Rockford. This was definitely Dan and I taking one for the team. The boys LOVE it, but there's really only so much water parking you can take. And on this particular day the pool was cleared at least twice for floating turds.
And the day after that we happened into some Cub's tix, so the checklist check off continued (although we added this one just so we could check it off).
Check, check, check!
Also checking of the list (but not part of the marathon), homemade strawberry ice cream.
And more finishing touches on the steps (thanks, Dad!). They were looking amazing!
We spent a few Sundays this summer with kids from the block at church. This was another highlight for us. They loved coming along and we loved having them. Our after church tradition was lunch at DQ.
The day before school we had one last hurrah at Monkey Island, where Caleb got his 3rd tooth knocked out!
And then, just like that, the best summer was over and it was time to go back to school. We did our annual height marking and took our annual "first day of school" pictures and that was that.
First day of school also meant first day (of his last semester) for this guy. That was VERY exciting.
We celebrated the first day with cinnamon rolls for teacher (and us)!
In August we had our first real grape harvest since planting this vine (and we made jam!).
And we closed August with a birthday celebration for my sister (isn't she pretty? also, we have the same teeth). Dad has started a tradition of taking us shopping on our birthdays which is so much fun (you've set a precedent now, Dad!). We finished up with dinner as a family at Wildfire, one of my faves.
Yay for August!
