Amy Scott's Thoughts

This is the first time we can actually say it’s “back” to school day! Owen went back for year two of preschool this morning. The great part of going to preschool at our church is that Owen is familiar with his classroom. It’s the same one he is in on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays for church. On an average week, Owen will visit the “orange room” Sunday through Thursday. Some days, twice a day! Here’s hoping he doesn’t get bored with it! The first day was a success and Jeremy treated Owen to fries and Hawaiian Punch at McDonald’s to celebrate!

Now let’s go backwards to the last few weeks of our summer. I had greater and grander plans for how summer was going to wrap up. But I’ve been batting a sinus infection for going on three weeks now. The smoke arrived and set in motion what felt like an endless illness. Jeremy kept telling me to go to the doctor and I kept saying that I’ve been sick for so long it must be over soon… but it never happened. I should have gone to the doctor. Lesson learned. Even now I don’t have my energy back, but I’m in less pain and I don’t sound as strange as I did before, so I do think I’m on my way to getting better.

Despite being under the weather, I tried to make the last few weeks of summer fun for the kids. Some of the days we were forced to be inside because of air quality. We worked on our letters, numbers, shapes, colors, memory verses. Owen got Clifford books and a DVD from the library. We don’t check out a lot of things from the library, so Owen is very upset that we eventually have to give them back. We enjoyed some play dates with friends and a birthday party for Cousin Colton! We had a young families BBQ at the church where Owen ran around with friends on the inflatables. We made one last trip down to the Oregon Zoo. Our zoo day turned into quite the adventure because they were filming a movie there that day. It was a wild day and not because of the animals.  We also explored a newly opened indoor play spot in Longview with friends. It was mostly inflatables and climbing toys and was a great place to run off some energy!

After a couple days of go, go, go, we spent most of Labor Day weekend resting. I had to stop and slow down in order to get better. Even though our Labor Day weekend was low key, we still managed to make it exciting for the kids. We decorated the house for fall. Jeremy harvested the first round of mini pumpkins from his garden. We set up our 6 person dome tent in the living for an indoor camp out! I spent part of the night in the tent with the boys and when I woke up in the morning, it felt like the full camping experience. Jeremy joked all we needed was the dewy feeling and it would be spot on. We also got to spend a little time with both sets on grandparents. Overall, a wonderful and quiet-ish long weekend.

And now we are learning our new routine. Summer vacation is over. I was so nervous about how this summer was going to go and it turned out to be way more awesome that I expected. We did so many fun things and had so many adventures! We also have so much good stuff coming up this fall. It makes saying good-bye to summer a bit easier. In each season, God is good. I feel so blessed and so thankful for where we are. I am looking forward to what this next season holds for us!

These boys love to match

Getting ready for back to school

Our giant pumpkin 

Owen’s current obsession 

Happy 2nd Birthday, Colton! 

That blue frosting… 

Playing at church 

Playing at the park 

End of summer trip to the zoo

Train ride at the zoo 

Burning off the energy at The Family Room

Burning off the energy at The Family Room

Cleaning up the pumpkin harvest – round one! We have more that will be ready in a few weeks. 

Tent camping in the living room

Tent camping in the living room

Tent camping in the living room

Tent camping in the living room

Owen went scouting with Jeremy in prep for elk season. 

Back to school questions 

The difference a year makes!  2017 & 2018 first day of school photos. 

Earlier this week Jeremy mentioned that he was offered a ticket to a Seahawks game and he wondered if I would be okay with him attending. I was totally okay with that. Jeremy works hard at his job. He’s also been Super Dad with the boys – taking them a little extra over the last couple weeks so I could work on MOPS & MOMSnext things or because I’ve been sick. He has stepped up and given them awesome experiences of “man time” with their dad. I believe in the value of those father/son moments.

My first thought was Jeremy is awesome, he deserves a night out to do something fun. And then my next thought was… I wish I had fun. Pathetic, right? I love my kids and I love the ways that I get to serve at my church and in my community. Those things are important to me. It dawned on me though that my time away from the kids this month has been work or illness related. I just don’t take time to get away for myself. I gave Jeremy the thumbs up on going to the game and then I mentioned my desire to have a little fun too. He wholeheartedly agreed that I needed to find a way to fill up my tank. He offered to watch the boys on Friday so I would take some time for myself. I felt like I was handed the world and I didn’t quite know what to do with it. I don’t have hobbies that take me outside of the house. I like to read. I like to bake. I like to blog. All these things happen at home and I truly love and appreciate any time I get to be home alone. But occasionally, I want to get out and do something. Friday was my ticket.

Friday morning in the Scott Household

Friday morning I got ready and exited my bedroom to a frantic four year old who needed to snuggle with me. All morning, until nap time. Jeremy had informed the boys that I was leaving for the day and even harder to swallow was the fact that I decided to go spend time with Auntie April without them. The horror!!! I “snuggled” both my boys for about 15 minutes of constant tears. The begging went from “please take me with you” to “please don’t go!” At one point, Jeremy joined into the crying just to make it a trifecta of wailing Scotts. I drove out of the driveway to a tearful sight and just two minutes later Jeremy texted me saying that the moment the boys went into the house, the tears stopped and all was well. Crazy, right? They can turn those emotions on and off so fast!

Enjoying mac & cheese and quality time with my sister!

This week I’ve been really sick with a sinus infection due to the hazardous air in our area. I wasn’t sure I had the energy to do much with my free day, but I wanted to make the most of it. I decided to head down to Longview  – it has more stores than Chehalis and I could meet up with my sister for some one-on-one time. It was great to go to multiple stores and not have to go through the car seat unloading and reloading process. April and I ate lunch without having to strategize on what food was most likely to get eaten and what would be rejected by tiny humans. And I had the ride down and back to think, pray and ponder life. Such a blessing and truly a gift for Jeremy to send me off for the day. Even though the boys acted like they were dying, I knew they were in good hands. 4-5 hours without their mom wasn’t going to end the world.

This was a good reminder for me. Both parents need to do fun things. We both need to invest in things we love and we both need that self-care of doing something fun just for the sake of having fun. I am grateful that I have a husband who enjoys spending time with our kids and doesn’t view taking care of them as a “mom” job. We are a team. Sometimes we do that job together and sometimes we do it apart so the other spouse can work or play.

I was also reminded that if I don’t speak up and share my needs, they won’t easily get met. Jeremy isn’t a mind reader. He doesn’t know when I need a break unless I verbalize it. It’s good to say something before you get burnt out. And while big days out without the kids aren’t the norm for me, I’m also reminded how life giving reading, baking, blogging, and journaling are to me. If I can’t squeeze a day to myself onto the calendar, I need to hit up my go-to hobbies that fill me. Even some thing as small as changing the warmers in my house to a favorite scent can fill me up. I recently changed my warmers to a baked apple pie scent and my house smells like the upcoming fall season and that makes me happy. Jeremy is growing an absurd amount of little pumpkins in his garden and come September, I plan on putting little pumpkins everywhere. This makes me happy.

It seemed appropriate to put Target in the background of our picture together!

There so many things that fill up and bring me joy. I need to be intentional about keeping them scattered through out my days. Life can’t be all work and productivity because for me that leads to illness. I end up on a cycle on full speed productivity and then completely laid out while I recover. There needs to be a middle ground where I can slow down. I’ve found that balance is an elusive thing. Maybe you can relate? Some months certain commitments take more time and effort and then they are replaced by a different commitment or season. It’s hard to get just the right balance of work, play, family, friends, serving, community and quiet. Certain things will demand more time at different times. It doesn’t all break down evenly. And that’s okay. After a super busy season, you need to slow down and invest in yourself. You can’t put that off forever. And as much as I don’t want summer to end because I know a lot responsibility is coming in the fall, I can’t live in summer mode forever. The calendar ebbs and flows and I don’t want to fight the tide. I want to embrace each day and each moment with the mindfulness that I can’t give what I don’t have. I can’t love my family, friends, and community unless I’m able to spend time with Jesus and as an introvert – spend time alone. I need to do the things I love throughout the week and month so I am able to share a joyful and peaceful spirit with those who come in contact with me.

I know this is a lesson we all know. I’ve known it for years. But I’m still practicing it. I still need reminders. I don’t live it out perfectly. Thankfully, each day is a new chance and a new opportunity. I might never get it right, but I get a lifetime to try and for that I am grateful.

We are now at the two week mark until school starts and we’ve been making the days count. Filling them with so much summertime goodness while we still can. I can’t make up my mind if I am excited for fall to come. It is my favorite season – full of my favorite things, but this summer has been pretty awesome. We’ve done so much to have fun and enjoy the free time we’ve been given. I love routine and structure and yet at the same time, I’m not sure I’m ready to go back to the real world. Well, ready or not, here it comes. I plan on making these last few weeks of summer as much fun as I possibly can!

I mentioned in my last post that we had an jammed pack week ahead of us and we did… but of course, true to life, the week didn’t pan out quite like I had hoped. On Monday, I noticed my throat felt funny, but it wasn’t too bad. Then I went out for my evening walk and it was super smokey and hazy, but I thought nothing of it. By the time I went to bed that night, my throat hurt insanely bad. Jeremy told me it was probably due to the air quality and joked that I was “sensitive”. However, he looked it up and noted that the air quality was hazardous to all people, not just sensitive ones. The air quality on Tuesday was super bad, but I had a commitment to be at the farmer’s market that day, so that meant outside time as well. Tuesday night we went to bed with the fan in the window and I almost took it out because I could hardly breathe the air coming in. Here is the fun part, I woke up on Wednesday morning with the room spinning. Side effects of toxic air are sinus issues, sore throat, headaches… yep… So I was literally laid out by the air this week.  On Wednesday, I was supposed to take the kids up to Olympia to the kid’s museum. We had cousins coming over that afternoon to spend the night. This was not a good time for the room to spin. I was able to rest and medicate and Jeremy was a super hero who jumped in and took the boys to the museum.  The air cleared up on Thursday and we were able to enjoy our cousins sleepover and spend time outside! After one set of cousins went to stay with Nana & Papa, we drove down to see the other set of cousins and watch my nephew, Keegan, play his last soccer game.

At the beginning of the summer, I made a list of all places I wanted to take the boys. NW Trek was on the list and when we heard that Nana & Papa planned to go on Friday, we jumped on board and joined them. It was a fun day watching the kids run, play and explore. My husband loves the tram ride they offer. He loves searching for animals even more than the kids do.  Saturday was a day around the house for projects – Jeremy worked on touching up the paint on the outside of the house, the boys helped Grandpa wash his car and I cleaned the inside of the house. I love days at home where we can be productive, but we also get to work at own pace with no stress or rush. This is the bliss of a sunny, summer Saturday. Sunday, we got to check off another summer bucket list item  by going to the SWW Fair. Owen was tall enough to do all the rides he wanted except the Ferris Wheel. Graham could only on the carousel, so he did that twice before we went off to play games with the rest of our tickets. Graham especially loved the animals. We enjoyed our favorite fair food treats which for the boys is mini-donuts and for me is an elephant year.

Now to decide how the last two week of summer will look… I have some ideas. For a low-key outing, we’re going to Burger King to have lunch with friends today. The air has become smokey again, so I’m trying to find fun things to do inside. The poor air quality adds a challenge to our activities, but I think we’re up for it. I’ll let you know how it goes soon.

Unloading MOPS & MOMSnext supplies at the church. We ride in style!

Bringing Daddy a coffee

Testing our crafts out at the farmer’s market. Our MOPS & MOMSnext group sponsored a craft at the Kid’s Club.

Making a pie with the berries we picked. The boys are saying “pie” in this picture.

Four ducks in a row!

Double the fun on Thursday with the cousins!

Checking out cousin Keegan’s soccer game

Cheering for Keegan

Moose at NW Trek

Bison

NW Trek

River Otter Love

Tram Ride at NW Trek

Tram Ride at NW Trek

NW Trek

Munching on mini donuts! Their favorite fair food! 

Carnival games are perfect for kids who are too short to ride the rides. 

Don’t let the tense smile fool you, Owen was so excited for his ride on the wacky worm! 

The only ride Graham could go on! At least he got to go on it twice and had a great time! 

August arrived and with it came the realization that things needed to get done before September knocks on our door. It’s been such a fun summer playing with my kids that it’s has been a bit hard to pull myself out of party mode and become a serious adult again with responsibilities. We still have some summer fun up our sleeves before the end of August and that is helping me cope with the countdown to September.

The main thing that kicked into full speed has been MOPS & MOMSnext prep. We just had our leadership planning retreat at my house this weekend. It was a such an honor to welcome these fantastic leaders into my home and spend Friday night and Saturday morning dreaming with them about the upcoming MOPS & MOMSnext school year. I had fun making the “Find Your Fire” theme come to life in the decor for the weekend. Along with prepping for our weekend of planning, we had an outing at the spray park today (more on that later) and tomorrow we will be sponsoring the kid’s club at our local farmer’s market. We have less than a month until our first meeting so the clock is ticking. After the spray park today, I took off for Hobby Lobby to finish up our door prize shopping. Every day I’m checking items off the to-do list and turning it into a to-done list.

The other responsibility that needs some prepping is back to school shopping for Owen. Luckily, we aren’t at the school supply list stage yet, but he is wearing all the same clothes he went to preschool in last fall. And he has probably grown 4 inches since then. While I was hosting our leadership retreat this weekend, Jeremy took the boys out Friday night to do back to school shopping. My friends all joked about trusting Jeremy with this sacred task. He did pretty well with the exception of a clearance Snoopy 4th of July shirt. Not exactly what I had in mind for back to school clothes. The cutest surprise on Friday was my little boys walking in dressed up as a firemen. Jeremy had made an executive call and got their Halloween costumes early. Last year we went back and forth so much on what the boys should be. He wanted to avoid that this year. More power to him. Plus, the boys are just starting to get into dress up, so I’m hoping we can add to their costume collection soon. What better time then right around Halloween? Lots of costume choices out there.

Moving on to my funny spray park story… Jeremy had promised to drive back up to camp today to make sure the next team was prepped for their week of camp. As a long time director and having already finished with a week of camp this summer, he was happy to lend a hand. The boys really wanted to see the camp where Daddy stayed for a week, so Jeremy invited them along for the adventure. Originally, I was going to join them for this outing up north, but later Jeremy suggested I stay home and use the quiet the time to do whatever I wanted… Whatever I wanted looks like MOPS & MOMSnext emailing, Usborne book party prep, cleaning the house, lots of laundry, organizing MOPS & MOMSnext stuff to take to the church, going shopping in Olympia and coming home to do online shopping… oh and going to the spray park for an MOPS & MOMSnext outing without my kiddos in tow! As silly has it sounds, I thought it might be fun to hang out with the moms and not have the pressure of watching my own kids. The only downside was I stayed for about 15 minutes at the park because no one was there. A couple friends had told me they couldn’t make it today and another friend said she ended up showing up late. No big deal. Summer play dates can be hit or miss and for some reason the spray park never has a strong showing… put that in the notes for next year… Anyway, I could have skipped the outing, but my “I’m the leader, I need to be at everything” training just wouldn’t let me leave it be. Plus, sitting in the sun for 15 minutes before going to Hobby Lobby wasn’t going to kill me. I got my Vitamin D for the day.

The week ahead is full of adventure. It’s really the last jammed packed week I have for this summer. But you’ll just have to hear about that in my next post. See you in a week!

Donuts with the grandparents

Summer Bliss

Lots to do

Breakfast out with Dad

Hanging with my boys 

Last day of swim lessons = fun day = jump off the diving board day

Another session completed! 

When the theme is Find Your Fire, you play YouTube videos of a campfire to set the mood! 

The MOPS & MOMSnext team that I am honored to serve alongside! 

My little fireman! 

Doesn’t get much cuter! 

Blackberry picking for the summer family challenge

Cute Pumpkins! 

When you’re walking through certain seasons of life, things can stick and create very poignant memories of that period in time. This week I was reminded of one of those seasons by a Daniel Tiger song. Flashback to August 2016, Graham was still an infant & Owen was two. We had a DVD of Daniel Tiger episodes and we often watched the episode where ducky has to go to the farm. This makes Daniel sad and the song for the episode goes “It’s okay to be sad sometimes. Little by little you’ll feel better again.” I heard this song over and over again and in a way in become my mantra, something I sang to myself. We were selling our first home and packing up all our belongings. And then the sale of the house fell through (for the first time). My husband was under a lot of stress and it was having a negative impact on his health. While we were on the cusp of a great adventure in building our home, this month of August was uncertain and scary. I was excited for the prospect of building our dream house, but I was packing up my belongings to send to storage for what ended up being almost a year and a half. I was leaving the home we brought out babies home to from the hospital. I was a mom of two young boys just trying to sleep through the night and process a lot of big life stuff at the same time. I was sad. The sad song was something that I related to and it didn’t help that I heard it over and over again thanks to our love of Daniel Tiger.

Why am I sharing all of this? Graham pulled out that DVD this weekend and wanted to watch the ducky episode. As I heard the song, I thought about how far we’ve come since that song was constantly stuck in my head. And the truth is little by little, I do feel better about where we are now. Working through habits to handle stress better, building a house, living in transition – those weren’t easy situations. They were, however, good and worth it in the long run. When we moved into our new house, the first song we played as we moved in was “Grateful” by Elevation Worship. I was so thankful! Even now, I’m still basking in the joy of being home, being settled and being in a new season as a family. This summer especially has felt like a gift. So much fun has been had, so many sweet memories have been made.  As I listened to the sad song this week, I remembered how real those feelings were at the time and how little by little we walked through the hard stuff into a season of joy. I know that the song “Grateful” will always hold a special place in my heart as our moving day song. Memories have stuck to these melodies and it’s amazing how hearing a familiar tune can take you back to another time and place. All I know is that God is good no matter what we’re walking through and Daniel Tiger is was right – little by little you’ll feel better again!

Every year my husband directs a week of camp for our network. It’s the same camp that our Bethel Kids attend, so he gets the two hats of director and children’s pastor to wear. Every summer I pretend like this week isn’t coming and then it happens and we survive and life goes on. My main strategy for surviving a week without Jeremy is to pack the week full of fun things. Every day is an adventure. It makes the days fly by quickly. And helps the boys to sleep hard at night! This year we’ve been burning the candle at both ends with morning play and evening swim lessons.

I want to give a huge shout out to my people, my tribe, the village that is helping me raise these wild boys. Each day I’ve had an adventure with a family member or a MOPS & MOMSnext friend. I had help from both sets of grandparents for swim lessons. While I was “single momming” it this week, I was not alone. I had my people with me and it made all the difference! And truth be told, Jeremy had to come home on Tuesday to sign some papers, so we got 15 surprise hours with Daddy around (half of those hours were spent sleeping, but I sleep so much better when he is home, so I’ll take any unexpected time I can get). I am thankful, grateful and blessed by the people I get to do life with. I couldn’t imagine a week on my own with the community we have here.

So here is how we survived the week of kids camp:

• Monday: Multnomah Falls & IKEA with Auntie April & Grandma
• Tuesday: Park play date with friends & an unexpected visit from Jeremy
• Wednesday: Dollar summer movie & children’s museum with friends
• Thursday: Play Date at our house with friends & a quick visit from Auntie April
• Friday: Lattin’s Cider Mill with Grandma

Now we are counting down the hours, minutes, seconds until Jeremy is back home with us. We sure do love and miss that man he is not around. I’m grateful for technology that lets us video chat and for text messages through out the day or a phone call right before bed. While he is away, we still can connect! What a blessing!

Stopped by the library to turn in our summer reading program and pick up our free goodies!

Visiting Chehalis Fest

Chehalis Fest 

Cleaning up for a summer wedding

Our little family!

Multnomah Falls

Sharing dessert at IKEA

Graham’s first swimming lesson. He likes the water about as much as we expected… so not a lot, but he is making it.

Swimmer dudes!

Graham’s first movie in the theater!

Children’s museum in the mall with friends.

I surprised Owen and let him have a sleepover in my room last night. He was so happy! 

Our last scheduled outing! Playing around Lattin’s Cider Mill & eating doughnuts. 

I wasn’t paying attention at the beginning of the summer to how many weeks were before us. Now that we have crossed the halfway mark and there are only five weeks left to summer, it’s starting to feel like time is picking up speed. I know five weeks will disappear in the blink of an eye. I want to be intentional with how we spend them.  Things been so wonderful so far. I want to keep that momentum going!

July has felt very out of routine. The first week had the holiday in the middle of it.  The second week was VBA and the last two weeks have been swim lessons. Swim lessons have been a fantastic opportunity for Owen. Because we got the earliest class, I would take Owen or Owen & Graham to swim lessons and then we would race off to your next morning commitment. We’ve had 3 play dates this week all happening right after swim lessons. It’s been a busy pace, but worth all the fun! And because Owen did so well and enjoyed swim lessons so much, we are adding another session to our summer for the next two weeks. It mix things up we are shooting for the evening sessions. And if all goes as planned, Graham will be signed up for the guided discovery class where he and an adult (me the first week, Jeremy the second week) will be in the pool getting used to the water. Graham is way more timid about water, so I think this will be a good chance for him to get his feet wet (pun intended).

This week we had a play date at a local creek, we had my MOPS & MOMSnext group over for a s’mores night, we had out of state friends over to see the house and a play date with the cousins! So much good stuff! And if that week didn’t sound exciting enough, you should hear about our weekend before that.

Friday we did our final Day Out with Thomas. We took Owen when he was two and he loved it. Now it was Graham’s turn to be delighted by a ride on Thomas (even though he was a part of the last ride, but he wasn’t even a year old, so of course, he has no memory of it). Owen loves trains and he had a good time, but this trip really was right up Graham’s alley! Graham even got to pick lunch at Panda Express which is a favorite of his that we haven’t gotten to recently. Owen has decided that he isn’t as into Panda now, so we’ve gone less. The last few weeks have been good for Graham. While Owen is busy in the mornings, Graham has been having one-on-one outings and adventures. Jeremy even took Graham to run an errand with him recently and apparently Graham just chattered away soaking up the time to be the only kid. It reminds us how important is for both kids to get time to be independent of each other.  But back to Thomas, it was a hit! Super fun and a great memory. We made it home in time to attend a wedding at the church. I’m always nervous about taking kids to a wedding, but the boys did better than expected. Saturday we did a major shopping day. Jeremy needed clothes for kids camp, we needed to come up with outfits for upcoming family pictures and we needed all the pantry items imaginable. We joked that Walmart and Costco had to close after we left. We bought all the things. After so much running around, the boys and I stayed home on Sunday to watch a bulldozer work on my parent’s property. I felt bad about missing church, but the kids were fascinated by the bulldozer and I was just grateful to not have to leave the house after so much activity. I needed that down day before heading into this week.

I often share with you what Owen is up to because he is the big kid that gets to go out and do the more impressive activities, so I wanted to share with you a bit about Graham before I wrap things up. Graham “loves” things these days. He is often sharing what he loves with us. He loves hotels, he loves his friends, he loves food. Lots of a love coming from Graham. He got to be a delivery boy with Grandma earlier this week. He brought flowers to Nana at work and helped deliver a cake to be served at our local mission’s lunch program.  In the last month, he has mastered his balance bike and zips around like a pro now. He is still my silly kid. At nap time I have check on him multiple times because he is having such a party with his stuffy buddies. We’ve also had the realization in the last month that Graham snores. We knew he did when slept in the van, but after our time at the beach we realized he snores all the time. At one point on our beach trip, Owen said he couldn’t sleep because Graham was snoring too loud!

Okay! That’s the update for now! We have just a few days left in the month and our plans include checking a few more things off of our summer family challenge and some family time before sending Jeremy off to kid’s camp for the week. He leaves on Sunday. This is the one week of summer I try to forget that it is coming. Just block it out!!! My way of coping with Jeremy’s absence is to fill the days so they go fast.  And now with the addition of another round of swim lessons, I can say without a doubt that our days will be packed full! Plans every morning, plans every evening. Stayed tuned!

Our new fire pit! We love it!

When you have family working on the railroad near you then you must stop by and say hi. My railroad fans loved the quick visit.

Don’t let the tense smile worry you, all Scotts had a great time at our Day Out with Thomas!

Day Out with Thomas

Day Out with Thomas

Graham is full of personality!

Blanket Fort

Blanket Fort

Blanket Fort

When your a boy mom, you spend the whole morning watching a bulldozer flatten piles of dirt….

Creek play date on a hot day. Perfect place to be!

Childhood at its finest!

MOPS & MOMSnext S’mores Night

My heart is so full to have a backyard filled with fun, friends and food!

A visit with Tennessee friends

Today was fun day at swimming lessons, so Owen got to play in the little kid splash section and then his class went into the deep end and he got to jump off the diving board!

Owen has been all smiles in the pool this week, so it’s perfect that he has all smiles on the swim skills he accomplished! Level 1 here we come! 

The sign of a really good play date… or a natural disaster! 

I was talking with a friend last week about how after moving into our house, I’ve been keeping my eyes out of the “next” big thing. I have my usual things – like MOPS & MOMSnext, my UBAM book business, church, kids, family… So far nothing “new” has come up. And truthfully, while it feels odd to not have a big thing hanging over me, it’s been a nice respite from the pace and the stress that our last few seasons of life have brought. Right now my main goal is just to make this summer the best summer possible for my kids. It doesn’t seem like anything to put on a resume and that’s okay. Making summer great for my boys has been such a joy to me. I’ve been seeing posts on Facebook about how we only 18 summers with each kids. So with Graham at the age he is now, that means I have 16 left total. And this one, this one is going to be one for the record books. Part of that is my boys being old enough to experience and appreciate more activities. It’s also because I made a to-do list before I decided to the summer family challenge, so with the addition of the summer family challenge, I’ve been able to be goal-driven (right in my element there) and all the to-do lists items are fun, so what’s not to love? Each week we have new adventures. Summer is half way over and if the the second half is as awesome as the first then are in for a treat and the best summer ever!

Some of our recent outings include bowling for the first time as a family. The boys loved bowling. We might have a new family favorite activity. Owen would go bowling every day if we let him. We celebrated another family birthday – we’ve had lots of those over the last month and a half. I love having the cousins all together to celebrate and play. Such good memories! And our current adventure is daily swim lessons this week and next week for Owen. He is having a blast and he is all smiles in the pool!

Owen graduated to a big boy bike with training wheels! 

My kitchen helper

Graham had to sit out a round of bowling once the fries arrived! He couldn’t be parted with them. 

Trying to get a family picture, but Graham wasn’t feeling it.

WOW! Bowling is fun! 

Gotta line up the shot! 

This little stinker wouldn’t stay in his class, so he joined me in children’s church… where he brought me a basket full of baby dolls. Not sure what to make of that! 

Splash Park Birthday Party

A super hot day calls for a chair in the shade 

Pink frosting to celebrate the ballerina of the family! 

Swimming Lessons Day 1 

Swimming Lessons Day 1 

Daddy even came to watch the first lesson and hang with Graham! 

Swimming Lessons Day 1 

Excited for Day 2 

This time Grandma came to watch and play with Graham! 

Super jazzed the teacher let him slide down the turtle!

The beginning of July is full of lots of celebrating for our family. We have the Independence Day holiday, my dad’s birthday and Jeremy & I’s anniversary all in the span of a few days. And on top of that, we celebrated my Grandma’s birthday in the middle of that as well (even though her birthday was at the end of June). It made the week one giant party.

We celebrated my dad’s birthday over the course of two days. We had my immediate family all together on the 4th so celebrated with everyone then. We also couldn’t ignore Grandpa on his real birthday, so we celebrated a bit that day too. Owen loves blowing out the candles on birthday desserts, so two celebrations meant double the candles. For the 4th, we dressed the boys in matching Old Navy red shirts and let them buy a small amount of fireworks. We aren’t really into the concept of blowing up our money, so our display was small, but the kids enjoyed it. Of course, we had sparklers and pop-its as well.

We brainstormed lots of different options for celebrating our anniversary, but truthfully, with a July wedding date, our anniversary is always right around a major church event, so our minds are busy in other places. Also, our anniversary was on a Sunday, so church takes a up a good chunk of that day. We decided on a movie and dinner locally on Friday. Jeremy loves the Marvel superheros and he mourned the fact that he hadn’t seen the newest Avengers movie yet, so that made the choice somewhat easy (I’m not too into the dinosaur option… I’ll leave that for DVD). We went to the Olympic Club in Centralia where they have couches and chairs instead of traditional movie theater seats. This was my first time visiting and while I enjoyed the experience and the movie, I’m just a smidge too short for the seating there. I need that sloped set-up a regular theater provides. Short person problems. Because building the house took up so much of our free time over the last year, our “dates” have been few and far between. Even though it wasn’t a fancy way to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary, it was nice to do something on our own without the kids. We laughed and talked at regular volume and enjoyed a meal where we didn’t have to share what was on our plates. I’m so blessed to have Jeremy by my side through all the ups and downs of life! He’s the best!

Saturday was a fun day spent at Mt. Rainier. My grandma loves the mountain and it was her choice for a family gathering to celebrate her 85th birthday. The boys enjoyed riding their bikes around the picnic area and hiking down to the rushing river to throw rocks in it. We had lots of a good food and good conversation. We ended our time with a drive up to Paradise to explore the visitor center and find snow. My sister and brother-in-law where able to make it to this gathering. It’s a special and rare treat to see them twice in one week. Like a said, it was a week of endless partying!

Now we’re into VBA week! This is Owen’s first VBA and he is loving it. Jeremy and his team are creating an awesome environment for kids to have fun and learn about God’s love. Graham and I are getting to be one-on-one buddies again just like the school year. As much as I was worried about Owen being home all summer, I have quickly adapted to having him around all the time. I miss him while he is away, but I know he is having a blast so it’s all good. Graham wishes he could to VBA as well, but he is too young. I’m doing my best to make sure he has a good time while brother is away. Yesterday, Graham and I went to a MOPS & MOMSnext play date in the park and today I spent part of the morning building him a giant train set in the living room. He is having a good time despite feeling left behind. His VBA days are just around the corner.

Here are some picture highlights from our party week!

Gotta keep the littles busy –  painting bird houses. 

Happy 4th of July! I don’t own any red, by the way… 

Aren’t they just the cutest?

Celebrating Grandpa! 

Movie date with my hubby! Happy 12 years! 

Hanging at the mountain with the birthday girl

We found the river

This kid! So cute, so cuddly. 

I think he wishes his mouth was bigger 

Enjoying some family time

MOPS & MOMSnext Park Play Date 

My Trackmaster creation! I am an engineer! I also can follow directions.