Summers around here are serious business. We are on the go and there is so much to get done, so many people to see and so many plans that everyone makes. For us it is really focused family time and doing and seeing as much as we can. My kids started summer break a full week before I did, which was not the plan, but their new school building is being opened and some schedule shifts had to be made. My last day was a Thursday and the flowers were in full beautiful bloom I remember coming home and heading to our yard and just taking in the sweet smells of lilac and iris and thinking how freeing I was feeling. Yes, that is an actual feeling when you are done with a particularly challenging school year.
Camping
That freeing feeling was quickly fleeting as we had a lot on our to do list and camping was an absolute must after our big camper purchase. We spent almost a week with our amazing family and friends in Walden, learning a lot about that new camper and just having some awesome time together.
Wedding
We got home from camping just in time to get to my brothers wedding. Oh, wait, you all only know about my sister. Well, that is because I only biologically have one sibling, but my sister and I were raised with 3 neighbor boys and we consider each other siblings. I mean we lived in the middle of nowhere and ate nearly every meal together and traveled and hung out all the time and I haven’t celebrated anything without them by my side. They are my family.
We dressed up and headed out to the farm for a beautiful celebration of two amazing people. We had a really great time with everyone and of course, I forgot to take any photos of the bride and groom. My sister took some, but I was a chatter box and only snapped a few moments.
Like this one of my daddy and our girl dancing. She was all over that dance floor and she grabbed her papas hand and told him to come dance with her. That girl has him wrapped around her finger and you can just see the love they have for each other here. It was such a cute moment.
Of course, I need to show off my family dollar find! Yup, that dress I am wearing is from the Family Dollar and at this point, I think I love these clothes as much as I love Lauren Conrads clothes and that is saying a lot since 90% of my wardrobe is from her line. I feel like they are stepping up their game and at $12.00 for this dress, I could not pass it up!
Oh That Tooth
The biggest news of the summer was that my son FINALLY lost his tooth that has been dangling by a thread for about a month. Backstory here is that he has lost 7 teeth prior. At tooth 7 he decided he was now scared to pull his teeth out (although he had no problems with teeth 1-6) and we had to have the dentist remove it. $300 later his tiny baby canine was gone, so we were not about to drop another wad of cash on the other canine tooth that was holding on by a thread. The dentist tried to coerce him to let them just gently tug (no drugs, or payment with that) but he flipped out. So when we got home I convinced him to tie some floss on it and pull. It came out and then OUR DOG ATE THE TOOTH! You guys, it was a traumatic week.
CAMP
However, we were able to remedy a bit of that trauma with a week of fun a Spider Monkey for camp. If you are in Colorado, you NEED to check this place out. The camp was amazing and my kids continue to talk about everything they did.
Dance
We also had our little girls season final dance recital. She did pretty well. The previous dancer in me knows that she should practice more, but the mom in me was totally loving watching her do her thing…even if her thing was completely different then what the other girls were doing. It was a hoot. After the show, we went for ice cream and this lady walked right up to her, told her she looked so beautiful and gave her gift card for the ice cream. We have never had that happen and were so thankful! So if you are the lady that gave my daughter that card and you read this, know that we are still so appreciative of that random act of kindness.
Water World
We have continued the summer festivities with our annual trip to Water World. I will be writing more about this next week, but we had a grand ol’ time and and are so glad to have this partnership with them. My husband ad I grew up going to this park, so it is pretty awesome to share that with our own kids and just laugh and take on new rides as a family!
What’s Next?
We are in the 3rd week of summer and there is still about 7 left! We still have so much to go! We have a week in Mexico planned, another camping trip, a trip to Elitches and so much more. Summer is flying by!
How has your summer been?
