Summer Fun

I'm not sure why I'm writing this now, because I don't feel like blogging. But I'm not sure when I'll feel like blogging again, and I want to at least start to try to get some of our summer documented. It's been a busy couple of months. We started the summer tied mercilessly to Isaac's all-star baseball team's schedule. He had practices or games 5-6 days a week. Baseball overload. He enjoyed it though.
We also celebrated Thomas' 5th birthday with a Mad Scientist party. It was great! They made goop, Elephant's toothpaste, lava lamps, and other stuff I can't quite remember. The kids were completely engrossed in all of the experiments. I was amazed at how attentive they were.

I love this picture of Thomas. He really seemed to enjoy the party. He's such a funny kid, but I'm not really sure how else to describe him. He is his own man. Tonight I asked him to conduct the song I am a Child of God during Family Home Evening, but he asked it he could dance to it while we sang instead. Then he did a very interpretive dance to the song, very intense look on his face the whole time. Then told me several times what an awesome dancer he is. I love that kid! 

For Matthew's birthday on July 1st we had a BBQ with the Lott's and friends of Matthew's from work. It was a fun double-birthday party since it was Jon's birthday as well. I cooked up a storm! I made potato salad, and really yummy slow-cooked ribs, and a lemon coconut cake. I wish I had photo evidence.

By mid-July I'd had enough of baseball so I packed the three other kids up in the minivan and drove to Canada to visit my family there. It was a fun visit. Sadly, I didn't take my camera so I have no pictures of our adventures. The boys and I enjoyed spending time with family. Isaac joined us halfway through when he flew over to Buffalo from Boston all by himself! I wish I had a picture of him as he came off the plane to document it. The woman who sat next to him made a point of finding me to tell me what a nice kid he was. I was so relieved to see him safe and sound that I almost cried. But I didn't have time to do that, because I had to get back to my mom who was wandering around the terminal with my three other squirrelly kids. She survived, and so did they.

After a week and a half at home, which included a very fun day in Boston, Auntie Wendy and Kate joined us. Again no photos. Sigh. It was so fun to spend time with Wendy and to watch Kate play with her cousins. Anna and her mostly got along and called for each other frequently. There was some fighting, I'm not going to lie. Mostly because Anna stole everything Kate got her hands on.

A week later Ken joined us then we all drove down to Long Island (including a ferry ride from New London CT to Orient Point NY) then hopped a second ferry to Davis Point, which is a community on Fire Island. Fire Island is this very cool barrier island off the coast of Long Island. There are no cars except for emergency vehicles at Davis Point, and we didn't have Internet either, so it felt like we had really left the world behind. We were just steps away from a beautiful very quiet beach. We were there with friends the whole week, sharing a great beach house that had five bedrooms and a cool outdoor shower. The only sad part was a wicked cold I came down with my third day there, but besides that we had a really lovely time. We all got tanned (really!) as we spent hours and hours at the beach riding the surf and digging in the sand.

I didn't bring my camera (see a pattern here?) but luckily my friends Jill and Monica did, so I have some photos to document the second half of the trip.

Here's the gang that stayed in the house from Mon-Fri nights. Two other families - including Wendy and Ken - were there for the weekend. It was a fun group.

This is one of the kids walking down one of the boardwalks that connect all of the homes to the beaches that run along either side of the island and to the main dock. This is how Davis Point does roads.

Here's our other "road" - miles and miles of beautiful beach.

Here's Anna on the spiral staircase in the house. It was a great house. Nothing fancy, but it had a nice open layout and enough rooms/beds/futons to fit us all!

Here are Grace, Thomas and Owen with the non-stinging jellyfish that took me a little while to get used to. On Thursday there were whole colonies of these round, clear jellies washing up on the beach and swimming in the water. You got used to them.

Matthew and I enjoying a rare moment when one of us wasn't standing guard over the kids in the water.

The girls. Jill, Monica and I. I love these ladies.

Jill and I floating on rafts in the beautiful water. It was warm and calm that day, so I finally felt brave enough to really swim in the waves.

Matthew sending Thomas for a ride on a wave on the raft. Matthew spent a lot of time helping the boys learn to boogie board on the waves. They had so much fun with their dad. I boogie boarded too. I only got flipped off a couple of times.

Joey buried in sand. We did spend a lot of time washing sand off ourselves and the children. A lot of time. But it was all worth it!

So much fun. Now back to reality. Well, almost. We're going camping this weekend in Vermont with our ward. Maybe I'll remember to bring the camera!