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Helmet + soap suds = Happy kid!
Ever wish you could squish the USA so that you could get geographically closer to your friends and family in far away states? Well, I long for that quite frequently, and I was definitely wishing we could move Connecticut and Wisconsin a little closer after spending a lovely weekend with our friend Phebe and her adorable kids. See? Phebe’s daughter Kyana was like a long-lost triplet sister to my girls!
And little Liam was such a doll to have around:
Speaking of dolls, we had our very own doll baby on the boat this weekend. Meet beautiful Matea, who I think is our youngest boater yet at 5 weeks old:
I’m so glad Katelyn was such a sport about bringing her newborn daughter out so we could all ooh and ahh over her!
And of course we were excited that we got to cuddle sweet Breton too!
We were also blessed by our friend David joining us on the boat for the first time in a long time. The kids love him, so the poor guy got stuck with more than his fair share of babysitting:
But he was so good, he could do it in his sleep:
Here’s Phebe showing us all up on the wakeboard (with a sprained foot, no less!):
And here she is cuddling with my little guy:
Jimmy was thrilled to have so many friends around!
And me? I couldn’t have been happier to be surrounded by so many great friends (and cute kids!). Now only if we could get them closer! Even though we have kept very busy this summer with awesome trips, visitors and outings, we’ve still had plenty of lazy days like today where all we did was play, play, play. I’m so thankful that the kids have great imaginations and can spend hours entertaining themselves* with books, dolls, rocks…and the occasional feather. Here they are trying to “plant” the feather. *That’s not to say that their “entertaining themselves” doesn’t also require me to step in and referee disputes every few minutes sometimes! Especially when Jimmy is in the mix. He definitely derives great pleasure from antagonizing his sisters. But for the most part, the kids all do really, really well playing by themselves these days…which makes it that much harder for me to accept that full-day kindergarten is just around the corner for the girls. The boys are going to lose their best playmates! Jimmy’s going to have to pick up the slack and start entertaining Danny…this could be interesting. I see (more) bathroom humor in my near future! Danny always thoroughly enjoys the neighborhood park. Here he is testing out the toddler slide…
And here he is showing off the new bruise he incurred when he was overly confident of his standing abilities near a play structure (you can’t see it as well in this picture, but he got a real shiner on his left eye)! We had the privilege of hosting my college friends Bryce and Lauri for a night before they moved into their new place in New York. It was a surreal experience to visit with friends who I haven’t seen since before we had kids – in fact, who I hadn’t seen since our wedding! And now, between our two families, there are five children and a dog! It was so good to catch up with them and to spend time with their adorable toddler, Penny. We also got to meet their dog Ruby, who is the first dog I’ve encountered who made me think that maybe, one day, perhaps, we could get a dog. Ruby was amazing with the kids, and they wore each other out – it was a perfect match!
But, other than the addition of all our tiny humans and pets, it felt like no time had passed between college and now. Lauri was my freshman roommate, and although we were too tired this visit to stay up late and chat like old times, I look forward to many more chats to come now that they are living nearby. They’re still the same, fun-loving, wonderful couple they’ve always been! (And Bryce is still a great goofball – this is what happened when I handed him my phone to take our picture! 🙂 ). I’m so thankful for old friends and new adventures! You can tell you’re a mom of small children… …when you’re too tired to get up so you just use a nearby (clean) diaper for a coaster. We’ve had some trouble lately with Jimmy getting out of bed without permission (like, in the middle of the night, early in the morning, and in the middle of a nap). We’re working on it and he’s been doing much better lately, so anytime I come into his room and see Jimmy in his crib, I’m a very happy mama!
Last week, we took the RV for an overnight camping trip at the Connecticut shore. We were blessed that Jim’s mom was able to join us to help with the kids (and catch a few rays at the beach!). The trip managed to be both relaxing and energizing at the same time – it was perfect! Here are the kids enjoying their ring pops from the camp store while daddy towed them on his bike around the campgrounds:
Jimmy scootering along: The view near our campsite: Pictures from our gorgeous sunset stroll along the beach: Family fun on the slide: Passing time while waiting for the RV’s battery to charge so we could go home. Three cheers for Jim being so handy at RV troubleshooting! We might have still been there otherwise (while that could have been a fun adventure, I sure didn’t bring along enough diapers for an extended stay!). The nonstop fun finally caught up with Jimmy on the ride home: |
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