Taylor began the month at her camp for AHG. She spent five days and nights swimming, canoeing, doing archery, rock climbing, outdoor cooking, and who knows what else!
Taylor came back home on Morgan's birthday just in time to see this rockin' shirt mom made her.
While Taylor was at camp, Morgan had been busy planning her own birthday party. I love letting my children see their ideas come to fruition so I took a step back and only assisted when she needed me. Truthfully, she really didn't need me much at all. Morgan decided on a Zootopia theme and even decorated her own cake!
She dressed as the lead character, Judy Hopps.
She planned games for the children to play.
There's never a shortage of kids at family gatherings when you have cousins!
I think the adults had fun too!
Morgan also made Zootopia Police badges for her guests to wear.
(This is the beginning of a love affair.)
Morgan even painted her own party favors for her guests.
Morgan spent the rest of the month playing with her new toys. These headphones make me smile every time she wears them.
And this bubble maker is a photographer's dream.
A few days after the party it was time to pack up and head out on our eighth annual camping trip with Grandma.
The kids are so big now in contrast to when we first started this tradition. The girls even helped with cooking and making the fire each night.
And the boys entertained themselves with footballs, frisbees, the neighbor's bikes, and of course, extreme hopscotch.
Luckily, they aren't too big to cuddle.
Charlie invented a new campfire treat.
The extreme s'more.
Our growing family does make it hard to sleep in one cabin now. Gone are the days of Morgan sleeping in a chair and Addision sleeping in a pack-n-play in the kitchen. So we let the girls sleep in the cabin.
And I camped out in the camper with the boys.
We usually camp nearby making it possible for people to visit us throughout our trip. This year was no exception. In fact, I think we hit a record number of visitors with Mark, Grandpa, Aunt Jan, Alison, Aunt Julie, and Uncle Chad all making an appearance!
However, the rule is that you need to sleep on site to make it in the group photo!
Once the boys caught wind of the big girls' late night card games, they wanted in on the action. We stayed up late in the camper teaching Jacob how to play Oh Heck.
On our last day we headed to Parky's Arc for some water fun, lunch and more card games.
And let's not forget ice cream!
A day or two after our camping trip we welcomed the Olson Family for a five night stay.
First stop- Skyline.
They taught us a new card game called Garbage.
We played mini golf. There were so many of us that we decided to split into two groups- boys and girls. That's when I realized that, much to Charlie's delight, the girls were outnumbered!
Of course we spent a lot of time at home too.
When you have a pool, good times can always be found in your own backyard.
And when you live on a golf course, the good times don't stop there!
The three colorado roommates back together.
Heather wanted to visit her old stomping grounds at UD so we headed up to Dayton for some chicken wings and baseball.
I looked forward to the Olson's visit all summer. It's rare to have such good friends that really let you put your hair down and be yourself. No matter what we are doing, we always have fun.
Morgan's planted her sunflower that she sprouted in kindergarten and it finally bloomed!
Charlie decided he wanted a new look for school.
And this wild child let us cut 2 inches off.
Summer wasn't over yet though! We couldn't wrap up summer without a pool party with friends.
When it rained, we just moved the fun indoors.
That night the kids talked me into one more 'all nighter'. (I think they just like going out for ice cream in their pjs.)
We thought that the Olson's visit was going to be our last horrah, but then we remembered the solar eclipse. Lucky for us, we have another close friend who lives right on the path of totality. And Grandma and Grandpa's house is right on the way! That's just too tempting to ignore. So we packed up and headed to Kentucky. We spent one night in Louisville where Grandma and Grandpa treated us to The Captain's Quarters.
Then we headed to Mr. Mike's house for a long overdo visit.
We stayed through Monday- the day of the total solar eclipse.
We kept checking on it for the hour leading up to the eclipse. The sun looked like a crescent.
I loved these little crescent light patterns the sun made when peeking though trees.
It started getting creepy the last ten minutes before totality. Crickets started chirping, the temperature dropped, and darkness grew. I even started getting mosquito bites. Finally, at 1:28, it happened. The moon completely covered the sun and we were standing in its shadow. I told the kids they could remove their glasses and this is what we saw.
Except not really. The corona was actually much fainter than that. When I exposed for the corona (which is about 1/1000000 as bright as the sun) the sky appears totally black. In reality, you could still see some blue. Regardless, it was breathtaking and initially we were speechless. Then we started cheering and howling. It was such a special moment and somehow the perfect way to end our summer.
Little did we know that driving home was going to be an adventure in itself. We traveled 50 miles in the first 3 hours and then took little backroads through KY to get back to Louisville. You might be surprised to hear that this was one of my favorite parts. I was so proud of my family for not complaining, not getting impatient, not really reacting to it in any way. It was a beautiful reminder not to let circumstances that are beyond your control effect you negatively. And besides, we all agreed that the eclipse made it all worth it!
After 5.5 hours of driving we finally stopped for dinner followed by ice cream. The kids definitely deserved it!
We got back to Grandma and Grand;a's house so late that we decided to spend the night. We drove home the next morning which was also officially the last day of summer vacation. The kids started school the next day.
Morgan was a little unsure about starting first grade, but luckily she LOVES her teacher.
I can't believe how big she's getting. She was given a clean bill of health at her seven year old check up.
You'd think that school starting would slow us down, but we still had one more adventure awaiting. The Whispering Beard Folk Festival.
We attend this festival every year. In fact, this year marked our family's fourth appearance. It was the first one for Judy, though. (Turns out she likes wood fired pizza.)
Morgan decided she needed a beard to be a true Beardo.
Taylor donned an apron and got to work taking orders at my uncles pizza stand.
Charlie and Morgan opted for more childlike activities.
As always, the highlight of the festival is the music. Willy Tea Taylor did not disappoint.
The pizza stand did very well, selling out two nights.
One of the first things I thought of when we purchased the camper was that we could bring it Whispering Beard. Even though the temperatures were mercifully cooler than every previous year of the Beard, it was still nice to have a real bed and quiet place to sleep.
Sunday was low key with some card playing and just three bands under the tree.
After seeing all these images together in one place, it's hard for me to believe we did it all in a matter of weeks. What surprises me more is that I never felt overwhelmed. Even when your plans are fun, when you stack them all back to back it's easy to feel stress and exhaustion. I think the secret is that I really didn't look ahead. I just stayed in the present and enjoyed the blessings of the moment. As school starts, I hope to apply this same mindfulness. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by all the kids' activities, I'm going to try to take things one task at a time while enjoying every moment of being their mom.
