Summer Highlights in 52 Seconds

Oh blogging, there you are my faithful friend. Strong. Steady. Not to mention a constant reminder that I am failing to document important life events. Maybe I'm not a summer blogger...? Not for lack of topics or events, mind you. That excuse has a lot more to do with long summer nights, camping, BBQs and pool time, holidays and lots of time loving our friends and family. Summer has been good to us this year!

This blog will always be my own special space for many reasons, but you'll have to cut me some slack for the absence lately and allow me to recommit myself to regular updates, even if we're all rolling our eyes and thinking; "yeah, okay. That's gonna happen." Just humor me, mmmkay?

So...yes. Summer. This summer Michael's wife was born. So there's that. We have been good friends with the Larsens for a long time (going way back to when Linds and I were single college grads getting jobs that gave us insurance and tasting the freedom of not having homework every night). Matt and Lindsay had their first little baby in June, a girl named Olivia Renee (Lindsay and I share her middle name, although they both spell it wrong). She is just the sweetest, and Michael thinks so too. The first time Michael visited Livy-loo was also the first time he signed "please" all on his own. Every time he would get close enough to see her little face when I was holding her, he would jabber in a high-pitched voice and sign "please." Melt my mama heart. Okay, I consent. Someday you can leave home to marry Liv.

And then we spent a day celebrating our country's freedom Lewiston-style. Lewiston is basically in Idaho, so naturally we left at 5 AM to make it in time for the parade. It was a blast. I have never seen so much candy in one 90 minute block of time. The streets were straight up Candy Land. We love that little tiny town and all the charm of their very own Fatboy Ice cream factory. Michael was super adorable walking all over (oh yeah, he walks. yep, missed that milestone on the ol' blog) in his flag shorts. Although, the first few steps he took in Lewiston landed him face-first in the parking lot so he sported his very own firework on his little noggin all weekend. Poor little dude. He was a really good sport. Loved all the "vroom vroom"s in the parade. To be clear, that can be tractors, motorcycles, cars, helicopters, lawnmowers, on occasion the washer...anything with a motor. Stops him dead every time. It's like he's a boy or something.

We spent a few days in July at Bear Lake. We always have a great time and JR usually gets hurt. This year he was being too tough on a tube and ended up doing some damage to his spinal cord. Everything is good now, but it was scary! He's almost back to full range of motion and the pain is pretty much gone. Now the only reminder of the incident is Michael wearing the neck brace as a Russian hat. It's like his favorite thing.

I'm a little ashamed to say that our first camping trip of the summer was not until the weekend of the 24th. Well, we sort of camped at Bear Lake, but trees and camp fires and multiple tents? The 24th. How did we wait so long?! Almost my whole family made it for the night (we missed you, Hughes!) The cousins were having the time of their lives in the dirt. The first order of business for Michael once he ditched the car seat was a "snow" angel, face-first in the dirt. He also kept laying down to suck on big rocks. Again, face first in the dirt. There was really nothing I could do to stop him. Good thing we had multiple bulk packages of baby wipes.

We celebrated a lot of baby birthdays this summer. It's official. My baby is 1. I am a little bit sad about how big he is, but honestly he is SO much fun that it just doesn't make sense to stay very sad about it. Michael had a pirate party with lots of fun water games. JR, with a broken neck, made the babies a water blob. Look it up. You're welcome. We had baby pools, a treasure hunt, and of course a sprinkler under the trampoline. It was great fun. I think this topic deserves a sappy post all on its own, so look forward to that. (Stop rolling your eyes, I'm gonna write it!!)

This summer we also said goodbye to our best Larsen friends. Matt is starting graduate school (CONGRATULATIONS!) this fall, so Illinois got pretty lucky. I am literally so proud of them and all their big dreams. But I miss them like crazy every single day. I told Linds the other day that I pretended we invited them over for dinner and games but they already had plans and couldn't come. Then I scolded her for making plans when we could have been playing cards and eating roast. I guess I'll have to pretend for a few more Sundays. Sorry Linds. Maybe just try to play along...

I was at the craft store the other day and smelled a hint of cinnamon. Not to mention they had their fall leaves and the most adorable pumpkins set up in perfectly excitable displays. I squelched any hint of anticipation for fall because I just need a few more good weeks of pool time and bare feet, but wagon rides and haystacks and cider and pumpkins are getting me a tinsy bit excited after all. And if we're really being honest, fall boast the comfiest wardrobe by a long shot.

Cheers to a fantastic summer so far, and hopefully a few more good weeks of sunshine and pool time!