Summer-June

So, yet again, I am too lazy to think of a title for this random collection of pictures. I went simple and chose "June." I could have gone with a variety of other options including: Activity hoarding, Please Let Us Leave The House, How is it Still Summer?, Survival, Etc, but I figured June was a simple approach. 

Max LOVES water. And, he doesn't have to wear an eyepatch, so I love letting him play in water. I think this pic is actually from May because I remember people asking me how old he was & looking a little shocked when I said, He just turned one. But, he holds his own with the big kids & is not the kind of baby who is going to sit and watch the fun. So, an extra change of clothes is always available in my car because you never know when a fountain is going to appear. 

Someone gets tired on our walks. 

My brother is amazing. He sent a SECOND truck load of computers to Powell. Literally, we unloaded computers for about 2 hours. Our entire library now has computers that can actually access the internet and we have been able to replace quite a few teacher desktops, as well. 

This is what we were using. (Tax money does NOT go to education, just in case you were wondering.)

4 year old boys and a craft, even if it is a dinosaur craft, don't really mix. Yet, Clare and I are on a constant mission to entertain these kids and provide them with wonderful, educational experiences. Really, we want to just get out of the house. 

Hands down, Anderson's favorite part of summer was Soccer Camp. PHS put on a camp for K-5 and the coach told me it was ok to sign him up, so we went and he loved it. The boy is in his element when he is doing anything physical. He was the youngest/smallest one out there and still did not hesitate at all. He literally ran for 2 hours straight every night*. When they took water breaks he would tell me, "I can't sit down; Coach says we only have 2 minutes."

It was precious, melting hot, exhausting, enjoyable and a sign of my future all wrapped up in one week. 

*And, still stayed up past 10. This kid just does not require sleep. 

True to form, Max troopered it up that week. He enjoys dining al fresco, apparently. 

Best pic of the matching pjs that I could get. About 2 months ago Anderson requested a shirt with an Angler fish because, "They are my favorite; I really like things from the midnight zone." Lucky for that boy I had hoarded these pjs on clearance last year. I don't think "midnight zone" is normally a theme for children's clothing. 

I love that I can match them (I know it is weird, but I think it is cute) and I constantly am amazed all over again at Max's blond hair. 

We went to a fun kids' event at UT Gardens with our Brimer buddies. Anderson spent most of the time harassing the fish. I love going to places like this with Clare because I feel like the won't kick me out for not actually knowing how to keep anything alive! She has the greenest thumb ever and gave me a huge bunch of basil that I used to make pesto!

Max looked precious, as usual. There were sprinklers, so he ended up having a pretty great time, too. 

A whole lot of this in the month of June, of course. 

(OBSESSED with the electric toothbrush.)

But, the moments like this make things survivable. 

Also, I am still angry at Target for not having car carts. 

These 2 totally benefit from being the second born because they get to participate in so many random activities with their older siblings. Well, this one might have been a little boring because the highlight of the pool for them was the shower, but for the most part they get to have fun. 

Poor Lucy Goose. My porch totally attacked her, but this girl has stepped.it.up. like nobody's business. Literally, after 30 seconds she stopped crying, but the boys were all 3 randomly crying about something. Watching her with those 3 boys reminds us that civilization has survived on the back of the women. 

We let Anderson stay up entirely too late one night and catch lightning bugs. Brandon is such a fun dad and helped him catch a jar full. This, right here, is a reason to have kids because who doesn't love an excuse to catch lightning bugs?

Also, why are my lightning bug memories of Chicago? Mom, please explain.

Visit to a local Farmer's Market in the Ole Miss shirt, of course. Someone asked him if he was an Ole Miss fan and he looked really confused and said, "Kyler goes there." I mean, duh. We met up with Saasha & Sunny and went to the pool with them, but I got zero pics of the cuteness. 

VBS!! Again, super thankful that the Brimers live here so we can hang out all the time. 

Signing, crafting, dancing, stories...VBS was not necessarily his "thing", but he did actually stand up the second day, so there was a little progress. We only made it 2 of the days because I had to work, we were planning an out of town trip and we went on The Hike, but next year I am hoping we get a few more days of standing. 

 Really, this sums up our house over the last week/month/year.

The World Cup combined with Soccer Camp combined with these awesome soccer jammies and a ball that I think we stole from Nicole at the beach=awesome. 

This kid. Some kind of American Ninja show was on TV & Anderson made his own obstacle course. It was hilarious and, as I told Nicole, some form of boy crafting. 

 I even had some time to hang out with my friends! One of the art teachers at PHS (she is AWESOME) led this (and basically painted the only petals that actually look like petals on mine) I love these girls and miss working with them, so it is fun to be able to see them and hang out.

 Quite a bit of time spent with Bop in the yard. I truly think they are best friends.

Noni with the Mr. I truly do not know what I would do without my parents so close to me. 

We celebrated GG's birthday! As always, she was the amazing and pretended to be surprised by her cake. We went to eat dinner before this and she knew she was coming over, but Anderson wanted to surprise her. It actually was pretty funny. 

GG with her original boys. 

GG with her second set of boys! I really like this pic of them. 

 Possibly the highlight of the summer was our visit to Ijams Nature Center. We went on a Kids' Hike and then ventured off on our own for awhile. He was IN HEAVEN!

Me: Anderson, this is what a forest is like

Anderson: The Forbidden forest?

Me: grin

 We had an awesome trip with some friends planned to go to Ohio and we had to postpone it to the fall at the last minute, so we went to the zoo for the day with Noni. It was awesome; I love our zoo. We were there most of the day and saw animals, played on the playground/sandbox/petting goat part, saw a bird show, played in the Lego room, climbed everything and FED A GIRAFFE!!!

The bird show was pretty cool, too. 

 Sleepover at Noni & Bop's! Seriously, Brandon had to work a lot one weekend, so the boys and I crashed at their house and it was super amazing having coffee ready for me in the morning and spending time with them. (I put the coffee first, I realize)

 We also invited the Brimers over for some fun at Camp Noni!

We visited Safety City, which might be the cutest thing I have ever seen. It is huge and has so many little buildings and is completely fenced in so kids can just run/ride around the "city."

 And, it has awesome playgrounds!

But, really...this sums up most of summer (fall/winter/spring)-walks, playing, jumping off furniture, setting up obstacle courses in the yard, looking for bugs, eating popsicles, entertaining each other, surviving until bedtime. 

For your viewing pleasure

Just in case you did not get enough of our family in my previous post, here are the group shots. 

*SO happy we did this now that I am in my air conditioned house with both of my children asleep. At 7:30pm in the heat/humidity(have you seen my special hair?) with 2 starving/grumpy/MALE children, I was not really feeling it. 

The best part of this pic was watching Lily study us because she really could not figure out the origin of this combination. 

 My brother, his amazing wife and my 2 grown up nephews. Good looking people in this family.

Speaking of good looking, check out the hottie in the white shirt.

 My parents! Such a good pic of them.

 Possibly you have seen these people on blog before? My sister & her family.

 We also have no idea what was happening.

Again. 

The grandkids.

 And, it always ends with Max in a chokehold.

That time when we all went to the beach.

Somehow we actually pulled it off. The Bishop/Hughes/Glover/Salvaggio families managed to pick a week that worked for everyone, choose a destination/house, make it there and survive very early wake up calls by babies and have the best time ever!

The Fam

These 2 were basically the terrorists of the trip. Really, really cute terrorists.

These faces. So much love in one tiny square.

Shannon was there!!! And, totally entertaining my kids with the creepy/awesome singing babies.

Whole group pic (minus Zack who was buying Noah a shirt at Harry T's) You know you wish you were there.

It does not get much cuter than these 2 grinning.

Noni kept everyone entertained by brining chalk, toys, a puzzle*, money for the ice cream man, etc.

*Thank God.

There was a golf cart that belonged to our house, which might have been the best part.

Shrimp Boil by Uncle Hughes!

These 2 are intense in all things, including their love for each other.

Bop-the short order chef.

Streaming photos of the fam, just in case we missed each other.

Thank goodness Noni was a trooper and got in the pool on multiple occasions. 

Speaking of troopers...#bigcousinnoah

Nicole & I would have been in some knock down fights without Amanda as our balance. She is the best one of the sister trio. 

For about 2 minutes, I thought about learning how to drive the golf cart.

Uncle Zack didn't miss a beat to jump off a restaurant dock & get a giant hermit crab for Anderson.

Matching patching shirts!

My 2 favorite things about the ocean: raw oysters & jumping headfirst into giant waves. These were delicious!

She is so cute, it is hard to choose just a few. 

Love this one. 

Noni/Bop took us (me, Anderson, Lily & Max) on a dolphin/shelling cruise that was so much fun! The kids loved driving the boat, looking for dolphins and drinking their own Diet Coke (drinks were free on the boat.) Anderson LOVED finding a ton of shells, real hermit crabs, etc. I think we found about 14 hermit crabs-we left them all in the ocean, though. I try to just kill one per trip. 

Lily was hilarious and said, "I am NOT getting off this boat!" She looked shocked that we would even imagine she would get off in the 3 feet of very seaweedy water. We made her (Nicole wasn't with us to save her and she became our photographer/cheerleader. 

I really think it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Anderson sort of ruined the pic, but we did have   a lot of fun! Brandon went snuba diving with the guys, but nobody actually took a pic of it. 

The Glovers were there, too! Their stay overlapped ours by one night, so they stopped by for some hugs and caught a little glimpse of the craziness that was Casa de Glover/Hughes/Bishop/Salvaggio. 

The Beach

Perhaps there is no more validating moment as a parent than when you get to introduce your kid to the beach. I just love everything about the ocean & it was so much fun to spend so much time hanging out with people I love in a place that I love. 

 Visit from cousins Morgan & Jacob! Anderson loves Jacob and I am so excited about seeing them again soon!

Max's hard life continued while we were in Destin.

 Jacob got to shoot the cannon!

My husband is a hottie.

Thankful for this Noni who can always calm my kids down when they are upset/acting crazy...ie: often.

Lily (Nicole) made us sand cupcakes!

Apparently miracles happen when you spend 8 hours a day on the beach.

Waves. Love.

The creatures 

The highlight of Anderson's trip was finding random creatures. This "real ocean crab" that Brandon found was his favorite because it walked sideways & it pinched him. 

This salamander (lizard? what is the difference?) was HUGE. 

Again, Brandon totally caught this one.

Bop found a turtle that they named Long Neck.

Preciousness. Anderson was obsessed with the little fish & showed them to Reese, who actually was interested in them. Most of the guys spent a great deal of time trying to find fish/cool stuff for Anderson. 

Oh, and me. I also tried to find stuff and was successful in locating a hermit crab (that I accidentally starved, at least I think that is what killed it), a few frogs and lizards.

He is so good at catching creatures, which is one of those really cool perks that I did not even realize until this trip.

The hermit crab before he died. RIP hermie. 

There was a lake behind our house &, of course, they went fishing. They did not catch anything because I never actually saw anything alive in there. It was very creepy in a Lake Placid kind of way. 

While Anderson was creature hunting, Lily was making jewelry and crafting. This little sign was so precious. The girl is in her element when she is crafting. 

The Puzzle

Mom bought this clearance puzzle & brought it with her. We totally made fun of her & told her nobody was going to do a 1500 piece puzzle at the beach. Except, we were epically wrong. It was possibly the highlight of the trip. 

I think I could put 50 pics of random people and the puzzle at various stages. 

It is now hanging up in Bop's garage. 

The Little People

This trip was so much fun because of how much time we spent together, but I would not necessarily call it a "vacation." As Clare said, It was parenting with a change of scenery. A beautiful, delicious smelling (I love the Ocean) change of scenery. Max & Reese were constantly on the move, trying to see who could break a limb first by falling down the stairs, very easily opening the front door, trying to dive into the ocean, never sitting still, etc. They also woke up by 6 am despite staying up until after 10 on many occasions. Super thankful that we had so many people to help keep an eye on them/entertain them because it would have been impossible to prevent them from going crazy otherwise.