Last Day's of Summer

The end of summer is rapidly approaching! There is so much I love about summer but since I operate better with a routine I look forward to life returning to a schedule. We are trying to squeeze last minute fun things into the week before the start of school. I asked the boys this morning what they would like to do yet and the list became very long! I will do my best to accommodate a few of their desires but that is all I can offer! Here is a large spider that Mark and the boys found last week. Of course admiring it from a distance is not good enough. It is now residing in a large plastic container in our house!! I thought it would die within a day or two but I forgot to account for my boys capturing moths and other spiders to feed it. Lovely!! They are most fascinated with the amount the spider is pooping! Such a boy thing!

We didn't any kind of grand vacation this summer but instead tried to do a few smaller scale things with the kids. Stuff that wouldn't be completely overwhelming and things that felt manageable with the little ones. We did the mountains for a few days two different times. And this past week we took them to a local amusement park. It was a cooler day so the park was the emptiest I have ever seen it. No waiting in lines at all!! And to make the day even better some of our friends unexpectedly showed up at the park. Eden insisted on going on so many of the big rides, screaming the entire time because she was scared and then screaming after it stopped because she wanted it to continue.

Can you tell that a certain little girl was having the time of her life? Seriously....can she be any more photogenic?

As we were preparing to leave the park the boys asked me to ride the gravity drop with them. I tried not to scream for the sake of the poor gentleman riding next to me but gave up after the screams involuntarily came out!!

I have hardly any pictures of me with my kids since I am almost always behind the camera. I am purposing to change that.

Such big guys now! I love watching them become young men! We had a date night last week one evening which I will have to fill you in on when I have time. We were discussing future professions. Very enlightening!!

And to give a quick update on my friend Lisa's little girl. Madeline Grace continues to hang in there and seems to be a puzzle to the doctors. She had heart surgery last week and was alert and awake following the surgery. Would you continue to pray for Lisa, her husband, Madeline and their three girls as home? Madeline is now 2 weeks old and seems to be a fighter. They had over 30 doctors meet last Monday to discuss her case. She is a tiny miracle!!