Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Summertime . . . and the livin' is BUSY!!!

Crazily enough, I haven't put up a post since late April.  There goes my record of only missing one month in 10 years of blogging!!  Oh well.  Real life happened, and we were busy living it. :)  In early May we took our annual trip to Ohio.  I didn't take too many pictures this time, but here is one of my favorites--all the cousins together on a hike in the woods.
As always, it was great to catch up with everyone out there and we had a nice visit.  This year all the kids had bikes to ride, so many happy hours were spent zooming back and forth on the driveway.  We ladies took our usual day out to Amish country, and another day most of us went out to eat at Hardee's . . . the kids got to watch some movies together and played some video games too.  It was especially nice to spend Mother's Day with Jim's mom, as that doesn't happen very often!  Plus we celebrated Jim's birthday and one of our nephew's birthdays during the visit as well.

The rest of May and early June were spent plugging away at school, and wrapping up most of our work.  Then we tackled our standardized testing, and finished that up just about the time Joanna, Clay, and family arrived from Nevada for a much-anticipated visit!  It had been nearly 3 years since we saw them, so needless to say we were all quite excited that they were able to come out and spend just a little over 3 weeks in NH.  During their visit we took a lot of pictures--way too many to share here--but I also snapped a lot on my iPod and Kindle and made some collages to post on Facebook along the way.  I decided the best way to give my blog readers a peek at our "staycation" would be to post the collages here as well.  

Adventure #1: Short hike and swimming/exploring at Squam Lake, June 20.
 Adventure #2: Several days spent at our extended family's camp on a small pond, June 21-24.  It had been years since we'd spent time there and our kids had never been inside, so it was really fun to all be there together as a family!  Lots of time was spent kayaking and canoeing out on the pond, games were played, stories were told, books were read...an all around good and relaxing time!
 Adventure #4: Meeting up with old friends at Beech Hill Farm for ice cream and visiting, June 27.  
 Adventure #3: (oops, this one's out of order!) STORY LAND!!!  June 26.  We usually try to go here every year as a family, and it is extra special when we get to go with the cousins!!  My parents and our two older nieces were able to come along also, and we all had such a FUN day!  Jim even had the added adventure of getting stuck on top of the roller coaster! :D  (Too bad nobody got a picture of that!)
 Adventure #5: Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, Bristol, Maine, June 29.  This is an absolutely beautiful place to visit!  Plus, most of the adults and kids were able to go up inside the lighthouse, too.  There is a height restriction, so the four youngest cousins were (sadly) not allowed to go up.  But those who could, really enjoyed it!  And we could not have had more perfect weather!!
Adventure #6: Reid State Park, Maine, June 30.  We spent the night in cottages in Freeport, had overpriced but yummy seafood for supper, and hit the beaches at Reid State Park the next day.  LOVE this place so much!  Another absolutely gorgeous day in Maine.
And then our family stopped for BBQ on our way home!!
Adventure #7: Strawberry picking, VT, July 3.
Adventure #8: July 4th church picnic and fireworks.  Frog catching, bubble blowing, softball playing, plus lots and lots of yummy food!!
 Adventure #9: Beach day at Newfound Lake, July 6.  Really fun to take all our kids back to the same beach we frequented every summer as kids!
Adventure #10: Sisters' outing for lunch and ice cream!
Adventure #11: Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, July 9
Family time at Grammy & Grampa's...pool time, visiting with Great-Grammy, Aunt Carolyn & cousin Andrew- July 10
Adventure #12: Ginormous ice cream "Avalanches" at Frosty Scoops!  YUM...and we all got stuffed!! 
The Grand Finale: Campfire & s'mores at Grammy & Grampa's, with a "Monkey" story told by Uncle Clay!!  
We had soooo much fun, as I'm sure you can tell!  While these were not all of our adventures this summer, they were the highlights. :)  The rest of July and August were filled with other summery things...more beach days, more science center trips, get-togethers with friends, VBS at church, library programs, Old Home Day.  It's been a full and fun summer, and I wish I had had the time to record everything here!  Perhaps I'll be able to throw in a few more pics here and there in later posts.  I definitely need to put up a post of all Ari, because she is growing and changing like CRAZY!  But for now, I wanted to share these summer highlights because we're transitioning out of our lazy but busy summer days, and into a school routine again.  It's promising to be a super busy year ahead, but I hope to get back to a more normal schedule of posting here. :)  Hope you enjoyed this peek into our summer!!

3 comments:

Mrs.T said...

Yay!!! A post from you! And a fun one it is!

Nikki said...

I was over come with happiness to see you had updated. :) I knew you were busy as I keep up with your moms blog. It sounds like you are gearing up for a great school year! :) We start ours tomorrow. :( I am not as ready as I had planned to be but that is okay. We are excited. Salinn is going to help teach this year which should be wonderful..:)

Carrie said...

Thanks so much, ladies! It feels SO GOOD to be back to blogging again. :) Nikki, I hope you had a great first day of school! That's awesome that Salinn can help teach!!