and then summer 2016 was over

Labor Day Weekend was a good one. It was just what we needed in the middle of a lot of other junk. We decided that we would just spend the weekend playing and that's exactly what we did.

Friday night we had pizza, wings and a fire at the Kozels. It was good and fun and relaxing. When we are both in town in the summer, we see each other almost daily. It's lovely during the school year when the boys can be on the same sports team. Ted has opted not to play flag football this year so we have a hard time seeing each other. Nights like this are good.

 Saturday, Ben and Ted went to the WVU game.

They met Stedman Bailey.

 

 And sat with the Youngs who were a row or two below them.

 Caleb, Ted & Jack

Sophie and I enjoyed the peace and quiet at home. We picked the boys up during the 3rd quarter and drove across Route 7 . . .

To celebrate Henry's 3rd birthday and

Roxie's 1st birthday!

Roxie even let Ben hold her, with Courtney standing right there. We'll just stay that's not something that happens much.

We got to hang out with Reed on Sunday which is always fun too!

Monday morning, we drove to Nicholas County to hang out with the Berg's for the best day.  We went out to the WV Young Life Camp property for a little tour and fun. 

We had this R2R and a 4 wheeler.

Then we attached the 4-wheeler trailer to the back of side-by-side.

We found several areas of mud

And the kids got a smidge muddy.

After the initial shock of the mud, they loved it.

I haven't been to the property for several years. So Scott was showing me all the maps and the property.

We sat at this overlook for awhile. I dream of the day when all these kids will come to this very property with a bus load of their firends.

The property is right above Sweets Falls on the Gauley River. The river is tame this time of year, so the kids rinsed off and jumped off some rocks at Sweets Falls.

We also got to see the part of the property where the adventure camp is. There are 4 yurts, a few outhouses and a shelter for some picnic tables and a fire pit to cook on.

We semi-unmuddied ourselves and had dinner on the Berg's deck. We drove home way too late on a school night, but that's ok. It was a great fun weekend and I'm so thankful we were able to do it. It was the perfect end un-official end of summer 2016.

the august readjustment

For various reasons that don't need detailed on the interwebs, the month of August was hard. I so badly wanted to finish summer well and fun, but we kind of took a bit of a nosedive. We crawled over the back to school line. That may not have been totally bad as everyone was ready and willing to go back to school. (Except for one night of wailing and gnashing of teeth from Sophie about starting 3rd grade.) I also realized during the month of August that I ruined my kids this summer. I had become cruise ship director. That's a hard role to play when you've played it all summer and then realize all of a sudden that you don't want to play it anymore . . .

The kids spent some time with the Underdonks and played outside in these very fun glow stick contraptions. They always have so much fun together and we don't see them nearly as much as we would love to.

August was HOT! Like real hot. So we were either swimming or inside. We did some forts . . .

And the tent in the sunroom for a fun change of scenery.

We watched a LOT of Olympics. I mean a lot. I didn't regulate screen time at all if they were watching any sort of Olympics. And we stayed up way too late every night watching. At the end when they did the video highlights, I realized that I had seen almost all of them. I'm ok with that.

We hit up the Splash Zone in Clarksburg twice. Oh my word, that place is awesome and FUN! The purple slide is my personal favorite. We went once with friends from church and once with the Kozels. We will go back a lot more next summer for sure!

The kids went to New Martinsville for a few days. It seems to be an August tradition that we started a few years back. By August we all need a bit of a break from each other and it's fun for the kids to spend some time with their grandparents. And of course Reed.

By the end of summer you have to get creative.

We got the most out of our daily free game of bowling.

We missed the introduction of Pokemon Go while we were at camp. But Ted quickly caught up and become a Pokemon go professional.

We had the WVU Welcome Week events. That is exhausting. One night we had some freshmen guys over to grill hotdogs and play darts in the garage. The kids taught them their new favorite game, Family Business. The kids and I mostly did not attend Welcome Week activities as we needed a little space from all of it and it was also the first week of school. Early bedtimes were not our thing this summer at all.

Ted spent a day in Fairmont with friends from church. They did all sorts of very fun things.

Including a game of neighborhood baseball which is his dream.

Ted has started his final year in elementary school - what?!? They both seem to have really great teachers. We had such great teachers last year that I was a bit nervous we couldn't do a repeat this year. But we just might do it.

 

Band has started in the 5th grade. Ted wants to play percussion, but you have to play an instrument first in the 5th grade. So we've resorted to the trumpet. Eh. I'm sure the neighbors are thrilled.

Ted learned to mow the grass. Sophie did not and runs through the sprinkler.

I channeled my inner Nikki Eckard and melted some chocolate chips for my strawberries for dinner more than once. I do not share.

We made it back to the Young Life office and the skit closet is fresh, new and exciting for them..

We hit Wave Tech in Fairmont twice, swam at the beach at Cheat Lake, missed the Kozels while they were on their adventures, all went to the dentist, had two committee potluck dinners, had a few after camp parties, welcomed students (and traffic) back to Morgantown, adjusted back to work and watched the Olympics until our eyes bled.