Time marches on

May!?!?  Seriously, that's the last time I was here to update.  Oops.  I guess with the start of a new school year, I am always hoping that I'm going to make a little more time and space to keep things a bit more documented.  So... true to form, here I am again.

Our summer was one of the most enjoyable in our family history.  We traveled so much, even I didn't know if we were coming or going.  The entire month of June, our family lived in a fraternity house on the campus of USC as we did an inner city missions trip with AIA.  It was the most integrated mix of fun, hard, exhausting and memorable as you can get.  I have not been so emotionally and physically challenged in a long time.  Getting up at 5:30am (most days) and heading to bed near mid-night is not my norm.  While it nearly killed me, I can honestly say, I made the most of my time in Los Angeles.

I cashed in on my Valentine's Day gift from Steve as we headed to Chicago for an over night to see Sting.  An all time bucket list concert and he did not disappoint.

We turned around the next week and drove to Ashtabula, dropped the kids off at Gramma and Papa's and Steve and I headed to NYC for a two night work/personal trip.  When we got married, my "pre-nup" agreement stated an annual visit to NYC... so far my amazing groom has held up the bargain.

When we returned from there, we spent most afternoons at the outdoor pool. (We had to get our membership money out of it.)  Somehow, in between the pool, we managed to get to the James Taylor concert (my 44th birthday present) and Olivia, her friend Lila and I went to see Rachel Platten perform at a sweet little outdoor venue in town.

Because we are gluttons for punishment we packed up the van and headed 8 hours north to Sutton's Bay near Traverse City, Michigan for a week long family vacation with every member of Steve's side of the family.  It was a week long jam packed adventure full of tubing, boating, fishing, kayaking, paddle boarding, Olympic watching, pigging out mayhem.  We rolled home 2 days before the first day of school...

Which is TODAY.  Whew!  I'm exhausted.  It was full of fun and memories but this girl is ready for some routine and structure.  My house is ready to be cleaned and my body is ready to regulate.

I am so thankful for all of the amazing opportunities we had this summer.  It was magical.  Now, bring on 3rd and 5th grade.

That was then

this is now



Where did my babies goooooooo?????