Summer...abbreviated

Can you believe I missed a whole month of blogging??? Let us see, I'm not even sure where to begin. Maybe you to tell the story in pictures:

Princess in training

Girls in sibling harmony

Addy being silly

I would say Molly is exhibiting the full, healthy signs of toddlerhood:)

This would be me losing my mind

I'm totally kidding. There was MUCH more to our summer than that...geez! There was swimming, swimming, and more swimming....day camp....vacations....swimming.

July 4th we made our annual trip to Horseshoe Bay, Texas. It is always so much fun to get together with family. We had 8 kiddos there between the ages of one and six and one itty bitty little blessing. My cousin came in for a little visit with her new daughter, Aspen. It was so sweet to hold a little bundle again, but what was even better was watching two of my favorite people beam with pride over their new daughter! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures because chasing the kids around the lake for 3 days did not yield much opportunity to pick up a camera, but thanks to family members I have copies of pictures.


After we returned it was time to gear up for Mary Ella's 6th birthday party. We had it at Pump-it-Up and it was so much fun. My kids stayed on the slide the entire time...even Molly. Can we say, "trying to keep up with the sisters???"

Yes that is Molly coming down the slide

All of Mary Ella's cute friends

After the birthday party, Mary Ella and Addy went to my mom and Bryan's farm for a few days. They had so much fun going to the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory, water park, riding tractors and calling cows. Addy is still doing the cow call at random times. I will also add that my mom had all FIVE of these children by herself and she survived! What a brave, brave woman she is :). It was so interesting to just have one child at home. I had considerable difficulty and actually a little anxiety over slowing down my pace. I constantly felt like I needed to be doing something or forgetting something. Below are some of the picture my mom took.

The fast pace returned just in time to go see our good friends, Rodney and Jennifer. They have one little boy and another little boy on the way. It was SUCH a good visit and a blessing to have that time with them.

The next weekend we packed up and made the 18 hour road trip to Colorado. Taking several pieces advice, the kids did remarkably well...no...EXCELLENT! We now have the possibility of white, sandy beaches in our minds. I'll have to write a separate post for all we learned on that trip for the sake of getting caught up. We enjoyed fishing, seeing my dad and his wife Eleanor, 45 degree nights, campfires, and cool, crisp mornings. Ahhhh, so nice. Needless to say, after our busy summer, it took a good couple of weeks to get back to "normal" around here and prepare for the beginning of school which will, again, come in another post.

So that is pretty much the very abbreviated summer summary. I will hopefully jump back on the blogging train as our routine begins to settle. Hope all of you had a safe summer vacation as well. Love to all!