Summer Fun Minus the 101

Last summer I challenged myself to make 101 Memories with my kids between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It was a smashing success. It really helped me to stay on track and take time to do fun things instead of working my life away. You can read more about our adventures here.


Several people have asked me if I'm gonna do it again this year. I debated it for a bit but I think we would have ended up with many of the same ideas. My creative juices are limited. But I've been trying to be intentional about making the most of our summer vacation. Here's a peek at what we've been up to.

In addition to our visitors from Ghana, 

We also had visitors from Florida.

Aunt Sherri and Little Miss Abigail

A family reunion.

A chance to reconnect with cousins and friends we only see every few years (or less.)

These guys hadn't seen each other in 7 years.

We celebrated Grandma's 60th birthday with a special cake at the reunion and then a family dinner at Olive Garden. (Or as one of my clowns dubbed it, "Pickle Garden.")

A little bit of cousin time.

8 kids looking in 1 direction -- Yeah right! We tried.

There has been  few baseball games but nearly as many as other years. Daddy is taking the year off

from the team this year and Ty played with the school team so his games were all over

before summer vacation started.

My little slugger!

The 3 oldest attended Bible School. I've been looking for a good place to make this happen for 

awhile but I wasn't able to make schedules and locations work for us before.

They loved it!

While they were gone I tried to do some special things with the little ones.

Love me some Rita's!

 We renewed our library card that had apparently expired in 2009 or 2010. REALLY? 

How did that happen? It's sad to think we haven't been taking advantage of that resource

but  it's all the more exciting now. 

Soakin' up the lazy summer days.

We even spent a day at the truck parade, where we soaked in plenty of sunshine and diesel fumes

and tried to pretend Daddy wasn't brain washing us. :)

Look at that shiny truck.

We braved the fireworks madness for the first time in many years. We've either been
gone over the 4th or just weren't up to taking the crew out for a party that started
long after bedtime the last few years. We tried a new spot this year and had a fabulous time.

And we're off and running!!
Time for some more fun!
 (or at least time to get the breakfast dishes done :o)