Our Summer... So Far



Our little fam has had a great summer so far. With our little man on the way and Matt and I both staying crazy busy at work, we haven't been able to do much but daydream about venturing too far from home this year, but that doesn't mean we haven't been able to squeeze in some fun times.

 

We got lucky this year that the 4^th of July was on a Friday, and that it happened to be the weekend Matt was scheduled to be off anyway. I was able to switch my day off for the week to Thursday, and we packed up to head to Island Park for the weekend. It was the first time we’ve been able to go up for the traditional 4^th of July trip since Beckett was about 10 weeks old, and despite my nerves about taking our hyperactive 3 year old into the wilderness with every possible scenario running through my brain (drowning in the river, being charged by a moose, you name it) we all had so much fun this year, and when it was time to go home we were all wishing we could stay longer. Yeah, even me, who is hugely pregnant right now (and let's face it, I'm kind of a whiner about the heat) and we had very little AC. It was that fun.

We (and by "we" I mean Beckett and his devoted Daddy, who spoiled him rotten and spent the whole weekend as a prune in the process) spent hours playing in the river by our camp. They even floated part of the river with Aunt Carrie, Uncle Taylor, and Uncle Enee, which surprised me. They floated for a little over an hour, and I honestly did not think Beckett had it in him to sit in the boat that long, but he LOVED it, and made me wish I had braved going along, too.

 

 

All that sun really tuckered both of my guys out, though, which meant lots of good naps, and no fighting to go down at bedtime. Which, you know, is a big problem for Matthew. :)

 

We also ventured to Big Springs a few times, which is a protected area where you're not supposed to fish. There are usually dozens and dozens of GIANT fish (Beckett kept calling them "sharkie fishes"), but I think people have been fishing there illegally since they have all but disappeared. When we couldn't see fish, there were lots of seagulls (including one lovely specimen who crapped on my head) and even a cute little muskrat to feed. The day that we were able to finally see and feed a couple fish, we also saw a momma moose and her cub. Pretty awesome.

 

 

Other than our trip to Island Park, we have kept it pretty low key around our place. We spend LOTS of time playing in the water at our house, and even recently got Beckett a "big boy pool" with a slide on it that he thinks is pretty sweet. It makes me so happy that such a little thing keeps him happy, because heading outside when we're all home for the night with a couple otter pops is about all I have energy for these days after work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have had some pretty fun times when I've been able to drag Beckett -who I swear is half-fish like his dad- away from the water activities, too. We took a trip to the Dinosaur Park, where Beckett just wanted to hug all the dinosaurs. Man, I love that kid. 

 

 

 

We have seen this pose many times since our trip to the dino park, which cracks me up every time. Especially when he says "Hey Mommmmm, I have dinosaur claws." and jumps into his pose and growls at me. Hilarious.

 

We were also able to finally redeem our bounce-back tickets to the aquarium before they expire this month. We had even more fun the second time around, and stayed at least twice as long as we did the first time.

 

I wish I had thought this through before using my flash against the glass, but the aquarium has all these little boxes set up in their exhibits and some fish tanks, where you can stand in there and see everything up close. Unfortunately, the otter (which let's face it, are usually like the best part) were all cuddled up sleeping when we went this time, but it was still fun to get to see them up close.

 

 

Other than these couple of excursions, our summer hasn't been too exciting. We mostly stick around the house whenever we are able to and try to beat the heat.

 

 

One funny thing I have to share to I remember, is that Beckett has become obsessed with putting band aids on his owies, just like my sister at his age. He burned a couple of his fingers on the stove a few weeks ago, which was not fun, but it wasn't anything some burn ointment and then some Neosporin and band aids couldn't handle. Well, when I picked him up from his babysitter the next day, he looked like this. He kills me. I mean, even the look on his face because he knew I was taking a picture of him with his owies, he just kills me. He had to have it bandaged like this for days, so every time we went anywhere people were asking what happened to him, until finally I told him he was just going to have an elmo band aid for his 2 burned fingers. He still kept holding it this way for about a week though, until the blisters had completely healed and the band aids came off completely so he forgot about it. Here's hoping we don't have many owies in the near future before we leave this owie obsessed phase, otherwise we could be single handedly keeping Band Aid in business.



 

He even insisted he put band aids on our chalk Beckett last week, see those nice blue lines? Yeah, band aids.

 

 

 

And as much as I hate to do it, I know I would regret not taking any belly pictures. I already regret taking so many less than I did the first time. (As in - this is only my second one.) This is me and the little man a few weeks ago, at 33 weeks prego. 

 

And one last final silly picture - Beckett has been asking to have his hair "spiky like a hedgehog" the last little while, and every time I see this picture it cracks me up, so I had to share it.

 

 

I think that about wraps up our goings-on. A few years ago, I probably would have thought this sounded like a boring summer, but as we try to prepare everything for the new bebe, we are trying to enjoy the little things and spend as much time as we can having fun as a family of 3 before our lives are turned upside down in the best way possible. It has been a perfect summer for us so far, and we are excited for the rest of summer and beginning of fall, which means Peach Days, and finally meeting baby brother - only 4-5 weeks to go!