Fare Thee Well, Summer–Part II

Well, the temperature doesn’t know it, but Summer has officially ended now that school is in session.  I can’t believe it’s only been 3 days, it feels like we’ve been doing this for a while now.  Poor little Ben is DYING because while he did get to have a little open house on Mon. he doesn’t really start until this coming Monday.  Poor little Joshy just keeps saying, “Where Anna going?”  “Where Abby going?”  “Where Nate going?”.  When I tell him they’re at school it doesn’t mean anything to him so he just keeps asking.  I’m so so so glad Ben will be going to Kindergarten in the afternoons while Joshy’s sleeping so that at least he’ll have one sibling to keep him company in the mornings.   I’m learning very quickly just how much the big kids did to keep him occupied.

We made the most of those last precious few days.  Friday Brennan had an adventure of his own, I’m hoping I can talk him into posting about it, he has some stories to tell.  Friday night, the kids and I drove down to a park to meet up with the rest of my family.  My sister-in-law, Meredith, was here from TN to bring their oldest child, David, to college out here.  We rarely see them so we’re so excited to have David in the same state with us and wanted to make the most of every second Meredith was here.  We met up for a picnic in the park.

This is the only picture I took all night.  I’m a little obsessed with this darling nephew of mine, and I spent most of the night chasing after Joshua

The next day we got up early to participate in our Ward Service Day.  We got the wonderful assignment of helping our good friends sanding and staining their deck.  It was such a great feeling to see my big kids really working.  Sometimes I wonder if they know how, so it’s always thrilling to see that do indeed know how to work, and to see them so committed to helping someone else out made me so happy.

I’m so grateful to our Elder’s Quorum Presidency for organizing this massive undertaking.  I’ve felt kind of desperate to give my kids more opportunities to do service, but I haven’t been good about finding those opportunities.  I loved this experience to be able to help out good friends and do it with our whole family was awesome.

After a couple of hours of sanding, we headed home to get ready for the rest of our big day.  Brennan and Joshy stayed home for naps (Brennan’s adventure took some time to recover from.)  I dropped the 4 big kids off at Josh and Liza’s where my brothers and David and the kids swam for a couple of hours while my Mom and sister, and sisters-in-law went to lunch.  I think that was probably the first time we girls were all together (we missed Rebecca who had a family reunion) by ourselves and it was FABULOUS.   I had so much fun with every one of them.   The kids, of course, had a grand old time being flipped and thrown by their fun uncles.   I have to give my brothers major credit for making every event so much fun. 

Next stop for the day was a big huge neighborhood Western BBQ.  It was at a neighborhood family farm/orchard complete with great food, hay rides, pony rides and entertainment.  I love my neighborhood and neighbors.

We came home exhausted, and ready for bed.  Sunday we had one final little visit with David and Meredith before Mere flew home.

One of the kids snapped this photo of them:

It was so great to have them, but always make me a little sad that we don’t see them more.   David will be around this year, though and we’re so excited!!!!

After church and dinner, Brennan gave the 4 big kids back to school blessings which is always such a sweet experience.  You should have seen how important and special Ben felt (the great thing about Ben is you can literally see every feeling he has in his whole body).  To watch the people I love the most interact in such a heavenly way was just…heavenly.

Goodbye, Summer, we will really miss you – you’ve been a good friend to us!!!!  We love Summer!