Summer...in review

Yeah.

Apparently, after taking a photo a day for a few months, I really loose interest in taking pictures.

So here is a recap of the first half of our summer.

This summer...

we played (and watched) a LOT of baseball



went to camp



had a mini reunion with 4 of the 7 families we traveled to China with



watched (and marched in) a parade



climbed some fences



played on the beach





a lot...




spent time with our cousins



learned to row a boat



trained for a triathalon



became an official "Lake Monster"



relaxed...



made friends with some farm animals



checked out the Chicago skyline from one of the tallest buildings in the world







and that was just July...

66/365 Max and Ruby

We enjoyed our three-day mid-winter escape to a waterpark resort, but let's face it, at some point, you need to get out of the water. We don't subscribe to cable at home, so my kids LOVE going to hotels to see the shows all of their friends talk about at school!

This time, however, we found the first Star Wars on t.v. and we all got engrossed in it as we (literally) tried to shake the water out of our ears. Lily, not so taken with Star Wars, watched an episode of Max and Ruby on our portable DVD player.

Within minutes, all three kids had drifted from Star Wars to Max and Ruby. And they stayed there until it was time to go to dinner.... Sometimes, a couple of cute little talking bunnies can really help you to relax!

Labor Day in Door County

Our final farwell to summer.

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Door County, Wisconsin.



This photo was taken about 5 minutes before we left this spot (Cave Point) and got soaked by a downpour!

Summer Road Trip - Day 11

Louisville, KY

Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum



We spent our last day of vacation in Louisville, Kentucky at the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and Museum.



For our two little baseball fanatics, this stop was a hit.



We got to see how the bats for the pros are made and we got to take home a free mini bat.



Joey got to hold Mickey Mantle's bat.



My kids are great road trippers--maybe they have a bit of their mom and dad's wanderlust in them. We're sad to see it's over (Sam said 12 days just isn't a long-enough vacation. Next year he wants to take a 6 month vacation!)

Summer Road Trip - Day 9

Tybee Island, GA

We were all a bit jellyfish weary when we woke up on our final full day on Tybee Island, so we thought we would skip the beach in the morning and visit some of Tybee Island's other sights.

We headed down to the Pier and Pavilion, the south beach and the souveneir stores!







(I don't think we ever decided if Sam liked the snoball or not!)

But we came here to spend time at the beach, so it was back to the beach for us in the late afternoon. It was cooler, there were no jellyfish and rather than following the tide as it went out, we were able to watch it as it came in. The boys made sand castles and tried desperately to save them from the encroaching water.









And Lily found that this big, big ocean wasn't so scary after all!

Summer Road Trip - Day 8

Tybee Island and Fort Pulaski, GA

Day 8 on Tybee Island.

Otherwise known to us as "the day the jellyfish ruled the ocean."

We had such a great time at the North beach yesterday, we thought we would grab the same spot of sand on the beach again today.

The boys jumped right in with their new boogie boards--although Lily still prefered to look for shells.

Have I mentioned we're Lake people? There are no pests to worry about when you are swimming in the lake. However, on this particular day, in this particular spot in the ocean, there were pests to worry about. Jellyfish in particular. LOTS of jellyfish.

See the purple flag at the life guard station? If I would have paid any attention to those flags (like I would at the beach in Chicago), I would have noticed that the purple flag means "marine pests. Each of us (except Lily) got stung at least three times. I'll know next time to take a container of ammonia with me to the beach. No, we didn't pee on each other, but we were told afterward that the worst thing you can do is to go running out of the ocean, which is exactly what we would do every time we got stung.

After a few hours of that, we were all ready to move on to another activity. We took a short boat trip to see some dolphins (and a pretty lighthouse). We saw LOTS of dolphins. It's really hard to get a photo of them. But that's okay, because Sam was documenting all of the critters we saw on this trip in his journal.

After the boat trip, we stopped at Fort Pulaski. The boys in particular got a big kick out of this historical stop. Cannons, moats, more cannons and a jail cell for prisoners of war? What more could a kid want?

Crossing over the moat to the fort...(Sam is into posing these days.)

Summer Road Trip - Day 7

Tybee Island, GA




Within the first 10 minutes of hitting the beach on Tybee Island the kids were back to their old selves again. These Midwestern born, summers-at-Lake Michigan boys were a bit turned off by the salty water, so we spent a good part of the morning looking for shells.



Lily would barely put a toe in the water, but she entertained herself for hours picking up shells and studying them!

There are miles of public beach on Tybee. We spent the morning and most of the afternoon at North Beach and then checked out South Beach in the evening. There is an amazing sand bar at the south beach that just seems to go on forever. Of course, if you stay there long enough, the tide will come in and you'll be in trouble!

By the end of the day, the kids were used to the salty water and they started to enjoy the ocean...