Thursday

For all my tough talk about not shedding a tear, today was a little more emotional.

Even though time faithfully treks on each day, the beginning and ending of school years seem to punctuate life stages like nothing else.

School is just so defining...I still remember every elementary teacher in every grade. {High school is a little more foggy.}

In general, life rhythmically moves from one week to the next without significance, but today I could tangibly feel the pages turning. And while I'm excited for the next chapter, I really liked this chapter.

It is like the most wonderful story that you can't help but dread the end.

{I'm hopeful that explains why I cried THREE separate times in the latest Harry Potter movie.}

We had the most wonderful summer and I wasn't ready to wrap it up. Taking trips, staying up late, and having no scheduling conflicts except deciding which pool to visit were an amazing gift.

That said, I never want it to appear like we have this perfect little family that speaks calmly, lovingly, and rarely fights. Who eats healthy meals and all sit down around the table for dinner. Who tell enchanting bedtime stories and bathe daily and give generously and leave random surprises for each other.

Actually, we ARE some of those things, some of the time.

But we also have short tempers, issues with attitudes, eye-rolling, and razor-sharp tongues. Sometimes we do the bare minimum {poorly, at that}, and selfishness divides us. We drink too much soda, regret money spent, and have a basement that isn't fit for swamp vermin.

So I remember that it is a choice, {not denial} to see the small beauty in the midst of messes. I choose to cling to the hopefulness of trying but failing, instead of the repeated frustration that my effort was not enough. Again.

I LOVE having the kids at home for the summer.

And I LOVE when they go back to school.

I honestly don't prefer one over the other--they each have unique joys and challenges. But my contentment can't balance on whether or not the day suits my tastes. Contentment it is simply finding happiness matter what unfolds each day.

Isn't that what joy is? Contentment in anything...not waiting for the new/improved/better/finished this or that.

So anyway...

I'm working on that whole contentment thing...starting with being content that it will take a lifetime of growth.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...


The wind tunnel of Parker has gifted us with some new to bi-fold shutters.

I think it's pretty common for shutters to break/bend in two while we're out to dinner.

But of course, it cracked me up that I couldn't get a picture of the damage without the rainbow in the background. Sometimes the Lord has to make the silver lining really obvious.

And this is Just Day 1

In what turned out to be a genius move, I confirmed that I DO, in fact, want my kids to go back to school this week.

Sometimes, right before school begins obscenely early in August, I have thoughts of a longer summer, more late nights, ice cream runs {although my shorts are protesting}, and lazy days.

Then today, millions of children came over, played wildly, needed 75 band-aids, bled all over the house, caused me to tweezer splinters out of a few pairs of dirty feet, fought, name-called, cried, and became irate when after SEVEN HOURS of non-stop play, I broke up the party.

So, back to school on August 3rd?

YES.

But I'm going to live in my fantasy vacation world a little longer...so we're finally to one of my favorite parts of our trip: the beach!

I hope that a murky lake with an artificially sandy shore qualifies as a beach, because that's where awesomeness happens.

The past several years, we've gone to camp in Michigan with Brad's family...all the uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents and those in various stages of dating come to have a wonderful weekend together.

It's so much fun to watch all of the kids play together, build sandcastles, water ski, play mini golf, kayak, zipline, and giggle.

The adults talk, talk, talk, lifeguard when necessary, and try to read books.

It's a place where a swim suits are the only attire required and showers don't even get you clean.

But that's ok, because it's fun:)

Didn't get nearly as many pictures as I wanted, but the sand/water elements make having the phone/camera at hand VERY risky. VERY.

Lilly is always one to be part of the castle-making effort. I love her navy and white swimsuit. Such a classic.
Navy and white always feels Kennedy-ish...like we're vacationing on the Cape in our compound.

I mean, doesn't this just SCREAM elegance and fashion?


Right.

Lilly and Allie are looking a little beach-ified, but sweet. Allie is our newest cousin and STINKING CUTE. There really aren't words. She is like a little peanut you can put in your pocket, but tough as nails.

Well played, Allie.
Oh, I forgot to mention the water gun fights.


And digging for buried treasure.

And paddleboats.

And sandcastles.
And COUSINS! Did you see them all? They rock. There is an amazing bond and so much love even though they don't see each other nearly enough.

Of course, the fave activity is anything related to the boat.

Lilly is pretty much the Evel Knievel of tubing.

She is too strong and too little to throw off the tube without causing serious harm.

Sadly, I didn't get some of her best tubing moments on camera. She and Jake took more of a sea cruise around the like that involved him clinging to the tube for dear life while protesting the "speed" of the boat, and Lilly standing up behind him experimenting with various gymnastics poses.

I was too busy laughing so hard I cried to get pictures.

We had no problem, however, throwing Brad and Jackson.

{Too bad the iphone doesn't have a telephoto lens. Maybe the 5.}

Dude, all that fun is tiring.


Yes, indeed.

Chi-town

My blogging mojo is nowhere to be found.

We've had a constant, awesome stream of friends and family staying out back in the lavish guest house {with private pool}, so there hasn't been much time to upload horrific pictures to the blog.

Until tonight.

But first, I should share that in my continuing pursuit for organizational excellence, I got my vehicle's emissions test AND renewed the vehicle registration today--the very last day of the grace period.

It seems like most citizens take care of things like this yearly, but I narrowly avoided a ticket in February for having expired license plate stickers.

In my defense, I had PAID for the stickers last July, but promptly lost them and didn't want to go back to get another set. Turns out, that might've been a good idea.

Luckily, I befriended the cop and came out ticket-free. {He pointed out that next time he might also ticket me for having a non-functional rearview mirror and texting at the stoplight.}

{Again, in my defense--our garage is really narrow and the mirror is holding together wonderfully considering it's been bumped at least 50 times, and I WASN'T texting at the stoplight. I was just reading the internet at a stoplight. In a car with expired stickers.}

Which leads me to Chicago.

{not really}

We had the best time with Brad's side of the family waaayyy back in early July.

The kids flew solo to see Grandma for a few days. From all descriptions, the flight was great and they had more fun than should be allowed.

Brad and I feel amazingly blessed to have parents with far more energy than us. Grandma Mac had more fun with the kids before 10 a.m. than I could hope to accomplish in an entire summer.

I crashed the par-tay on Wednesday and we went to see Peter Pan.

Holy smokes it was unbelievable! Peter Pan has always been one of my faves and this was the best production ever. We were up close and personal, which made it extra-cool.

My only complaint was that Captain Hook wasn't nearly as cute as I remembered.


Next up was the Sears Tower. I could call by it's new name, the Willis Tower, but no one, including myself, would know what I was talking about.


Last time we went, I was somewhere in the kid years, so it was fun to see it through adult eyes.

It is TALL. And tower-like.


How could Chicago NOT be your favorite city in the world?

I haven't been most places, but I'm sure it would still rank higher. And if not, I probably don't want to find out:)


The biggest change to the Sears Tower since my Debbie Gibson-loving days is the addition of The Ledge.

Didn't get any great pictures of them from the ground, but they're these *ledges* that hang out over the side of the building, 103 stories in the air.

Cue the theatrical drama.


J was doing his Michael Jordan impersonation 103 stories over a very busy street.

I'll never be asked to author a book on effective parenting, but Brad and I consider Jackson's love of Michael Jordan to be a child-rearing success.

It's the little things.

Lilly wanted to play dead. And I was far more concerned about how gross it was to have her face where thousands of people put their nasty shoes each day, than I was worrying about the glass suddenly breaking and her plummeting to her death.

It's the little things.

Thanks, Grandma, for a stellar day in the Windy City!! I didn't even mention the awesome sandwich shop we stopped at for lunch or the fact that even the airport smells delish.

If I don't get distracted by choosing new paint colors or attaching registration stickers to my car, I'll have some photos of family camp posted "soon."

Partied Out

Oh heavens.

I've hit the same rustic brick wall of blogging yet again.

The one in which we've had so much fun and been so many places and have so many pictures that the thought of blogging about them causes a brain power-down.

And then I think of the fun times I DIDN'T grab on my camera.

So instead of blogging, I painted my door for the third time this year.

I also sold our old plasma TV {which I am picturing right now at a pawn shop} and king mattress on Craigslist.

Actually, we listed the mattress for FREE to anyone who could come pick it up.

And they weren't even alarmed when it rolled rather burrito-like into the back of the car.

I may not be a smart man, Jenny, but I know that a taco-esque mattress given away for free has questionable future at best.

In the name of blog accountability, I'm just checking in to let you know I'll be back with all the vacay funnery.

Until then, here are a few pics from before we left. The kids had a great time at basketball camp. They both improved a ton and rocked the hoop on tournament day.


The {early} morning the kids left for Chicago, we kept running into this guy in the airport.

I finally had to take a picture the 7th time we ran into him, because Brad and I kept giggling at his SWIM TRUNKS.

6 a.m. on a Sunday. With a fanny pack.

I wanted so badly to ask him what un-missable swimming opportunity lay on the horizon at his destination. That is preparedness, people.

I'm Dreaming of a Warm Summer...

just like the ones I used to know...

where the sweat glistens,
and children listen
to hear something other than the sound of rain and tornado sirens.

Colorado is a lovely, lovely place.
But I had to use the seat warmers in the Burb tonight.



That is just wrong.

Haven't even turned on our air-conditioning yet.

While I appreciate the savings, that is just WRONG.


So that's why I'm looking at pictures of our swim-a-thon in Texas. We did try to swim here one day, but they closed the entire pool deck when lightning was spotted in Wyoming.

Yesterday, we shuffled Jackson and Lilly onto a plane ALL BY THEMSELVES to go see Grandma and Grandpa in Chicago. Whoo hoo!

They are having a blast. I'm so thankful for awesome in-laws who love to have fun and party non-stop.

That is Jackson perfecting his can-opener flip. Super handy for Olympic diving competitions.


And I would say Lilly's flip gets an A+ on technical merit.

Brad and I have been doing some pretty amazing things while the kids are gone...including, but not limited to: mattress shopping, pillow shopping, Harry Potter marathon, and eating popcorn for dinner.

My dream was so sit on the patio at my favorite Mexican restaurante last night, but the monsoon prevented it.

Last January, while Brad was in Chile, it was way below zero and the ol' heater froze. No heat.

In fact, that I had to climb up into the attic, with electrical tape leftover from the Wizard of Oz birthday party and use a hair dryer to get our furnace working again. I made an emergency call to the HVAC guy and bought some heat tape that still required me to MacGuyver the furnace into working again.

It was not a great moment. But somewhere in that dark, cold, and scary attic, I felt the promise of sunny days and HEAT just four months around the corner.

Instead, I have three sweatshirts in my car and perma-goosebumps.

WHAT IS GOING ON?!

Baseball

4th of July eve, we all headed to the Texas Rangers game. It's become an annual tradition because we all love baseball and were on a quest to find out exactly what temperature kills healthy humans.

It was really convenient to celebrate America and the Rangers since they wear the same colors. Score! Brandon-boy had to sit this one out. As charming and delightful as 2 year-olds are at baseball games, we thought his first experience might go better for all when he's 5:)

There is this awesome family area out behind center field where the kids can pitch, run the bases, take batting practice, etc. I, however, spent as much time as possible meeting new friends over by the misters.

No idea what the game time temp was, and I honestly don't mind the heat. It's summer in Texas--what do you expect? My only issues with the heat come due to the fact that I sweat more than sumo wrestlers in a steam room.

Within minutes of being outside, I felt sweat trickling down my leg. No, that's being polite. I felt river-like rapids drenching my shorts.

My wrists sweat. My shins sweat. And I have no way of proving this, but my eyeballs even sweat.

But I've learned to embrace it and I don''t even pretend the giant wet spot on my shirt was due to a water spill. {Although equally likely.} It is my own filth on display for total strangers.





Hopefully you are noting throughout the multiple clothing variations between Lilly and Rylie. The hats and shirts were flying around like it was a costume party.


Love this picture of J and Papa. Dad put the love of baseball in my heart as a little kid and he is doing the same for Jackson. As they say, baseball is a "talkin' game" and that's what I love about it so much.

Talking about the game, about life, and about future concession stand decisions.

One of our most dire food choices was made for us because it was $1 Blue Bell sundae cone night.


I wish the cones had come with a siphon, because it wasn't so much a savoring licking motion as a whip-lashing for your tongue as it raced around the cone to devour the melting ice cream.

But the real winner of the night was the portable air conditioners.

Grammy snuck out Sunday afternoon and stocked up on fan/spray bottles and batteries. I thought it was a little much, but in hindsight might I say: GENIUS.

{J just looks like he's being defeated by the heat, doesn't he?}

Lilly and Rylie took it upon themselves to mist our entire section. And they truly didn't mind.

Due to my sweat issues, I barely needed the spray action. JUST GIVE ME THE FAN.

Their little trigger fingers had to be exhausted by the end of the night. I would conservatively say they were pumping water 99.9% of the time. Maybe more.


While driving home, we were trying to decide if we were dirtier after a day in Disney World {a day in the park will leave you wearing a layer of first-class grime} or after the Rangers game.

Rangers, hands down.