VBS, which is the first week of summer break, seems like it was so long ago. I know I have done blog posts already on the summer but I feel like doing on to cover the whole season. Partly, because today, Aug. 24 is the last day of the life I have been living for the past almost 8 years! Tomorrow school starts and both of my girls will be in school most of the day! Today at lunch we talked about our summer and some highlights. Both Lydia and Gloria said-Awesome! Caleb described it as busy and Russia-y. And yes once we've forgotten all the little fun outings and events, we will always remember 2014 as the year we went to Russia!
But from the beginning, VBS was a wonderful week. I loved having both girls in my class; the material of learning about Jesus was great and the weather was so mild that we had long picnics and outside playtime afterwards with friends.
As soon as VBS was over we took a trip to the BEACH. I love that our family makes a point to go to the ocean at least once a year. Yet every time I hope to truly enjoy the feeling of vastness and joy of feeling the waves and seeing my children run into them. We made a shell photo frame later in the summer and Lydia chose to print this picture because she liked how her hair was blowing. (Of course there were downsides to the summer as well including getting a pretty bad sunburn but that is part of life too.)
Back at home, we hadn't done anything in Austin yet. June & July are full of fun things to do like $1 summer movies (Despicable Me 2), Library special events (Singing Zoologist, Tap Dancing, Magic Show, Puppet Show, Glow Dance party), Caleb's fishing events (Cabelas, Kids Fish at Buescher), of course getting together with friends and something new for this summer were the LBJWC Nature Nights. We got to go to three and enjoyed their new family garden. These events are a highlight of the summer, I love the challenge of fitting them into a schedule that keeps us busy and engaged but not too busy that we feel crazy. There is a lot of quality performances and education that happens and all we have to do is show up!
Books! Of course, Lydia's summer challenge from her teacher (more on that later) highly stressed the importance of reading and I love that our family loves to read, in fact, right now as I type they are all reading Calvin & Hobbs books. For VBS, I knew that we needed a distraction for the long drive with three girls so during the week we listened to the entire Little House on the Prairie! Then we read our first super long chapter book together (that I hid for Lydia so she could read ahead)-Growly. Each afternoon for a few weeks, we would sit and read a few chapters. Lydia also has become one of those girls who go missing for a while and is discovered with a book. She has read several on her own. My book club kept meeting and it was fun to get out with friends on the town, once a month. We discuss the book some but really just enjoy being together.
This picture represents Family and the many great times we had with them. I am so thankful that my parents live close and that Aunt Kathy was with them this summer. We got together with Dad's side of the family at the lake and Bill also came with his 'big' kids to stay with us for a night. Its been great to see so much of family this summer. And while we don't get to pick our family, I am so thankful for mine.
Hamilton pool, a super fun Austin summer outing.. Abbey & family went to China and we spent this awesome time talking about world travel, enjoying the great outdoors and friends.
And this happened. Did you hear that we went to St. Petersburg, Russia to see Catherine, Justin (the photographer above with us in front of the Church on Spilled Blood), Gabriel & Abigail? The highlight of the summer, what we've been talking about with everyone we see, what I devoted the entire month of July blogging about! Really, the trip was amazing: the kids behaved, slept and toured amazingly, the weather was amazing, the time with family was amazing, the sites and nature were amazing. One night in Salado the girls tried to sleep in the camper and Lydia just got overtired and cried for several hours, this happened again when we had a friend visiting and she and Gloria was sleeping in the same room; all that to say, that I what I expected in Russia and it never happened! We were nervous about their behavior on the airplane-they were great. So now that I know that my kids can travel, I am dreaming of all the places we can go together. Have passport, will travel!! Though it will take me about 8 months of working to replenish our savings......
which leads me to this: I have a job! In the Spring, I gave my resume to David at ABA and asked him to forward it to any churches that needed admin help. Pastor Samuel of Park Hills contacted me and to make a long story short, I had an interview the week we left for Russia and started working the week we returned. Its a small church just across Mopac from our 2nd apartment in Austin. I work three days a week 8:30-3:30. While so thankful to have a job, which I thought looking for the end of the summer was going to be a great stressor, figuring out a childcare schedule was interesting. But again my family and friends are amazing and it was covered! Caleb has comp time from work and took off about once a week, our neighbor kept the girls about once a week and then between other friends, a day of VBS/afternoon in the office and Dad coming down, the other day a week was covered.
I had expected the month of August for us to have a slower month, Lydia would finish her summer challenge, we would go to the pool and watch movies in the afternoon, we would get together with friends. Well we did some of that but shoved it all together into the days I wasn't working. So Lydia did not finish her folder but hopefully the experience of international travel engaged her mind enough this summer.
Oklahoma! We spent the day in Zilker Park, swam (a little) in super cold Barton Springs, had a picnic with family and Janine and friend met us all for Oklahoma, the Musical. It was fun and a great summer experience in Austin.
For Gloria preparing for school we planned her Kindergarten trip. We went back to Sea World and enjoyed the shows, animals and rides.
The girls did Frozen dance camp!
You can't live through a summer in Texas and not spend most outside time in your swimsuit (in my opinion). And August was full of water fun. For four Saturdays in a row, we went to a kid friend's water birthday party. Gloria's friend from school at a 2 foot pool, Charles our neighbor at a pool that was 11.5 feet (the girls loved trying to dive), Adelyn at a splash pad (it wasn't working but we enjoyed the cooler weather and a tadpole puddle), and Jacob's (above) with Nita. We also did the sprinkler a time or two in the yard, and we frequented our neighborhood pool several times a week.
On the Saturday before school started, we finally checked off one of Caleb's things to do for the summer: Stand Up Paddle Boarding. If you drive over the Colorado River in town, you will always see tons of people on these things. Fun thing is the morning we were heading out we got a groupon for one. The kids had camped the night before at Summer's so we got a later start and had to wait a bit but the girls played with elephant ear leaves and there was shade but then we got our two boards. Gloria started with me and Lydia with Caleb, they sat on the back, stood, wiggled their way to the front and also 'accidentally' fell off and switched boards. We paddled for an hour and splashed ourselves to stay cool. If we do it again I want to take our camera out in a waterproof device because it was so beautiful and fun and pretty easy to float around. There was a little cove and as were we exiting it, we went along the shore under some cypress tree branches that were hanging low. We were in the shade and Lydia and Caleb were in front of me and Gloria was on the front hanging her arms in and I realized why that outdoor company chose their logo-in the peaceful nature moment, all the stresses (which don't get outlined in this blog) just melted away and I thought: Life Is Good!
