summer

confession: I honestly wasn't sure what to expect out of this summer.

 I spent most of the school year feeling overwhelmed with life and caring for the kids and house and never got to the point where I really felt settled into a groove - thanks to illness, surgery, sick kids, ER visits, sick kids, tragedy, sick kids...did I mention that our kids were crazy sick this year?

so I was wondering how this summer would feel - all three kids home.  would it be overwhelming?  would we all be sick, again? would there be enough to do?  would I feel like we had too much travel or too little travel? would I spend the whole summer breaking up fights?

as we are now embarking on our third week of summer, I find most of my fears laid aside and am relishing the laziness of each day!  We are all enjoying sleeping in and eating slow breakfasts in our pajamas, nowhere to race off to (except the pool or beach or necessary store run), catching up with family and friends we don't get to see as often during the school year.  and really, being all together is great.

And yes, there are the daily, hourly, sometimes minutely sibling fights to break up or the baby to peel off of biting someone and there have been enormous loads of laundry to do (9 in 24 hours, thanks Matty for taking that on) and often stressful traveling situations that involve high pitched shrieking (not my own).

but I'm happy at the end of the day that we can spend this time together and make these memories...

visiting Great Grandma 

 driving go carts for Father's Day

 playing a lot of Crazy 8s while waiting for food at restaurants

pool time with Grammy

(and Hannah swimming on her own, hurray)

running in cold waves with friends

 just being together

 getting really, really dirty

eating amidst the Redwood trees

singing a lot of "Let it Go"

cousin sleepover at our house

 perfecting the art of roasting a marsmellow

and teaching it to others

enjoying the fruits of our labor

 as it turns out, 

having these three little people all to myself and not having to share them with school

is pretty fun

most of the time. :)

london

oh hello,



I thought before I moved on to sharing about all the current adventures going on in our family I would back up and post a few pictures of our marathon day in London.
(no we didn't run 26.2 miles but we came close to walking it.)



I had never visited London before so we packed in seeing all the major sites in one day.
(okay, there's a lot we missed and I look forward to going back)

We started at the Tower of London

riding the conveyor belt over and over again to see the Crown Jewels.

 

 

We got a great view of the Tower Bridge.

And Matt tried out his sharp shooter skills.

 

Abigail spent the whole day in our Ergo carrier, sleeping, smiling at other tourists
and taking in the sights and sounds.

Our next stop was to ride a double decker bus to St. Paul's cathedral.

And then on to a boat ride down the River Thames.

 

I saw the The London Bridge I sang about as a kid.

We got off the river to see Big Ben

and Westminster Abbey.

 

 

 

 

After much searching and literally walking in circles,
we found a yummy Indian restaurant for dinner.

On this trip Matt discovered a love for almond Magnum ice cream bars.

 Our last stop was Buckingham Palace and we just happened to be there
for the changing of the guard.
(Can anyone tell me why there are "guards" and armed "guards"?)

Whew!  

Tired and with sore feet we got back on the underground.  

Back to our hotel.

And then flew home!

Matt's favorite

(This post could be titled "Matt's favorite" or "the day I wanted 'to batter' Susanne".)

When our Scottish friend Susanne suggested a 3 hour walk both Matt and I quickly agreed!!
It turns out our definitions of "walk" were very different.

We set out on a sunny day, with our lunches packed, for what I thought would be a nice stroll through rolling hills and maybe around a lake.



After an hour of moderate hiking we came upon this lake and I assumed this was our stopping point.

It turns out we were barely halfway there.

We spent the next 1 hour and 20 minutes climbing stone steps straight up the side of the mountain.

now high above the lake

My legs were shaking and Matt (not knowing what we getting ourselves into) was still carrying a sleeping Abigail on the front of him and could barely see the steps.
 I kept telling him it was okay with me if we didn't go all the way to the top.

But we plowed on.

I'm pretty sure this story will someday make it into a sermon on endurance.

And we made it to the top!
Ben-y-Vrackie

Matt, Abigail, Susanne, & her niece Hannah

Abigail was all smiles after her nap

 there's that lake again from the top

Matt felt pretty mighty for hiking and carrying a baby to the top

the way down

me and my girl (on a nursing stop)

a tired mama, it was at this point Susanne told me that in Scotland they have a phrase "wanting to batter" someone and that probably I wanted to batter her at that point for taking us on such a mountain climb.

the sign post to Ben-y-Vrackie and the mountain on the right (almost a 3000 ft climb)

Whoops, we missed this sign on the way up!

So, should you ever be in Scotland and get asked to go on a 3 hour walk - be warned - you may actually be agreeing to a 4 hour mountain climbing adventure!