Summer Recap

Already the summer is gone- tomorrow is the first day of school for E. I know we must be the last school in the country to be starting, or at least among the last! So before we dive into the "new year" I thought I'd give a quick recap on what we've been up to.

Let's see, where did I last leave off? Ah yes, the neighborhood ice cream party. Well, after that we enjoyed one of our annual summer highlights- a weekend in Brigantine with some good friends of ours. It was a gorgeous weekend, and despite N's fever both days we were there, we managed to have a fun time collecting shells, swimming in the warm surf, making sand castles, playing games, and just enjoying each others' company.

The kids finally got to camp out in the back yard with Ed. We had bought him a tent and sleeping bag for Father's Day, and they have been begging for a chance to sleep in it. So one weekend when we were in town, and the weather was great, Ed set up the tent. We roasted s'mores, and then we all lay in the tent for a little while before I headed inside to my bed and Ed, E and N enjoyed sleeping in the great outdoors, or at least, the great outdoors of a suburban backyard!


I was pleasantly surprised when my room mate from college, Sue, called me up to say she would like to come visit while her older kids were visiting their grandparents for a week in Maryland. She drove all the kids down from Michigan, and then came up with her 6 month old baby for 3 days. It was so good to see her. And her baby was adorable- quite possibly one of the cutest babies I have ever seen! And the kids loved him too- E wanted to hold him all the time, and K did a happy dance every time they came back from the various day trips and visiting with other friends in the area. It was really refreshing to be with her as we laughed and reminisced together as well as caught up with each other-- totally a gift from the Lord.



After Sue left, we packed up for our trip to NH. Because of boat trouble awaiting us on the other end, we had to leave a little later than planned (to give time for the marina to fix it) so we broke up our trip by staying at a hotel in Mass. It was actually pretty neat looking- with a castle front, and our room was right behind one of those front towers. The room itself was gorgeous, and we could even bring in Holly. The kids had so much fun, and K loved her little cot.



Once we got to NH, we had a great week-- lovely weather that started off very warm and in the 80's cycling down to the end of the week when it was in the low 70's and cool, but still nice (except for the last day when we had to clean up, pack up and leave across the lake in a downpour). We had some excitement in the beginning of the week when my mom took a tumble down the last few steps from the upstairs, and need to go to the ER at 8:00 at night. She, Cara and Ed didn't return until 2:30 am after my mom got 10 stitches holding together the gash in her leg!! It was a quiet year, and a bit sad as we remembered and missed Dad, but it was good to be there.







And then we got to stop over with Ed's brother's family on the way back. The kids enjoyed playing with their cousin, and we liked seeing Bill and Becky's new home.

So now the summer is over, and we are ready to take on the new school year- tomorrow will bring pictures of Ellie's first day as a third grader, and then N will be on Friday as a kindergartner!!