So Long Sweet Summer

We spent one evening picnicking at a park. The boys were quickly drawn to the water to "fish" with sticks.

And these boys were drawn to the water for Lincoln's first rock skipping lesson by the family rock skipping pro.

My Miamaids suggested we make a fun treat for mutual one week. I suggested we make homemade ice-cream. Mostly so I could steal my parents' ice-cream maker and have two solid weeks of daily homemade ice-cream. Perfect way to end the summer!

When the older boys are running around the park, I bombard this one with pictures.

Our evening ritual these days is chilling in our shady backyard, jumping on the trampoline, dreaming up home improvements and tickle-attacking Lincoln.

Summer. Can't you just stay forever? Please.

My life as of late is an endless list of unnecessary Disney preparations. It's how I deal with the anticipation. I give myself Disney projects like buying the whole family new swimsuits and meticulously scheduling out our day-by-day play-by-play and buying the boys their...FIFTH...matching t-shirt for the trip. I mean, they HAVE to have SOMETHING to wear when we're driving to Disneyland, don't they?!?

And of course there are no such shirts that fit a 6-month old, a 3-year old and a 5-year old, so I was forced to get creative and turn Lincoln's t-shirt into a romper. With a gulp I sliced into his matching tee, unsure but hopeful I'd be able to pull this project off...

Much to my surprise, it turned out adorably!!!! Now I have a hankering to turn all my old college tees into rompers and turn Lincoln into the biggest baby SUU fan of all time.  If Disney doesn't come quickly enough, I may have enough anxious energy to romper-fy a whole new wardrobe for the Linker Meister.

Heading to school has kept us temporarily preoccupied. Eli was a bit nervous to meet his teacher and put up a shy front, but he was super excited to get the school year started. Don't mistake his lack of enthusiasm for a picture for a lack of enthusiasm for kindergarten.

Jeff extended our sprinklers over to our garden this year and that has made all the difference in the world! In years past, we had to hand "sprinkle" our garden every stinkin' evening. Which resulted in the death of our garden halfway through every stinkin' year as our watering endurance waned with the summer.  This year our garden is on autopilot now that it waters itself and we're quite enjoying the vegetables of our (non) labor.

One day Eli was inquiring as to whether I make money. I told him that's why I sew curtains sometimes is to help make money for the family. Then he suddenly looked like he had it all figured out and proclaimed, "You and Dad make money and we bring the happiness. That's what we do."

Yes you do, cute kids. Everyone's got their job in the family and you're great at yours.

We went on a hike up by the old Snow Basin or something? I'm not really sure. Jeff drove us to the mountains (in a more secluded and a more animal enriched area than I prefer to traipse) and we wandered the trails.

Carson and Eli have completely forsaken their Transformer identities and are suddenly...AVENGERS. All day every day. Eli has claimed Iron Man and Carson has taken ownership of Spiderman. It was only a matter of time before we were Super Heroed. The boys have dubbed me Black Widow, Jeff Thor and Lincoln is Ant Man. It's all fine and well with me because it turns out super heroes are a lot more enthusiastic about hiking than Eli and Carson are.

But even Spider Man gets tired and requests a hoist from Thor for the whole second half of the hike.

It was gorgeous and nice to be out in the mountains. Other than the cows grunting just around every corner -- which I frequently paranoid myself into believing were moose grunts. And lizards slithering around with every step we took -- very similarly to what one would expect a snake slither to sound like. And birds pecking around in the leaves  -- imitating the sounds of a cougar stalking us in the bushes. I was on edge the entire hike which caused Jeff to question why I even like hiking. Well. The views and the exercise make up for my hiking paranoias. Usually.

This was our one last summer hurrah before school started the next week! Stay tuned for adventures in kindergarten!