Recharging

I'm sitting here at the end of the day, and I'm beat.  Andy is out of town, so the girls and I have been left to fend for ourselves.  I'm proud to say that I've managed to keep everyone clean, fed, cuddled, read to, diapered, and (mostly) happy, but I think we're all ready for Daddy to come home.  I'm not really sure where he's going to sleep though, since Ava has unapologetically taken over his side of the bed.  Oops.

Now, I'd better get back to our Summer In Review while I'm still awake.  I should have turned into a pumpkin over an hour ago...

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For the last 2 summers, we've rented a house in Breckenridge with 2 other families for a long weekend.   The kids play, and the grownups stay up too late talking.  The food is good, the wine is plentiful, and the company  - and the view - are lovely.   The moms even managed to sneak away for an afternoon at the spa, and the dad's took a day to climb a mountain.  Not a bad way to spend a few days.  Since I was extremely pregnant, and was busy taking advantage of the fact that everyone thought I should take it easy, I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked.  But here's a small sampling of the few I did get.

We spent an afternoon with the kids at the local children's museum. 

And everyone spent relaxed days just hanging out. 

We came home recharged, happy, and ready to meet the newest member of our family. 

Next stop: July!

And then there were 4...

I know it's been a while, but I'm discovering how difficult it is to manage two little ones and still fit in indulgences like, well, blogging.  So here I am, slowly working my way back in.  Be patient with me - I'm living on caffeine and a prayer.

We'll start with a few things you may have missed from our summer.  This could (and might) take several posts to get through, depending on how long I can stay awake.  Wish me luck.

June
June brought visitors all the way from Waverly, IA.  This gorgeous little guy is Ava's cousin Elijah.

 

Ava was still a big sister-in-training at that point, so I had a lovely time watching her practice her skills on Eli.  He didn't seem to mind either.

 

 

 

He was sweet enough to bring his parents, Ben and Alicia, and grandparents with him too.

 

Eli loved The Gardens.





We really enjoyed having them all here, and hope they'll make the journey back our way again soon.

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As always, summer also brings a bevy of birthdays. We start with one of Ava's besties, Brady.  He had his party at this super-cool ranch (farm?  Whatever.  It was awesome.) where the kids got to do sweet stuff like ride around in one of these:

 

 

And do art projects led by a real-life cowboy.  (At least that's what he said he was.  Who was I to doubt.)

 

 

Then it was back to Brady's house to play with all his new loot.

 

A little hug before we headed home.





That was just the beginning of June, so stay tuned.  Hopefully I'll get us to August before Christmas.