Well, seeing that fall is quickly approaching, I figure this is as good a time as any to finally post some of our summer pictures.
First up, a Sacramento wrap up.
We spent nearly 6 weeks at Grammie's house this summer. We typically squeeze in two, at best, in a typical summer vacation. But because the pandemic cancelled all summer work plans and travel for Dustin, it afforded us a long summer packed full of family time.
Each day at Grammie's became a lovely new normal. Sleeping in, eating breakfast, sitting in the gorgeous backyard sipping coffee and doing devotions, taking Molly for a walk, driving to Uncle Dave's and swimming all.day.long. Returning to Grammie's for dinner, evening games of pickle ball, and bed times way later than the kids have ever experienced before.
There were no rules. Lots of fun. And a ton of relaxation.
Here were our pictures celebrating the 4th.
These pictures make me laugh! Donovan and Emmerson share a room at Grammie's house. They made it very apparent that their youngest sibling was NOT invited to that party. Poor Tay. Lucky for her, she can't read yet. So none of these rules applied.
This picture may not look like more than a messy room. But this is a summer memory I never want to forget. On July 6th, Dustin and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. Because the pandemic wouldn't allow for a date night... instead the kids decided to take us on the best adventure of all. With Grammie's help, they turned the living room into an airplane. They packed our suitcases, got dressed up in Hawaiian wear, and transported Dustin and I to a second honeymoon to Kauai. It was the most fun day. They passed out snacks of pretzels and nuts and even had Hawaiian music playing. Their service was extraordinary. I almost took a nap on our flight over. It was one of my favorite days of the summer.
Here's a random picture of my devotional buddy. She liked finding a seat on my lap during my morning prayer time outside. Who wouldn't, really? Sacramento summers have the most beautiful breeze and gorgeous shade trees to admire.
We had more pool time than I could quantify. These kiddos went from being timid swimmers to running and diving off the diving board in a few week's time. It was SO much fun spending our days at Dave's.
In between swims, we played lots of card games.
Taylor accompanied me and Molly on some of our morning walks. Here she is stopping off at a neighbor's Little Library for a book to enjoy.
Emmerson asked for fairy garden items for belated birthday presents. She and Taylor decorated a cute little corner or Grammie's garden into a magical fairy land.
Uncle Dave smoked ribs about 3 or 4 times while we were there. If these don't taste like summer, I don't know what does.
Donovan looks more like his Dad than we realized. Here they both are as 4th graders.
We all got lots of snuggles with Aunt Kristin and Uncle J's newest little peanut Asher Cruz.
And then, it was sadly time to return home. The governor had issued information letting us know that we would all be returning to school virtually for the start of the school year. I was itching to get into my new classroom and start to transform it into my own and to try to get a grasp at what I could begin to do to prepare myself for returning back to the classroom again.
We left Sacramento bright and early and had a memorable ride home. Donovan sat in between Dustin and I on the ride home and ended up throwing up 5 or 6 times during our 8 hour drive. I'm still not sure if it was caused by being over tired, having some kind of aversion to something he ate or a combination of both. But it definitely made for an interesting finale to our vacation. Molly also threw up on the way home. So needless to say, we were so relieved when we finally pulled up in front of our house. We had never been away from home for such a long period of time. Our yard quickly reminded us of just how long it had been abandoned.
And that, my friends, was our Sacramento wrap up.
