My Beautiful Days

This summer we've been ... Drawing on the sidewalks ... Chasing snapping turtles out of our garage ... Giving Colin the freedom to dress himself ... Giggling as we catch our babysitter (Claire) asleep with Ethan ... Changed lots and lots of diapers ... Gone shopping (yes, that sign behind me actually IS accurate!) ... Played with Ethan in a box ... Dressed up for church ... Snuggled with our brothers ... Hosted dinner parties galore ... Participated in lots and lots of goofyness ... And got caught loving on my honey! It's certainly been a busy summer in our house!  How is your summer going?

To say that this has been an eventful beginning to our vacation is COMPLETELY an understatement.  It has been crazy!  This past Friday, we packed up our stuff in the Suburban, gave our garage door opener to our house-sitter and headed down the road toward our vacation destination: Dent, MN (in case you weren't aware, Dent is a truly podink little town not far from the podink little town where I grew up). Actually, that isn't completely true.  On Friday, we headed to my mom's house in Ottertail, then on Sunday we came to our vacation destination in Dent.  I stand self-corrected. Regardless, between Friday and now things have been crazy.  We have gone to my grandma's 89th birthday party, done a lot of fishing and swimming in the lake, I went to Detroit Lakes and had my hair done by a long time friend (and I really love it!), we've prepared, eaten and cleaned up from meals, spent time talking and playing cards, and took one very scary trip to the Emergency Room...

You heard me right, today officially marks the start of summer vacation! I have a special date set up for my kiddos and I today and am truly looking forward to it! As I look ahead to my summer, I am truly excited for this time with the kids. As many of you know, they officially became my step children this past December, which means that this is our first summer together! By no means am I under the impression that our summer will be all sunshine and rainbows; after all, we are five separate people with five very individual personalities. That being said, I am looking forward to it being more than just me and Colin - I'm so excited to have my other kiddos at home! :) Yesterday I chaperoned Claire's end-of-the-school-year field trip to Valleyfair and what a day that was! I loved seeing how happy she was and how much fun she had on the trip, though - that was worth the hours of watching kids on the rides! :) Now I'm looking forward to planning the MckBrunch with one of...