Summertime - A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

I caught some sweet end of the summer moments that don't really fit into any of the other blog posts, but they just have to be shared...

The kids had some fun with light up balloons during a night swim.  Gracie was able to join them!

Colin always asks me to check on him after I tuck him in at night.  I told him I got a sweet picture of him with all of his stuffed animals one night - he told me to take another picture of him if I saw him do it again.  So freaking sweet, I can't handle it!

Our friends caught a cute moment of Danny with the rec baseball team after one of their games

All 3 asleep...in 1 picture!

Before the kids started school (which, to this day, has thankfully been in-person), I took a couple of days off from work.  We spent one day doing some back-to-school shopping at the outlet mall.  We got an Auntie Anne's treat before leaving.

Cadence snapped a selfie with her new sunglasses after some shopping at Polaris

We also grabbed Olive Garden for lunch - the kids loved it - especially Colin

We made sure to get some new pool floats!

The next day we ventured out to Shale Hollow Park.  I had seen pictures of friends on Facebook that had gone there, so we had to check it out.  We went on a short hike first.  We found some information on animal scat.  Yup, poop is ALWAYS funny.

We spent a lot of time wading in the water and exploring.

These spheres develop naturally - so cool!

Fun Before the School Year Starts

Early in the year, we had planned to go on a family trip to Chicago before school started.  Ever since we took a trip there in 2017, the kids have talked about it and we knew they would love to go back.  Since the trip was planned for later in the summer, we thought we could spend more time at the lake.  Things weren't any better in terms of COVID cases, so we decided it was best to just stay put.  We were afraid that our experience wouldn't meet our expectations and the kids would be disappointed.  Or even worse, one of us would get sick and we'd have to quarantine and couldn't do anything!  We weren't sure which restaurants or exhibits/tourist attractions would even be open.  To make it up to the kids, we tried our best to plan things to do that were fun (and safe).

We took a bike ride down on campus and grabbed Adriatico's pizza and Buckeye Donuts for dessert (our favorite campus things)

Our friends had gone hiking at Camp Lazarus - we learned (at the end of our hike while having a picnic lunch) that the campground is private property and we should've never been there!  It was interesting to check out a new spot, though!  Ha, it will be our first and last time!  To this day, I still don't know where our friends normally go - I'll have to ask her!

Lots of broken pieces of shale!

The kids had baseball and softball games

We spent one day rafting on the Mohican River!  We hadn't received a lot of rain in August, so the river was super low (and moving super slowly).  It's a 7 mile trip and they warned it can take 4 hours if you're paddling and up to 6 hours if you're just floating.  We did a mixture of both and, luckily, it only took us about 3 hours to get down the river.  I don't think the kids could've handled a much longer trip.  It started out really fun, but I think the activity lost its luster after about an hour and a half.  The temperature also started out warm and then got a little cool!  Colin leaned over the front of the raft a little too far at one point and fell in!  I had to jump out of the raft and grab him by his life jacket.  He was a little shaken up and scraped his face on some rocks, but he was okay.  He was soaked and I didn't bring a change of clothes, so he was pretty chilly afterwards.  Even though the trip took a little longer than we would've liked, we still had fun.  We could see fish in the river, we stopped and had a picnic lunch, and it was just something totally different than anything we've done before!  If we do it again, I think we'd try a canoe next time.  We saw some families of 4 that split up into groups of 2 - each parent had a canoe and they tethered a tube behind that a kid could sit on and float!  The canoes were easier to maneuver down a shallow river.  I think the parents would bring along some booze too 😉

Kids with the Nannies, Grandma Friday, and Quality Dad Time

I'm thankful that when my kids aren't with me, the people that are taking care of them are willing to capture memories and send them to me via text.  Those little notes brighten my day and remind me that my kids (and our family) are lucky to have others around them that care about them and do their best to make sure they have fun and experience new things.  Enjoy the following post with pictures from the summertime nannies, my mom, and Danny.

The kids started out their summer break with our nanny, Taylor.  We learned about Taylor through Danny's office; Danny works with Taylor's mom.  Taylor is a teacher and was looking for part-time work for the summer.  The kids were originally going to go to summer camp part-time & have a nanny part-time; then, COVID hit.  The opening of summer camp kept getting postponed.  Taylor was great with the kids and she was super reliable.  Apparently, she has a bit of a culinary background, so she did some baking with the kids!

She also braided Cadence's hair in a super cute way!

Mom kept her Fridays open for "Grandma Friday" - the kids still love a McDonald's treat for lunch.

Cadence was proud of her "Frappuccinos"

Grandma made sure they did some reading

And fit in some physical activity by going on walks

They love to go to the park and walk on the trail too

When more was learned about COVID, our nanny, Taylor, had to put in more hours at school prepping for students to return to the classroom.  That, coupled with the fact that she was pregnant, meant that she wouldn't be able to watch the kids 5 days a week.  Luckily, her younger sister, Brooklyn, was able to fill in the gaps!  Brooklyn started staying with the kids a few days a week and eventually every day of the week, Monday through Friday.  Brooklyn was super hands-on and tried to do a lot of activities with the kids.

They went hiking at Highbanks Park...

They LOVED going to Alum Creek Lake...

They went for walks in Westerville...

Grabbed doughnuts in Sunbury...

Spent time at the dam...

And made homemade lemonade!

The kids miss Brooklyn and want her to return next summer!

The week prior to the 4th of July, Danny was home with the kiddos.  He sent me this sweet picture during a shopping trip to Kroger.

They went hiking at Highbanks and went to the lookout in search of bald eagles.

The kids love pool floats.

And Scarlet loves the heat!