Buzz

I think we may have a little actress in the making.  For the last year or so, her favorite game has been some version of Dora The Explorer.  She would "talk" to her audience the way Dora does, describing her adventure and asking for help.  Now, this summer, was the summer of Toy Story.  We started watching some Disney favorites this summer.  We watched Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Jungle Book and most recently Toy Story.  We've now watched all three Toy Stories LOTS of times, and both of the kids are enamored.  Therefore, Keira's Dora character has been replaced by Buzz Lightyear.  Now, she's constantly "flying" around the house with a very serious expression on her face, saving people.  Scott had a creative brainstorm, and with a little help from some on hand crafts supplies he created a masterpiece -- a Buzz Lightyear costume for Keira.  As you can see from the photos, she adores his awesome creation.

Keeping Cool

In the last week of June, we were hit by a heat wave.  Temps climbed into the 100's all week, although the humidity wasn't too bad, so it could've been worse.  We spent our fair share of time at the pool that week and all summer, but during the heat wave we also beat the heat in our own backyard.  Like last summer, our homemade water slides have been a big hit.  Unlike last summer, Keira got comfortable almost immediately and independently slid over and over again.  Elijah continued to love them this year, and even got adventurous by sliding down on his tummy, face first.

After what seemed like hundreds of times down the hill, both kids were finally ready for a snack and a giggle.

After their snack, they decided to change it up a bit and take a dip in the baby pool.

The next day was hot again, so the kids wasted no time getting back to the water slide.  This time I decided to join them.  So much fun!

Solo Lake House Trip

We had an unusual opportunity this summer.  With everyone else otherwise scheduled or engaged, we got to go up to the Lake House with just the four of us in the middle of June.  While we missed everyone, it was a wonderfully relaxing, laid back trip.  We were able to have our stuff all over the house and make as much noise in the morning as we wanted to.  The kids were unusually independent and spent hours playing by themselves, or together, on the screened porch while Scott and I relaxed or read. 

There were a few exceptions to the laid back agenda for Scott and I.  First, Scott was in school finishing up his master's, so he did have some work to do.  As for me, I ran every morning.  I decided to start running at the beginning of the summer.  It was a spur of the moment decision when I was feeling less than challenged on a walk one day.  I started by mostly walking and running a few minutes, and now I've worked my way up to running for a half an hour straight.  It's been amazing.  So far I've lost about fifteen pounds since my highest weight this winter and I have about four pounds left until I reach my goal weight.  Yay!  While we were on our solo trip at the Lake House I was still alternating between running and walking.  But the Lake House has such gorgeous surroundings that any run up there is wonderful.

Besides beautiful surroundings and relaxing days, one of our highlights of our solo trip were boat rides.  Before that trip Keira has never been fond of "Babo's Boat."  In fact,  on boat ridesshe'd spend most of the time screaming, crying or clinging to me.  She hated the noise.  But, this trip, after some initial hesitation, she realized it wasn't very loud after all.  Once Keira got over her trepidation, we had several wonderfully successful boat rides.  In fact, Keira was so at ease, that we even took a few Nap Rides on the boat.  Once the kids fell asleep, Scott would cut the engine and we'd basically idle around the lake, enjoying our surroundings while the kids snoozed.  We got to watch our beautiful sleeping babies, look at the gorgeous view, and one day we even saw a mama duckie with her baby ducks. 

As for Elijah, he was ecstaticto be spending time on the boat.  We had prepared him for the trip, by saying that we probably wouldn't be able to go on the boat this trip since Keira hated it so much.  We explained that it was hard for Daddy to drive, get us in and out of the docks and navigate by himself while Mommy held a crying girl.  Fortunately, with Keira's happiness on the boat, I was able to help Scott when needed so we could go out successfully on the boat.  Elijah was incredibly relieved as he loves cruising around the lake, looking around and most importantly riding to the marina to get ice cream and feed the ducks.

The surprise highlight of our boating adventures was swimming in the lake.  With Keira previously being so reticent about the boat in general, we never imagined that she'd be interested in stopping the boat and swimming in the open water.  Turns out both kids loved it.  Elijah even jumped in a few times all by himself.  All four of us spent quite a bit of time splashing around.

Keira was so comfortable on the boat by the end of our trip, that one of the kids' favorite things to do was hold on at the bow of the ship as we drove fast over the waves.  They even started dancing around and jumping up and down while holding on.  That was serious progress for a girl who used to cry her way through boat rides!

As you can see, our boat rides were well documented, but of course they weren't the only fun we had, just our most photographed fun.  Besides having fun on the boat, we also enjoyed our time around the house, as I said earlier, and we all enjoyed many happy hours down at the lake side, too.  Both kids had a great time splashing around in the swimming area and playing in the sand.