Last Half of Summer Round-Up

Last Half of Summer Round-Up

• 8.22.2019

^^Two year old potty humor.  He thought he was hilarious! 😂^^

You guys, I take it back.  I'm not quite ready for summer to end and school to start after all.  It's no secret that summer is hands down my favorite season: the warm sunshine, water play, adventuring, sleeping in, and being together as a family.  It just can't be beat!  I am going to miss these carefree days and late backyard sunsets like crazy.

The other day I turned on Pandora to jam out while I cleaned my kitchen.  The song 'Summer of '69' came on.... "those were the best days of my life."  I wondered to myself what the best days of my life might be when I'm old and wrinkly and ready to pass on.  I thought of those days when Bron and I were dating and newly married.  Those were definitely good ones.  And then it occurred to me that these just might be some of the best days of my life.  Right now!  The last couple of years and perhaps a few more ahead.  The kids are at such fun and innocent ages.  They're independent enough that they sleep through the night and can grab their own breakfast.  The boys love my attention and don't mind hanging out with me.  In fact, they think their parents are pretty cool!  Bron's career is humming along.  We live in a nice home on a beautiful piece of property with some of the best friends God ever created.  Life is good and we're pretty darn lucky.  Yup.  These are the days!

     

^^Conrad's favorite game: clog the hose!^^

Anyway, I'm writing this blog post to recap a handful of summer happenings.

::  The boys and I went strawberry picking.  I paid them $5 per gallon bucket.  Worth it!  I made the most delicious freezer jam.  We'd been out for months.  It's so nice to have freezer jam again.

::  FYI, we don't lock the doors at night to keep the bad guys out.  Nope.  We lock them to keep our little demon in.  Child proofing my doors brings me peace of mind that Conrad won't go wandering the streets whenever he wakes up (whether it be 3AM or 8AM)... because have you met this kid?  He's a runner!

::  Conrad is often the last to go to sleep at night and the first to wake up in the morning.  Like, HOW?!?  It must be that nap he insists on getting every afternoon.

::  Jed and Levi are obsessed with Minecraft.  It's all they talk about with me and with each other.  From the backseat of the car I hear all about the nether, survival mode, wolves, and zombies.   

^^A coming of age milestone.  Jed learned how to mow part of the yard this summer!  You have no idea how happy that makes Bron.^^

^^Little red car wash.  Conrad wanted to wash his little red car one night.  I promise, this was all his idea.  I just helped with the sponge and the hose, and of course, had to grab my camera!^^

::  Conrad played in my car and somehow got the key stuck.  It drained my battery completely dead... sitting in the garage!  Conrad suggested a Mouse-katool could fix it!  We laughed, shook our heads, and had to explain that the Mickey Mouse Club House isn't real.

Me:  "Conrad, how did you break mommy's car?"
Conrad:  "I push buttons!"

::  Speaking of my car, the fan went out in it this summer.  I lived without AC for about two days before I said, "enough with that!" and called to get it fixed.  The radio, however, I haven't bothered to fix in months.  While the car was in the shop, I inquired how much it would be to get it working again.  Turns out, it costs too much.  We now have what we call our "white trash radio".  It's a blue tooth speaker I blare in the car.  Problem solved!

^^The moment before.  This image makes me laugh.  Conrad has no idea what's coming!  Ah, brotherhood.^^

::  I was cleaning up one of Conrad's nasty poops one day.  He watched me drop his turd into the toilet with a loud PLOP.  Conrad laughed out loud.  "Dat's funny to me!" he exclaimed.  Bahaha.  Kid has potty humor already.

::  I got bit by a hobo spider.  True story!  It was near the bottom of my left leg.  I don't know exactly when.  All I remember is waking up in the middle of the night and itching like crazy!  Mosquito bites and apparently a hobo bite too.  It looked pretty nasty for a solid week.

::  Conrad was on a stool looking for something.  "Where's my honky honky?" he wondered.  Bron and I had no idea what he was talking about.  "My honky honky!" Conrad explained getting frustrated.  A few minutes later he came running to us with a walkie talkie in hand.  "I find my honky honky!" he said excitedly.  We laughed so hard.

::  Levi kindly showed Conrad how to paint with water colors one afternoon.  He drew me a rainbow and wrote Conrad's name at the top.  "My picture make you happy, Mom?"  Conrad was so proud of that picture... that he didn't even paint.  Haha.  It was the sweetest.

::  I called in a babysitter and went golfing all day long with Bron at the annual J.D. Heiskell golf tournament.  We'll call it business because I guess it technically was?  I was invited along because one of Bron's dairymen was bringing his wife.  Turns out, we became fast friends.  So I golfed 18 holes for the first time in my life with strangers at a tournament... and had blast!  We laughed a lot and definitely did not keep score or take it seriously.  I think I got a feel for golf, but whoa do I have some improvements to make.  I was asking Bron about our local golf course because I kind of want to go again!

::  Levi: "Mom!  I've got tiny specks of hair on my chest!"

^^From our second trip to Ritter Island.  We played for nearly four hours.  The water is so incredibly clear and BEAUTIFUL!^^

^^I spy little Conrad legs!^^

::  I woke up to a crash one morning and a knock on my door.  It was Conrad.  He had the ukulele in hand -- unharmed, thank goodness.  "Mom, come play with me!" he called pointing to my violin.  So I had to get up and jam with him.  Never a dull moment here!

::  Bron has attended both a Flogging Molly and a Metallica concert this year, but he turned around last weekend and took me to see the Piano Guys perform live in Boise!  That's true love, folks.  I was nerding out so bad.  I loved every minute.  Steven Sharp Nelson was so fun to watch.  He did everything from drumming on his cello to using a repeating pedal to singing into a talk box.  It was so cool!

::  On Sunday afternoon, as per tradition, we headed into the South Hills.  This time I convinced Bron to take us out to see the Home of the Hummingbirds.  We followed Rogerson Road out a ways and finally found it.  It is the coolest place!  We sat around this grove of trees with maybe two dozen red hummingbird feeders hanging from the branches and quietly watched.  There were hummingbirds everywhere!  They ate, they fought, they rested, they flew.  We really got to see those neat little creatures up close.  The boys agreed it was a special place.  We'll have to visit again next year.

::  We moved all three boys into the same room!  And we're in the process of converting Conrad's old room into the "toy room".  It feels like such a good move for their brotherhood relationships.

Last but not least...

::  "Conrad!  I got your nose!" Jed said as he pinched his thumb between two fingers.  "Now I'm going to eat it."
Chomp.
SCREEEAAAMING in the back seat.