A Sure Sign of a Good Weekend . . .

. . . . is when you get in the shower Sunday evening and your hair smells like both campfire and chlorine! :) We had a very relaxing camping trip this weekend in Custer State Park - beautiful area, very cool but gorgeous weather, and NOTHING to do - other than play games and enjoy the outdoors. What a great feeling. Sunday when we got home, we unpacked and headed for the waterslide park here - one of those things I've been promising the kids we would do before school starts. We met some of our friends there and had a fantastic afternoon.

Here's the kids playing "Blongoball" at our campsite - Jack's a little intense:

Paddle boating on Legion Lake:

Sunday when we got home, we unpacked and headed for the waterslide park here - one of those things I've been promising the kids we would do before school starts. We met some of our friends there and had a fantastic afternoon.

Here's what I call the "death slide" - I went down this last year and thought I was going to die - it's so vertical that your body leaves the slide on the way down. Sure enough, Noah LOVES it - went on it repeatedly - by himself, too yet (Jack doesn't like it either). Here's Noah and Mark - racing - they're both at the top . . . .

And Mark is the winner . . . .

Today we hit the pool and then the fair when Mark got home from work - whew - the kids were exhausted. We're trying to capitalize on every remaining minute of summer - school starts a week from Wednesday. :(

Here's where we spent a good portion of August -
Two big achievements this summer - the boys learned to swim, and fell in love with the diving board . . . . . (here's Noah)

And Jack doing "the pencil" - what form!!

I've discovered I'm NOT one of those moms who celebrates the end of summer, anxious to push the kids out the door to school again. This summer will end with me kicking and screaming (okay not literally - but definitely pouting). I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer - esp. now at this stage in our lives when it means I get my kiddos back for 3 months! I love the lack of routine - no bedtimes, no schedules to hold us captive, no set meal times, lazy mornings, lunches and afternoons at the pool, weekends camping - just the general overall feeling of freedom!!! In a week, we'll be locked into a schedule again for the next 9 months, and I certainly hope I can find some peace with it --- and quickly!! :)

Our last adventure for the summer starts tomorrow when we head to Minnesota - first to our old stomping grounds in Minneapolis where we have a couple of fun things planned for the kids, then over the weekend we'll be at Mark's parents in Willmar. We'll get back home just in time for the start of school.

And of course we're in the midst of the wedding countdown - two weeks from Saturday my brother will be a married man! Today I take the boys in to be measured for their tuxes - I absolutely can't wait to see how they are going to look - and they are so excited to be ushers, I am constantly getting a barrage of questions from them about their "jobs." All too soon, they'll be getting measured for THEIR weddings - can you imagine??? Uggh!