Summer - Summer - Summertime!!!

We love summer!!!!! We love the IDEA of summer: long, sunny days, BBQs, car shows, fairs, playing outside all day together, swimming, going to the beach or fishing, camping and bonfires. Last year seemed to fly by without so many lazy, sunny days and we've been waiting all year to try again - kinda like being in a hurry to do nothing. Of course, with 4 little kids and us for parents, "nothing" looks pretty hectic! Shad and Aidan got us started with T-ball, which I guess ended when summer began, but sitting in the grass watching them play really got us in the mood! Shad had an incident falling off the play equipment at school which turned out to be a break, or a "bump on the bone" as we called it, so he started his summer wearing a cast, much to his disappointment. More importantly, we got to fill in at Vista Highlands for a week, and Shad's cast came off the night before we got to swim in our old pool!! But in the meantime, cast and all, we celebrated Aidan's last day of preschool (key word being last, for those "in the know") and Shad's last days of 1st grade, including a very cool picnic at

his school! Trinity started walking - oh, yes, she walks! and had her first birthday! Her little friend Austin came to her party, with his dad and mom, but she didn't stop getting new things after the 7th! She was in a daze with all the cool toys she kept getting. The day after her birthday a huge box arrived on our doorstep full of toys and clothes for her from her cousins in Arizona. I wish I'd've taken a picture of the mess we made looking at all the beautiful clothes and testing out all the toys, and there was Trinity in the middle of it all and loving every minute. She may be only one year old, but she knows pretty shoes when she sees them!! Only a week later we celebrated Shad's 7th birthday - but Trinity still thought it was hers, she got so many more gifts!!! :-) Thank you, everyone!!! Shad had school on his birthday, so we got to sneak out and get his gift - a bike which Aidan helped pick out and which Aidan gets to ride quite a lot! Nana arrived to help decorate with baloons and streamers - and to help with all the mountains of energy exploding every which way! The totally cool party arrived in Matt and Carol's van: Elliott and Anna, Monique, Maama, Boppa, and of course, Matt and Carol all arrived at once (pretty much) and Shad had a GREAT time. Thanks so much everyone for all the Monster Trucks, the costume, the foam disk guns, and the frog! Plus a whole bunch more - Thanks! (Well, maybe I take that back about the guns - who thought of that crazy idea?! I've been stepping on foam disks ever since - often wet from Trinity finding them first! Ick!)

Aidan loves cats, so when our 3-legged momma Penny had 4 kittens, he personally took care of all of them. We kept a little grey one that we called Salty: he was born on our 8th Anniversary!!! and we ate at Salty's!! :-) Aidan is sitting in the little cat area we walled off from the babies, so they were fairly safe until they crawled over it! Then we found them permenant homes (thanks to Craig's List!!)

So, where did the "lazy summer" bit go? Oh yea, maybe that part started... when Jeremy found a great deal on a Tow Truck in Maryland!!!!! WHAT?! Oh, it's true!!! So, off he flew, via Atlanta, to Baltimore to pick it up and drive it back home!

Camten is climbing on the rock pile that went into the sand filter system at our property house... which is pretty much DONE!!! Know anyone looking to buy a beautiful 4 bd 2.5 ba on .5 acre in a wooded setting next to a trout farm?