Since I didn't blog at all over the summer, here's a bunch of random things that happened this summer! :)
Garrett brought home a fish for dinner and the girls watched intently as he filleted it:
Abbie & Ellie did swim team this summer, which was awesome. It was 4 days a week, for an hour each day, and it was a lot of fun! There were probably around 15 kids in their session time and about 12 of them were friends from church.
Abbie had her dance recital on a Saturday in June. Garrett was originally scheduled to work, and I was so happy that he was able to switch with someone else. It worked out perfectly because he ended up making up the work day when the girls & I were out of town in July. Abbie did a wonderful job in her recital. I was so proud of her! I love to see her dance; she is very talented.
Olivia playing in the splash pad at a neighborhood pool:
Helping me make Garrett's birthday cake:
Most evenings, we go walking in our neighborhood with some friends who live two doors down. We do a 1.5-ish mile loop, it's fun. One night, our friends' baby wouldn't sit in her stroller so Ellie was more than happy to fill the seat.
Is there anything cuter than a toddler in scrubs??
Another swim team shot. Olivia had her own swim cap so she felt included, also:
Early in the summer, Abbie wanted to have a "baby doll tea party". She wrote out all the invitations and everything. Everyone brought their favorite doll and stuffed animal. We had homemade bread and lemonade, painted fingernails and toes, and played in the sprinklers.
One evening when we were on our walk, we looked behind us and saw a wall of rain moving rapidly towards us down the street! We ran home as fast as we could, but the rain won! That's life in Florida, though. It can be bright and sunny outside, but still pouring! I also frequently see rain out one window, but it's not raining on the other side of the house... or I can see it raining over my neighbor's house, but not ours. It's crazy! I love rain but I really hate driving in it. Also, being a homeowner makes me a little anxious about roof leaks and other damage it can do. Other than that, it's great!
In mid-July, Garrett presented a poster at a conference in Orlando. It was at the Ritz-Carlton, so that's where we stayed for two nights. It was very fancy, of course. Olivia was hoping this would be her bed!
The girls struck a pose while we were walking around the grounds:
Playing in the kids' splash pad area. They were just as excited about the shower. We also spent some time in the fun lazy river and several swimming pools around the resort.
And we definitely took advantage of the free ice cream in the lobby:
I have mixed feelings about staying in nice hotels. I really do like them, but I hate that they don't ever include anything like free parking and free internet like cheaper hotels do. Also, we had to leave the resort to eat our meals because we never would have been able to feed our family of 5 for under $100 for dinner. It actually turned out really well though, because both nights we met up for dinner with some good friends who just moved back to Orlando for a job (he was a resident here with Garrett for a few years, and just finished his fellowship across the country). It was so fun to catch up with them.
The girls did a little "Chinese brush art" class one day at the library.
Spent an afternoon at the Natural History Museum - they have a butterfly exhibit also.
Keeping busy while the girls are at swim team:
It rained on our walk again one night, but stayed sunny and bright so we got a great rainbow!
The Kona Slushie truck came through our neighborhood so we took advantage of it:
The girls did "makeovers" one day:
We put together our own little end-of-season swim meet/party at a neighborhood pool. Abbie really is a great swimmer! I would love to put her in year-round swim team but it's very time intensive (and expensive). A lot of Olympic swimmers got their start here in our town, though!
Ellie got a hold of my phone one evening during our walk.... these were the good pictures I kept. She also had some pictures of random strangers from the neighborhood, standing in their driveway!! I guess I wasn't paying much attention on our walk, haha (she was riding in the stroller for a few minutes and that's when she was clicking away, I guess).
No comments:
Post a Comment