Summer Recap!

 We had such a fun and busy summer! Sometimes it's hard to believe it's over and the kids are heading back to school already. Then again, looking back on all these pictures, it's also clear they've had too much fun and probably need a break!

In June, Russell did a 2-week theater camp with his cousins. He absolutely loved it and wants to return to the theater for more plays in the future. I was impressed that he spontaneously performed a song on the first day for his audition. I wasn't aware he would have to do that so he didn't practice, but he did great and landed a small speaking part (luckily he had the whole Greatest Showman soundtrack memorized for his impromptu audition!). He also loved designing costumes throughout the week for costume contests that they had-he has always been obsessed with costumes. He won a prize for best duck costume:

It was so fun to watch the finished product!

June was very sunny and we enjoyed lots of lots of pool days. Caroline learned how to swim and is a little fish, which is great, and both boys improved a lot too! 

Sadly we didn't get tons of beach time this summer due to red tide that never seemed to go away, but we did get to go once in June with cousins. It was a blast.

Ricardo traveled to Georgia for 2 weeks in June for military duty but we kept busy entertaining some fun visitors. My mom, sister, and nephew came down to visit. One day we enjoyed a history museum downtown:

We also spent another fun day at Dinosaur World with my mom and sister, and my little dino lovers were in heaven.

While Ricardo was gone we also visited my parents at their house and enjoyed their company, their pool, and their new trampoline!

The kids also played really well together and entertained each other with all kinds of pretend games and endless hours of legos. I think they were being dinosaur hunters in this particular game:

Caroline will play with the boys sometimes and is also constantly making towers of legos or blocks.

Russell and Thomas also discovered Uno and spent hours and hours battling.

In July we had endless rain for weeks. Wish we could share our rain with all the people experiencing droughts and fires right now! After a particularly rainy week, we found a tiny gap in a rainy Saturday and did a little hike.

They mostly enjoyed the flooded parking lot. So much rain!

July 4th was a fun but crazy day. My parents returned home from vacation on the night of the 3rd and found a hole in their roof and a large leak from all the rain. Ricardo headed down to their house Sunday to help patch up their roof and clean up the water damage. Meanwhile, I had agreed to babysit my 4 nephews/niece all day while their parents were gone. We played 4th of July bingo (among other things) and then headed to dinner at Ricardo's parents' house.

Unfortunately at dinner, Thomas fell and hit his chin on the marble floor at Ricardo's mom's house and needed stitches. Ricardo was back by then and took him to his office and put him on laughing gas for the procedure and he did great! He loved his little goatee that he had all week actually.

 We ended the night with fireworks and sparklers! Definitely, a 4th of July to remember.

We had one last day on our Disney passes to use up, so we enjoyed a day at Epcot in July. We were fortunate to get no rain and reasonable crowds. It was a fun day!

I'm pretty spoiled in my job and don't usually work weekends but I did do a Saturday in July. We went to a car show in the morning before work with some cousins and then went our separate ways. The kids enjoyed a splash pad and pancakes for lunch with dad. They also watched Flubber for the first time and were thoroughly entertained. Fun to get these kinds of pictures while I'm at work.

Other fun summer times: catching and then releasing a wild bird that Thomas wanted to keep as a pet. Ricardo's dad even gave us a cage for it, but I've met my limit with all our frog pets and the bird just really smelled bad! Thomas enjoyed it for a day and then had fun releasing it. Caroline enjoyed the cage (it's clean, don't worry).

Off to release the bird into the forest.

And some random couch lounging shots from the summer. Fun to watch Thomas reading on his own!

Still obsessed with stuffed animals.

This stubborn child dropped her nap long ago but very occasionally after a long day she'll nap on the couch.

BFF's.

Originally, Ricardo's military trip was supposed to be in July for 3 weeks so I booked a trip to Utah for a week during the time he was going to be gone. When his trip got moved I still wanted to keep my trip since I had made lots of plans and we were looking forward to going. I started second-guessing that decision in the days leading up to the trip since flying alone with 3 kids is daunting! But, they really did great and it was totally worth all the effort.

We had a great trip. My kids loved staying with their uncle (my brother) for several days and we also spent some time with my Grandma who we didn't get to see too much last summer due to covid. We also saw many old friends and enjoyed Utah in the summer-our favorite.

They love this little paleontology museum at BYU which we went to a few years ago.

We went to so many amazing splash pads to beat the heat! So fun to see my friend Shayla and see our kids have fun together.

Shayla is the sweetest and saved Russell's favorite childhood toy that we left at her house a few years ago! Russell used to take this Mater car everywhere-slept with it, ate with it...fun memories seeing it again!

We also enjoyed a fun day with our great friends from Jacksonville who now live in California. It worked out great that we were in Utah at the same time. They are the best and we enjoyed another great splash pad with them.

After lunch and playing, playing, playing, we headed to a fun butterfly museum. Thomas, the animal lover, loved every minute and was so excited when a butterfly landed on him a few different times.

Russell preferred to watch from a distance. Fairly confident he will never ever ask for a pet.

We did a fun hike up to a pretty waterfall with my brother one day. There's truly nowhere to hike in Florida so we've missed this fun outdoor activity. 

Afterward, we enjoyed J Dawgs and ice cream from the BYU creamery. Always fun to drive around Provo and reminisce and show my kids the sights.

On Sunday we went to church and then did primary at the temple. Love the feeling that's inside and outside these beautiful places.

Later that day we went on a fun walk with my brother along this beautiful river. Everyone was soaked by the end, of course.

Russell is super into traditions and loves making candy covered wagons each year to celebrate Pioneer Day. So we worked on those for a while.

There's another dinosaur museum in Utah that we always drive by but have never gone to. After lots of begging, I agreed to take them for Thomas' half birthday. It was fun!

More fun old friends that we saw, these ones from Philly. We are so blessed to have people we love all over the country.

Airplane museum by my grandma's house:

We enjoyed some time with my cute grandma at her house. We had a family BBQ one night with my aunts/uncles/cousins. Fun to see everyone. We also watched lots of Olympics and the boys loved that, especially Russell since he's older now. They also discovered her laundry chute that goes to the basement and spent the better part of an hour throwing stuff down it and running downstairs to get it. They also fashioned a game of baseball using her cane as a bat. Fun and funny times.

Coming back was a whirlwind. I was so nervous for the flight home since Caroline was so overtired from vacation. I figured she would be terrible on the flights. By some miracle, she slept for several hours which is so unlike her! I worked the next 2 days in a row (beginning of our covid explosion-😢) and hurried to repack bags and pack up our car for our big end-of-summer road trip with my family- and Ricardo this time, yay!

We first drove to the other coast and enjoyed some red tide-free beach time. It was not crowded at all and so lovely. 

We spent the night nearby at my in-law's old house which they still own but don't go to very often. The kids will never forget that night because they were so freaked out and kept calling it "The Haunted Mansion." There are lots of overgrown plants outside and it did look a bit creepy arriving at dusk. Plus, lots of dead bugs throughout the house! But we did have clean sheets and a comfortable bed and now we have a fun story to remember!

We went to Ricardo's childhood church on Sunday and then drove up to Georgia. We were able to make an impromptu stop in Jacksonville and see our good friends there which was fun as always. Then we headed to Savannah to spend the night with some friends there.  The kids spent hours driving this motorized car around the yard. We had a great time catching up and were treated to delicious food too!

On Monday we drove to northwest Georgia to meet my family at a cabin in the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful and a wonderful, relaxing vacation!

Stopped at a park when we were almost there! "Mom, take my picture by this tree!"

Russell had to jump on the bandwagon and Thomas is lurking behind the tree.

We had such a great week at the cabin with my family. Lots of fun cousin time!

On our first morning there we went on a tour of an old gold mine. The kids also got to pan for gold. They loved it.

We did a few fun hikes in the beautiful Georgia mountains. This one was a pretty challenging mile up to a waterfall with an easier walk down via lots and lots of stairs. The kids all did great!

Got to come back and enjoy the hot tub!

More fun hikes:

Fun afternoon at the lake:

We also had so much fun floating down this river near our cabin. There was a portion of the river which had some small rapids, so the kids 5+ and the dads went on that part and my mom and sisters and I took the younger kids on the lazy river portion. We all had a great time! We met up later on in the day and did the lazy river all together.

My cute nieces planned a little Olympics for us throughout the week. We had all kinds of events including pool, air hockey, Jeopardy, and dam building at the little creek by our cabin. We also watched lots of Olympics at night which was fun. Glad it got to happen this year!

After the long journey back my sister's family stayed with us for a week. It was kind of chaotic since it was also the first week of school for the boys. But, it was also my kids' dream come true and it was fun having them here. School started on a Tuesday and we were able to squeeze in a day at Legoland on Monday. Per Thomas, "it's better than Disney!"

First day of kindergarten and 3rd grade:

First day of school ice cream:

Fun cousin times:

Caroline is obsessed with her little 3-year-old cousin counterpart. I've never seen her copy anyone as much as she copied him this past week. She followed him around constantly. They were so funny to watch.

Pizza party!

If you made it to the end, I'm impressed! Hope everyone had a great summer and is staying safe and healthy.