Dog daze of summer

Andy and I were joking a few days ago about how semi-easy the meteorologists have it around here this time of year. We can almost guarantee what the forecast will be--if you said 95, sunny and hot, relatively calm in the mornings with the wind picking up in the mid-afternoon hours to 10 mph and the evening temperatures hovering right around 55...that would pretty accurate for July and August. Water is a necessity to drink in and swim in. It needs to be readily accessible in it's various forms. And we've done our best to comply with all of the above.

Austin's tooth decided to fall out at some point while gliding down the slip 'n slide and despite the intense search effort it will be forever lost in the green blades of grass. He felt it was appropriate to explain to the tooth fairy what exactly happened...complete with sketch of the search effort and all. :)

is this not just precious, or what?! :)

Mason's favorite toy as of lately :) Think he was inspired??

 Like I said....lots of water needed. It may just be a small and simple plastic pool, but it's wet and refreshing. It does the trick! And who can resist running and jumping into such a small thing making water go everywhere?!  Love the simplest of pleasures like this that brings a genuine smile, pure entertainment, and gut-wrenching laughter. 


Here goes Mason....

 ...Austin's leaps....

 ...Carson's hops!

Adding to our post-MN summertime craze was the flu, domino-style with every one of us getting it right after the other. It took 5 days, but we all survived it and at the end of a very long week, decided to do a yard sale to...uhhh...celebrate?! No. Not really. It was a planned event before the highly unplanned flu hit. We cleaned house (and sheds) and I can't tell you how nice it is to open the closet doors without bracing myself for an unprecedented avalanche of items I didn't even realize were back against those walls. Feels SO GOOD to have less!! 

boys sold cookies & lemonade and they made out pretty well!

lots of hours spent building and creating with little legos

picnic at the park!

that's some fast mowing Mason!

 Austin just finished up his portion of swim lessons and he had a blast as always--he is truly my little fish. That boy would live in the water I think!! Carson wasn't able to do swim lessons with not being able to submerge his head under water (because of his ear) but he still loves to get in the water and swim around and do what he can! Mason is also a little water bug and that kid is fearless! 

"All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth...."

in the deep end! (austin is 3rd from the left)

ready to dive in for the first time!

Austin's my water boy!

 Another glorious thing about summer is hair cuts on the porch--clean up is so much easier!:)

Next on the agenda is a weekend of "hot rods" with the Back to The Fifties car show then we're off for our annual camping trip to Kingston!! No distractions, campfires roaring, trout fishing, trail-blazing and hiking, over-the-fire cooking, endless storytelling, and more memory making....let's go!!!! :)