weekend highlights

Summertime is my favorite.  It's like one big party it seems sometimes.  We are in a more relaxed state of mind and just live it up.  As the kids get a little older, we are able to have more adventures, let them stay up a little later, and soak up every bit of summer lovin' that we can!

We started off the weekend by surprising Jason at work on Friday.  We don't go often because it's not very close but it was on our to do list for summertime!  We whipped up some homemade chocolate chip cookies (his favorite) and headed there only about 2 hours after I had planned.  Oh, well.  He was completely surprised and it worked out even better because it was lunchtime and our time with him was extended at McDonald's!  We had been missing him even more than usual since it was the week after vacation so everyone was just happy to be together.

{as seen on instagram}

Our Saturday morning was spent in the backyard with the kids playing and Jason mowing.  I got to clean the house in peace for a bit while they were all outside and Violet was napping.  It began to rain so we headed to the indoor pool at the YMCA.  Swimming never disappoints and can keep the kids entertained for hours.

For dinner on Saturday, we got to celebrate Grandma Judd's 60th birthday.  We met Aunt Julie, Uncle Matt, cousins, Grandma & PaPa at a favorite restaurant and then came back to our home afterwards for cake and presents!  We always love for us all to be together.  Good times.

{she's got a lot to show for her 60 years}

After church on Sunday, we did our traditional way of grocery shopping these days where we stop by Costco &/or Aldi on the way home and Jason runs in to exercise his super speedy shopping skills.  We ate a simple lunch and the boys took off for a bike ride while the girls painted toenails under a tree in the backyard.

We headed to a state park about 20 minutes down the road in the late afternoon with a cooler full of pb sandwiches & a few other fixin's for a picnic dinner.  We had never been there so we just explored the visitor center, checked out the lake, walked a small trail, played on a playground, and then ate our dinner at a picnic table surrounded by huge trees.  Our dinner ended with the feel of tiny raindrops and the sound of distant thunder so we packed up and headed home.

{taken by jason}

The rain had ended by the time we arrived home, and although still cloudy, it seemed to be the perfect night to catch lightning bugs.  It was a first for the kids and we were all excited about it.  Jason drilled holes on a canning jar lid and we were all set.  They took awhile to come out but by the end, they were in full force and the kids were squealing as they would spot one.  Their excitement was contagious and the experience was better than I had dreamed.  The new neighbor girls joined in on the fun and helped us fill our jar until it had reached capacity and it was time to say goodnight.  The girls used them as a nightlight until they fell asleep and then Jason set them free.

Sounds kind of perfect, huh?  It really was.  Sometimes our days are like that, almost "magical" and other days Jason and I contemplate jumping in the car and driving as far away as possible without looking back.  We still had the usual...poop in swimsuits, spitting up, crying, fighting, etc. but the good far outweighed the bad and these are the memories I am choosing to take with me from our weekend.

I love my life.  Can't wait to see what next weekend has in store for us...