Summer Fun!

I can't believe the summer, as we know it, is over in just 4 days...Adam heads back to school on Thursday and we're all preparing for a not-so-fun transition.  As always, we had wanted to do more fun things this summer, and feel like we're cramming things in last minute.  But we did have fun in July, here are the highlights....

4th of July!

We spent the day with the Dow fam at the Reilly house--we all had a great time, especially the kids!

 Tesla looking very patriotic in her swimsuit from Auntie Em and Jordan (and her ponytail makes me happy!)

 Lennon is growing up and becoming a bit more adventurous:

 Climbing with Harper and Huck:

 We just bought our own fireworks again this year--the kids loved it.  Lennon is going, "aaahh!"

 

 "Oooohhh!"

 By the time Lennon realized the colored smoke wasn't going to hurt him (he's still unsure here), the smoke bomb was over!

 Tesla had to be contained during fireworks, she wanted to play with them.

 

Zoo

Lennon chose to ride the carousel instead of the train.  Tesla was a bit antsy on the carousel--the second half she was trying to get down; not because she didn't like it--I think she just wanted to explore the other animals.

 It feels like every time we go to the zoo the grizzly bears are playing to the crowd--this time they were swimming.

 Lennon teaching Tesla and Jordon what a bear says:

Camping...Take One 

We went to Bear Creek Lake Park, just down the road from our house, to have our very first camping trip....it was definitely an adventure.  I looked at the weather that morning, 10% chance of storms, no biggie.  We got to the site, set up our tent and then headed to the beach to go swimming.  

 

The breeze started to pick up while we were at the beach, but it was about 100 degrees outside, so any air movement was welcomed.  While we were grilling and eating dinner, we were fighting with the wind the other time--annoying, but manageable.  After dinner we headed to the playground nearby--I love how Tesla's hair sticks straight up (the fact that she has hair, as compared to Lennon, still surprises me sometimes!)

 Lennon climbing up the jungle-gym...

...And Tesla mad that she can't follow him--here she's pulling at the gym and yelling, "Nennon."

 

 While we were at the playground, the lightning started--Tesla was not too happy about being forced to head back to the campsite.

  

Lennon assigned himself as the Lightning-Watcher and would yell out whenever he saw a strike...which was about every 30 seconds.

 So we headed in the tent to wait it out--storms don't usually last that long in Colorado....

...still waiting.

 The storm picked up--the wind was howling--Lennon and I were sitting on one side of the tent and the wind was pushing the tent into us so hard that it was forcing us to hunch over to the ground.  That was when Lennon said, "Um, I think it's time to go home."  We gave it a few more minutes and, as it only go worse, decided he was right.  And, as soon as we made the decision to start packing up, it started to downpour. I quickly put the kids in the car and started to throw things in the car, as Adam was deflating the air mattresses and taking down the tent.  You can see how the wind is blowing the tent over:

 Adam was inside the tent most of the time, where I was outside, getting drenched.  Lennon was taking everything in stride until the passenger side door blew open and the trash blew away--then he lost it and started to cry.  I went and asked him what happened since I didn't see the trash blowing away--he said I needed to pick up all the trash....so I did.  I couldn't help but laugh as I'm chasing after a granola bar wrapper in a huge thunderstorm.

 After cramming everything into every open space in the car (things just didn't seem to fit like before), we were off.  We were laughing on the way home, talking about our crazy adventure!

 

Camping: Take Two!

This weekend we tried a second, safer camping trip in Grandma and Papa's back yard--it went much better!

 Lennon was very excited about camping as he helped set up the tent.

 Inspecting my air mattress for holes...which, coincidentally, had a hole in it, which was deflated about an hour into the night.

Pure excitement from Lennon!!

 We made it through the night and had two happy kids in the morning (success!!).  Lennon said it felt like the night only lasted 20 minutes!

 Snuggling with her Lamby!

Movies!

Lennon and I had a date last week--we went to the movies for the very first time!  We went to the theater to see Monsters University.  After sitting on 5 stacking booster seats, Lennon still wasn't able to completely see, so we moved closer (still on his 5 booster seats).

 I wasn't 100% sure that we would make it through the entire 2 hours, but Lennon did great.  He mentioned a couple times that it was a long movie and I reassured him that it was almost done.  Half way through, he came to sit on my lap.  I realized that food is key--we had a groupon for the tickets, food and drinks, (which I'm sure will be an issue when we go and don't get the food).  But stashed a bag of M&Ms in my purse and busted those out the last 30 minutes when I could tell he was getting really antsy--genius!  He did so well and  he's now talking about when we can go see Despicable Me 2.

 Speaking of Monsters University--on the way home we were talking about how Mike Wazowski wasn't a good scarer, but that's okay because we was really good at other things and he was still special.  I said Mom was good at sewing, but was Dad?  He giggled and said no, Dad was good at playing games with him on the Kindle.  I asked what Lennon was really good at and he said, "writing."  And then I asked what Tesla was good at and he said, "Tesla's good at doing bad things."  After laughing, I said she doesn't mean to get into things and she's definitely not bad, she's just learning and curious about things (I think I need to keep telling myself that as well!)--here she got into the dry erase crayons, but what you can't see is that she got that soft crayon into every crevice in her mouth!

 But she's still my sweet girl!

 And here she is talking on the phone, wearing...you guessed it, Lennon's underwear!!  Lennon's underwear is her favorite--unfortunately she doesn't care if they're clean or dirty, she will either put them on her head or put them around her shoulder like she's carrying a purse.

 How did she learn a bootie dance so early!!  I'm baffled, but highly entertained at this point in her life--let's hope she gets it out of her system early!

 I can't tell if she tortures the cats more than Lennon did.  I think Lennon got them used to a baby constantly chasing them so they're not as phased.  However, Tesla is much more rough with them than Lennon was--she likes to go for their tails.

And speaking of Adam going back to school, he's been working really hard studying for his Actuarial exam that he's hoping to take in November--he's only about halfway through the 300 page study guide.  I'm baffled when I look over at his book--this stuff is insane!!  But I am so proud at him for working so hard at it!