Summer Fun!

July has been busy with regular day to day activities since getting back from vacation.  Gary's been super busy at work this month (he's accumulated over 40 hours of comp time!) and on top of grad school has been MIA a lot of the time!  August should be a nice change... he's going to use some of his comp time and we'll have a couple of extra long weekends with him :)  Anyway, the kids and I have been very busy with playdates, pool and library time, and outings with friends!  Here are a couple of our special outings from this month: 

We went to Frying Pan Farm Park one day for a picnic lunch and farm fun! 

Another one of our "bigger" outings was a trip to the Dulles Air and Space Museum! 

Such a fun time with friends :) 

The Lake

After a week at the beach we all headed up to the Lake for the first week in July :)  We always have a great time boating, fishing, swimming, having campfires, and just being outside!  We had a couple of little bumps in the road because Alex got pretty sick the last day we were at the beach (sick like 104.5 fever, scary!).  The really high fever didn't last long, but a low grade fever lingered for the next few days.  He was a trooper though and did pretty well on tylenol/motrin.  Nathan caught the bug after that, our last night at the Lake and was sick the week we got home.  Poor little guys getting sick on vacation :(  But anyway, through all that excitement, we still enjoyed all of our usual "lake fun" :)

Nathan enjoying the loooong 12 hr drive from Myrtle Beach to Treasure Lake!  We even ordered chocolate milks at Starbucks for the boys per request of our sick one ;) 

Poor Alex, sick on the drive :(

Playing in the backyard! 

Gary and I got to enjoy a couple of dates - always a big perk to visiting family! :) 

The boys both enjoyed the boat.... but Alex preferred to go slow ;)

Nathan would say "faster, faster!" He loved it!!

Alex, again, had no fear!  He was way out in the lake swimming! 

Cousins playing in the sand!!

Nathan loves anything that shoots...

Another boat ride :)

Lots of playing outside!

A little fishing...

Great grandpa came for a visit and enjoyed a campfire with the great grandkids!

A family shot on 4th of July :)

Sisters! 

Setting off fireworks, the boys loved them!  No one was crying or scared this year... (but, Nathan was throwing up because this is when he came down with the bug :(  )

Alex loved the sparklers! 

We had a great week!! :)

A week at the beach!

We spent the last week of June at Myrtle Beach with my parents, brother and his family, and two sisters!  We stayed in a beach house right on the beach with its own private pool, beautiful deck, and hot tub - it was such a perfect week!!  

 The boys' first look at the ocean after our arrival!!  They were beyond thrilled!  Both warmed right up to the waves this year :)

Nathan had been terrified to get in the pool up until vacation.  The first day though, after sitting on the side for about 5 minutes like he usually does, he got right in and LOVED the pool the rest of the trip! 

The trip was planned to celebrate my youngest sister's college graduation!

The boys playing with their favorite water toys... anything that shoots! 

One night we all went mini-golfing! 

The kiddos :)

We had a cooler, windy day in the middle of the week and tried flying kites... it didn't work out too well, but the boys still enjoyed it! 

We went to the boardwalk one night to walk around and ride the sky wheel!  The kids absolutely loved it and the views were beautiful! 

After some ice cream, we headed down to the beach for fireworks!  So fun :)  The boys both loved the fireworks show!

Alex was proud of himself for swimming without his swimmies, only using noodles to keep himself up!  He's very comfortable in the water, but still won't go under.   

Nathan "jumping in"!!  Brave boy :)

The kids ate dinner here every night... two 2 year olds, a 3 year old, 4 year old and 6 year old... they loved it and it surprisingly worked out great to have a "kids table"! 

Grandma and grandpa with the grandkids!!

And a family shot (the best we could get...) 

It was nice to have so much family around to watch the boys so we could go on some walks, go out for ice cream a couple of times, and have a date night of seafood and mini-golf!
 

Running in the waves with grandpa! 

He loved gathering sand or buckets of water and walking it all the way up to the umbrella and throwing/dumping it :) 

 Story time with grandma one night!

Nathan loved jumping the waves with daddy!!

A little snack break on the beach :)

We had a fantastic week!!  From there, we headed to my parents' house in PA for a week at Treasure Lake... but, I'll save that for another post :)