Summer update

Okay, there's a ton to update those of you that keep up with this blog. Summer's been busy!!
The kiddos and I took a trip to Florida in late August. CRAZY, yes, to fly by myself with the three of them, but we made it. A word to the wise: DO NOT, under any circumstances, arrange to take the last flight out to get to your destination. That direct flight to Orlando, yeah, the one that was supposed to land at midnight, touched down at almost 2 am; mom's bedtime, 5 am... After we recovered, we had a fabulous time.



Granny and I woke the boys up to see a night launch of the space shuttle. We went down to the Indian River, where there was nothing but water between us and the shuttle (about 6 miles). It lit up the sky! I've seen a launch a hundred times, but seeing it with the boys as excited as they were about the "rocket ship" reminded me of how cool it really is. They swam in Mimi and Grampa's pool every day, and by the time we left Nathan was swimming sans water wings and Kyle was just days away from that monumental step himself. We went to Disney World, a magic show with our friends the Knoebel family, a pizza party at their house (complete with Mom's favorite poppy seed cake!), the Brevard County Zoo, and plenty of slip n slidin' in the back yard. Whew what a trip!












Kyle left his binky at the airport on the way home, so we carpe'd some diem and said no more binky. Probably waited to long for that anyway. He hasn't slept the same since. Oh well.

We have also spent a lot of weekends up at the family cottage in Traverse City Michigan. So beautiful up there. We hope to maybe have a friends reunion up there one of these years once we upgrade the boats, etc. It might be a while! :-) The boys LOVE fishing from the dock (no hooks), swimming, and tubing with a grown up. Jillie likes her cruises, too, though I'm sure her appreciation for nautical recreation will grow as she does. Penny is the biggest fan of all! She likes to chase the ducks away from her dock and stick her head through the railing on the boat.










My birthday was also fun, highlighted by my new camera (thanks to Tim for the 411!). I'm having tons of fun exploring my new shutterbug side. Here are way too many pics.


The boys on their first day of school this fall: