Parades

This summer we hit up 2 parades.  This may surprise you but this was the first parade our kids have been to (I think).  Usually parades fell at bad times for us (for ex: nap time) and I knew they really didn't know the difference so we just skipped them.

Mount Carmel has a 4th of July parade every year and being newcomers we thought we should experience it.  The boys really enjoyed it...despite that it was a blazing 100 degrees or more outside.

I love this picture..they don't hold hands very often and I treasure these moments.

Happy 4th of July!

This parade was Fun Day in Carterville right before we moved. Fun day is the fundraiser for all the Carterville athletics.  They start the morning off with a parade and Kellen walked with his baseball team.  They have bouncy houses, bbq, and all kinds of other activities.

Digging for more candy

Kade...what shall I say about you..You had too many suckers by this point!  You were a stinker for sure.

What are boxes for?

My boys LOVE boxes..they always have and they probably always will.  

Obviously we moved this summer and had stacks and stacks of boxes everywhere!  We gave many of them away but kept some of the big ones for the boys to play in (and rip apart).

Cousins Preston and Bennett came a couple of days after we moved and Keagan and Kellen gave their beds to them....so they could sleep in the boxes.  What a trade off!

Somehow Kade kept finding pens and markers around the house.  He wanted to "color" the boxes.

Concentrating 

You can see the packing paper behind Kade....as I am writing this I'm wondering how many times I hollered at the boys to pick it back up and put it in the bag.  They kept telling me it was snow.  They would rip it apart and throw it up in the air and let it fall.  Their imaginations soared this summer - especially with no TV - which I loved. 

Our boxes are long gone but for some reason, these days hold dear to my heart - the summer we began anew.

Summer is for swimming

We have spent so much time swimming or doing other water related activities this summer.  Basically if we were outside we were in the water....it was too hot not to be!

Earlier this summer, a friend invited us to head to Princeton's splash park.  The kids loved it...and mommy loved it because it was free and its gated.  So we can sit and watch the kids run around, not worry about the  chance of drowning, and a bonus, there is benches with shade!

Daddy made the boys a walk through/under sprinkler this spring.  It is basically made out of PVC pipe, a couple of corner joints, and some holes!  You hook a water hose up to it and let it go.  The kids loved it and they played with this a lot before we moved to the new house. 

We of course had to get the baby pool out on those HOT mornings!!!

I absolutely ADORE this picture.  He looks so nerdy I could laugh and cry at the same time....and just eat him up too!!

Cheese!

These last few pictures are of the boys FINALLY enjoying the pool at our new house.  I tell you it was a labor of love! We spent MANY hours toiling and laboring over this massive hole in the ground! But we have learned a lot - what to do and definitely what NOT to do! I can't believe that as I'm typing this, summer is pretty much long gone! Oh, the dog days of summer.  At least we were able to beat the heat a little!

 

catching up...again

So I'm going to try really hard this week to catch up on my blog posts.  It bothers me that I'm so behind, but hey - A LOT has happened this summer!  I really do want to catch up because this is my family's scrapbook!

Back in May (yes, I'm that far behind) we traveled to Chattanooga.  (I believe I posted some pictures from our trip awhile back but never finished.... So here we go.)

We went to the Aquarium in downtown Chattanooga - the boys LOVED it.

If you have never been....it's awesome.  They have two separate buildings: one freshwater and one saltwater.

We met up with our friend Wes and he joined us for most of the day.

I love this picture...it really does look like Kellen is trying to escape from a hungry shark! You can go into the  shark cage to see what it would be like to go into the ocean inside a cage.

Sorry, most of these pictures are not good. They were taken with my phone and I didn't have a flash. This particular picture they were watching a shark (a very large one)!

The boys were able to pet all different kinds of sting rays and sharks.  They were really good and afterwards we had to hit up 5 guys burgers and fries!  I love that place!