Summertime Fun

My last post was at the beginning of the summer and now here we are already at the end. It has been a good one. We have been busy with soccer, work, day camp, vacations, swimming, play dates, karate, and hip hop dance class but we have also had some relaxing days and down time. Although I love the laziness and the less "scheduledness" of summer, I am ready to get back in our routine. Here are some highlights from the last few months:

Trip to Arkansas: We spent the first week of our summer in Arkansas. We started in Little Rock with Grammy and Pawpaw and got lots of cousin time in with Presley and Landon.

Aubrey painting Landon's nails. 

We also spent a few days in Monticello with Gigi and Papa. My cousin, Jon, and his wife Candice and their two kids happen to be in town visiting also. Their daughter, Hadley, is just a couple of months older than Aubrey so it was fun to get them together. 

Watching the Women's World Cup. 

 This is at Atwood's. The Farm Supply store in Monticello. They have real baby chicks so it is heaven for my animal loving girls. 

Even Oliver made the trip. 

 We have had some fun playdates this summer:

And lots of movie nights. 

And before it turned 1 million degrees outside, we had fun hanging out on our back patio at night. 

We've played dress up:

Gone rock climbing:

 And celebrated the Fourth of July:

One of the best things we did this summer was go to Great Wolf Lodge. Gigi has been wanting to take the girls for a while so we picked a date and made a plan. Because Aubrey is still too little to ride most of the rides, we decided that Gigi and Papa would stay overnight with the big girls but Aubrey, Ben and I would only go for one day then come home to spend the night.  I went back the next day (it is only about 20 minutes away) so that I could ride rides and spend time with Ava and Macy without the distraction of little sister. It was a lot of fun and  the highlight of the girls' summer (along with a trip to Colorado which is going to get its own post!). Thanks to Gigi and Papa for such a special treat!

Next post: Family Vacay to Colorado! So. much. fun. 

Springtime!

Spring is here. It is hard to believe we are in the home stretch for the end of the school year. I feel like I just posted their first day of school pics. We enjoyed a low key spring break this year. Our initial plan was to travel to Arkansas for part of the week, but I started having MAJOR issues with my car the week before Spring break and knew that there was no way my car could make the trip. So we ended up staying here, doing some fun things around town, and spending some time with friends.

They actually CHOSE to dress alike! 

Riding on the train at Cuckoos. 

We ran into our friends, the Hamiltons, at Cuckoos. 

The Hamiltons also have 3 girls. Our two families took up the whole train. Haha!

The second day of Spring Break we went to the Ark which has a huge play structure for running, jumping, and climbing. They also have a toddler area but Aubrey was right in the middle of the big kids. 

The girls love this huge slide and Aubrey doesn't need or really want help on it but they insist on sliding down with her. You can see Ava holding on to Aubrey near the top. 

We met up with some neighborhood friends at the park. Sadly this was the only picture I got that day. Everyone was too busy playing to pose for pictures. 

On Friday we went to a different park with Mrs. Paulina and her kids. Mrs. Paulina was Aubrey's nanny last year when I was working full time.

And the best part.... I got a new ride! It's exactly like my old ride just a newer model and a different color. We looked at other cars but I just decided to go with what I know and love. : )

Gigi and Papa came for a visit in March during their Spring Break. Since it was different than ours, they got to have lunch with Ava and Macy at school. They also took the girls ice skating and to see Cinderella! 

Ben had a work trip to San Diego planned so at the last minute we decided that I would tag along for the weekend! It was an awesome trip. We ate delicious food, went to the beach, and did some hiking in La Jolla. Ben crossed an item off of his bucket list and played golf at Torrey Pines. While he did that I went to the spa and got a massage. It was a pretty amazing weekend! A special thank you to Grammy and Pawpaw for driving down to take care of the kiddos! (I don't know why these pics are blurry, but I tried for a long time to fix it and I can't.)

A couple of weeks ago, Ben ran a half marathon! He decided in January that he needed to do something to motivate himself to exercise. So being the over achiever that he is, he decided on a half marathon. He ran a full marathon about 8 years ago before the girls were born, so I knew that if he set his mind to it he would be able to do it without any trouble. He did great and finished in 2 hours and 3 minutes which is an awesome time! Here are some pics of him running and his biggest cheerleaders. 

3 girls inside a tree! Keeping ourselves entertained while Ben runs!