Oh, friends.

I haven’t been around here much because life has been happening really fast and really a lot.  We worked hard, played hard and loved hard from spring through the summer months.  We filled up our calendar with play dates and barbecues and swim parties.  We finally hung our patio lights which have been in the garage for two years and replaced our 1980’s slider.  We cut up a lot of watermelon and refrigerated a lot of cold brew.  Fish tacos and Costco pizza slices on paper plates were consumed by all.  Summer glory.

Meanwhile, my parents moved back home to our roots in Hillsboro, Kansas where my dad grew up.  My sister down-sized and moved with her family onto a beautiful piece of Georgia property on the outskirts of metro Atlanta.  David pressed play on his dream of private pilot training.  My friend Ari and I started a photography business.  We did a couple of beach trips but mostly stayed around home and soaked up a good time in life.

Minus the week after my girls had just gotten out of a Hand Foot and Mouth quarantine and then promptly began throwing up as David left out the door for a camping trip at a location four hours away with out cell service, this summer was a memory-maker.

This was my last summer of having three little ones without anyone in school. It was really my dream to do a full Day in the Life shoot to document this era before we entered the school year, but our routine just hasn’t been consistent enough for me to focus on it.  We started home school and then quit (we are currently in a week off for me to get my junk together) and then made a plan to start back up after Labor Day.  l’ll write many words about that on the Internet later, I’m certain.

I know K.K. is just starting kindergarten, but if I’m honest, I spent the last two weeks actually fighting and grieving over the end of these days with just my babies and toddlers and my purse full of Cheerios and nowhere to be but  the park or Trader Joe’s. (See how I just automatically deleted all the hard and mind-numbing aspects from that equation such as sleep deprivation and pooped pants at the park?  Time really does heal our pain.)

My brother Joel is stopping over for one night this weekend while he helps a friend move to Davis, so naturally it is taking me three days to clean house (90% of which he won’t see) and plan one last round of fish tacos under the lights.

I did manage get this bath time and I feel like I genuinely captured a piece life with these three little gifts.  In other words, this is all typical.  I love you guys.  Thanks for reading and loving me through.

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