soak in the sun

Monday I left for a work trip, yet again. Trip 5 of 5 in 5 weeks. And I’m done! For now.

The bonus of this particular trip was that I was in DC and was able to have dinner with Aunt Ouize, Uncle Todd and Abe. It was so nice.

“Gabby – can you send me a pic of the kids?”

Looks about right for a post-camp afternoon.

Bonus pics from Penni!

Next day: “Gabby – can you send me a pic of the kids?” 🙂

Steven, organizing his ball cards.

I was back at the bus stop on Thursday. Amaya can’t help but pose when she sees me move to take a picture.

Amaya was pissy because I told her she had to stay in her bed when I read Sammy his book. She played it well for a while.

“Don’t make me laaaaaaaugh!”

After dinner on Friday I filled up a trash can for some water gun time. Here, we were watching a butterfly that landed on Steven’s water gun.

Water guns! Somehow, they managed to stay dry in their pajamas. An end-of-week miracle.

Yesterday was gorgeous and we headed off to the pool. Not before Amaya put together this beaut of an ensemble.

We were at the pool from 11:30am until 5:30pm. It was incredible. The kids absolutely loved being in the pool. At one point, the boys were in for 90 minutes straight. Amaya’s swimming skills have improved even in the last two weeks. She’s swimming on her stomach now, not just her back and, while we were at the pool, she got up the nerve to jump in! I don’t think she can pass a deep end test yet but she’s made so much progress.

The kids snagged this spot for the lunch and, later, for ice cream. (Except for Steven who, true to form, chose nutrigrain bars instead of ice cream.)

Like our last trip to the pool, the kids wanted to see me jump off the diving board. This time, there was guy there (my age) who was doing some elaborate dives. He convinced me – and then coached me – to dive off the board. I was always so nervous diving but I did it!

Later, he came up to us during our snack and told me that his wife and daughter always ask for pictures with the kids, would I like one? So nice!

We wrapped up the day trying out the inside pool. It was freezing and a little too deep to stand well but, with puddle jumpers, SSA all braved it.

Back at home for bedtime. <3 It was such a long day that, for the first time, Steven was asleep in his bed before I even got upstairs to tuck him in.

This morning we packed up and headed to a playground. It was so nice out.

Offer Cline, on duty.

After a little while Sammy asked if we could go to a different playground. In the past, packing up the kids to go somewhere else would have felt like so much work but today it was a breeze. The flexibility we have these days is awesome.

“Is anything on my nose?”

We had a lazy afternoon at home and, with few exceptions, like Sammy and Jason watching comedy videos the kids spent it all out on the deck with chalk paint and sidewalk chalk and lots of water. Boy, they love to play with water.