Photography Friday: Close-Up

Oh, how I love succulents!

Photography Friday: Makes You Smile

Last week we adopted our hamster, Kibbles. Tristan is in love with her! While he was doing his homework one day he was reading. Kibbles snuggled up next to him and actually fell asleep while he was reading out loud. I told him he had just read her a bedtime story. He smiled which makes me smile.

Our Little Mermaid

Stella has been on the swim team for about 4 months now and it has been so much fun to see her progress! She has quickly increased her stamina and can do several laps and make it look easy. She loves to bob and practice her freestyle. At the beginning of August we had the pleasure to watch her participate in her second swim meet. Her first one was literally within the month she started so it was a bit intimidating for her. This time around she knew what to expect and wasn't even nervous! She patiently waited for her turn and would look up and wave to us in the crowd.

This time she competed in the 25 meter freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. She did great! She beat out 2 other girls in the breaststroke and almost beat 2 in the backstroke, but lost to both within half a second. I love to see her do what she enjoys so much! It's so much fun! Upon completing each race she'd look up in the stands for me and smile and wave. Brought tears to my eyes to think that in such an exciting moment for her she'd be looking for me! I love being a mom more than anything. I'm so proud of her and whether she comes in first, middle or last I am so proud of her and her efforts. She's worked hard and it was fun to see her be competitive for even just a minute! Never seen that side of her before. Go, Stella! We're proud of you!!!

AuGuSt

End of summer. Boo. We knew it would come eventually. We just all wished it could have lasted a little bit longer. I've decided being off school for 3 months makes it that much harder to go back. I absolutely LOVED being home with the kiddo's this summer. I always enjoy having them home. I'm fortunate that they both play well with each other and I almost never hear, "I'm bored!"

I'm lucky to have wonderful friends on my street in which my kids are also best friends with their kids. We know that among our 3 homes our kids run back and forth and are safe, having fun. It's a great setup that we have going on!

So we managed to get in a few end of summer events in August. We hardly ever went out on our boat this summer. Bill took the boat out a few times fishing, but I only got out once. On a whim we met Shaun and Mistee at Yuba one Saturday. I don't know why we go to Yuba because the weather is always nice half the time and windy and choppy the other half. That's exactly how our Saturday was. Nice when we got there. Lightening and windy the other half. Nice when we left. We had fun regardless!

We also got in a few little hikes. We drove up to Silver Fork Lake and had a little picnic and walked around the lake. On our way back we stopped by Wheeler Farm and checked out all the cute animals. The goats were funny! They wanted a lot of attention. Especially one who would stand up and try to get us to come over and pet it. They have some crazy pupils! Freaky. It was such a fun day together.

We also went on a hike to Donut Falls. I don't think I had ever been there before. It was pretty easy hike and I was impressed that even Stella climbed through the water and up all the rocks. Our feet were cold and wet, but it was totally worth it. 

We took a weekend trip to the cabin. It was so nice to have a few days away and just disconnect from the world and reconnect with each other ;) The kids had a blast doing their usual: legos, movies, 4-wheelers and shopping. We took a drive up by Skyline Drive. That was my favorite part. I love to be in the mountains!

We had a great summer and hate to see it go! We didn't get in as much camping/boating as we'd liked but the weather didn't cooperate most weekends. However, we had fun anyways! Now back to school. Back to routine. Back to real life.