The Great Outdoors

By the time summer arrived this year, we were all so ready to be outside - especially the kids.  I love that we can let them run wild and explore and they have done so much of that over the past month. 

Tim took the kids down to the river trail and they met a man who had been fishing, he was kind enough to take some pictures with the kids and they were super impressed with how many he had caught.  As they wandered further down the trail, they found a fishing pole that had been left in the weeds.  Tim straightened out the line and let Luke cast and he promptly caught a fish, it was wild.

The next day the kids convinced Tim to take them back to the river to fish, and of course, they wanted Drake and Brexley to come along.  I think taking four small kids fishing quickly cured Tim of wanting to fish for quite awhile.  He said that he spent the entire time either untangling lines or baiting hooks - these kids are sure lucky to have such an adventurous, and patient daddy.

Since they didn't catch any fish, they ended up at McDonalds for lunch.

Friday afternoons in the summer are my very favorite.  We are so spoiled because usually both Tim and I are home so we can plan a family date for the afternoon.  On this particular Friday Tim picked up a picnic lunch from Which Wich and we spent the afternoon at the Scera Pool.  We seriously had so much fun together - the kids were excited to show us everything they have been learning at swim lessons we all just hung out together in the water for hours.  Tim convinced Ruby and I to go down the slide with he and Luke.  Ruby was pretty nervous but by the time we got to the bottom pool, she was begging to go again.  I see a lot of that slide in our future. 

Mud pies for days!

I couldn't be mad, I was the master mud pie baker when I was a kid.

One of the kids' favorite activities is to have a picnic and a bike wash

Yes, all of those bikes somehow belong to us...ridiculous!

Piggy Pig especially loves a good picnic

Ruby has had a princess bike for a year or two but she almost never rides it - the wheels are shaky and the bike totally leans so it scares her.   I finally decided that she needed to have a good bike and when I found this cutest one at Target (I think I went in for batteries only), I knew that Ruby would love it.  She was so excited when I got home that she begged Tim to put it together right then and we know he cannot resist that little girl.  As soon as it was ready she grabbed her helmet, jumped on the bike and rode off to show the neighborhood.  It has been the very best investment because now she wants to ride everywhere and loves that she can keep up with the bigger kids.  

Now that Ruby has a bike, we can go on family bike rides and our very first one was a family night adventure to 7-11 for slurpees.  We were lucky enough to have Brycen with us so it was easy to space the little kids between us and make sure they stayed safe.  The trip ended up being about three miles and the kids rode like champions.  Ruby was right in front of me and talked non-stop, mostly about how strong her legs were and how much she loved to exercise.  Luke just thought he was so cool because he was riding with the big boys and he worked hard to make sure he kept up with Tim and Brycen.  Slurpees at the halfway point made the night practically perfect.

We haven't spent much time at the splash pad this summer,

But just our luck to run into friends to share the fun.