Summer Lovin'...

After getting back from Alabama and after our visitors left, it was back to reality. Reality wasn't all too bad. :) When Jackson was born I kept on thinking that I just wanted to fast forward the first three months of sleepless nights and long long days. But looking back now, now that he is over three months, I guess it wasn't that bad! We did have a third roommate for those months, as most of the time he slept in his bouncer in our bedroom:

{Luckily he was a cute room mate!} :)

{of course, peeing in the bath. I forget how every boy does this at every bath time!:)}

My little mommy helper:

Lots of late nights/early mornings with this little guy. Sometimes all he wanted was to lay like this over my legs and he would calm right down and go to sleep!

Lots of feet tickling by these two! They knew that when I was holding Jackson my reaction time was a little slow, so they wold attack! :)

Early morning snuggle sessions:

{I loved having a summer baby. It was the perfect time to have him. We had all summer to just relax and not have to rush in the mornings and to enjoy this little bundle of love!}

Sunday afternoon games:

We went to Target one morning and the lights were totally out. They had a generator running so they could open one check out line, and a few lights on at the front, so they still let us shop and they gave all the kids glow in the dark bracelets. Kinda fun and crazy!

Every now and then she discovers the joys of makeup. And since most of the time, she's my little tom boy, I let it fly.

{This was her outfit of choice this summer, by the way...short booty shorts, and long sleeved shirts}

The way I find him sleeping sometimes just cracks me up!

Movies in the park with friends! So fun!!! Dance party before the movie:

Taylor wishes she was the 5th McLuskie sister! :) I love these girls!

There is nothing better than a summer evening on the lake in Spokane! We went out to the Henderson's houseboat one night and had some delicious salmon and crab. It was the perfect evening!

Did a little fishing:

Did a lot of eating and having fun:

Did a little star gazing:

This guy is my cute captain:

Henderson's, McDonald's and my dad & Kathryn:

It's always fun with that crowd!! :)

Tuck & Taylor took swim lessons! Tucker did awesome and is my little fish. Taylor was a little thrown off by the fact that she couldn't wear her floats. The first two days of lessons, she clung onto the side of the pool like this and screamed! (even though she could touch!) :) It was wonderful! I was tempted to just not take her back, but Coach Rhonda is so awesome, she puts up with it just enough to justify her feelings, but is firm enough that she made her go outside of her comfort zone and by the third day she was happy and swimming and loving it. Here she is clutching on to the side for dear life:

Here were all the kids in her class. She keeps on telling me that she doesn't want to do swim lessons again because she always wants to wear her floats, but I think I will torture her next year again! :) Tucker was awesome and started mastering his strokes and started to learn how to dive properly! He was doing flips and somersaults and having tea parties on the bottom of the pool, all the things I loved to do as a kid!

Ohhh. Emmm. Geeee! I discovered the BEST ice-cream ever invented. I was both elated and so bummed that I discovered this. Elated because it is heaven in a carton and bummed because it is my caloric intake for the whole day! It was a long day, I was at the grocery store. Ben was, I think, out camping with the young men.  I saw this Ben & Jerry's and had to try it. I ate the whole thing in one sitting! all 1000 calories! I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since! About 7 cartons later (and counting)...It's bad. It's really baaaad! I'm in love!

Of course, we were still able to enjoy my favorite part of summer. Just being outside and eating deliciously fresh food and having BBQ's.

One lazy evening, eating dinner on the driveway in our swimming suits!

A lunch meat, cheese and cracker platter. Awesome.

Our vine had these really beautiful purple flowers bloom on it this summer. I really want to get some more of those vines to possibly cover the pergola more.

Kebobs on the grill! Yes please!

And when our lunch plates look like this, you know it's a good summer!

Dancing in the sprinklers:

{They had it in the grass, then it kind of snaked onto the driveway, and they saw that it formed a river in the curb, so that is where they kept it and made things to float down the river!}

Also, dance and singing parties inside. Listening to Kidz Bop with their head phones.

Tucker read on the back of his Kidz Bop CD that he could apply to be a Kidz Bop and sing on their CD's. He was so excited about that and was sure that it was going to be him! All he had to do was submit a 60 second video of him singing a kidz bop song. Since he already knew the Miley Cyrus song, Party in the USA, he decided that would be the song he would use for his entry. The above photos are of him practicing. So, we recorded him singing. Then we went on line and realized that you had to be 8 years old or something, so we never ended up submitting it. But here is the video for your viewing pleasure. After we recorded this, but before he found out he couldn't do it, he warned me, 'Mom, just so you know if I get it, I probably won't be home a lot, you know the Kidz Bop kids tour a lot!' Thanks for the heads up, bud! :)

Yeah, I think he might need just a bit more practice! :)

I thought our summer was going to be pretty low key, in the house all day. And, while it was low key, we still were able to enjoy lots of fun adventures and activities! It was a great summer! I am mourning the return of cold weather and the dreaded schedule! :)