Five Summer Nights

I just really like the summer. And I like having a job that lets me enjoy the summer evenings, since we start school in the middle of the summer these days.

 

1. One night, I had charge of the kids and Jonah had soccer practice so the younger three and I headed to the park next to the fields and they played while I read.

 

This little guy likes to check in pretty frequently and he was cracking me up. That cute face!!

And this one had to be coaxed into stopping for a picture.

On our way out, we stopped at the black top which had a painted map of the United States on it. I showed them all the states Jaime and I had just driven through on our road trip. Then we looked at the states they'd driven through when they went down to Myrtle Beach. Then we looked at the states we drove through on the way to Utah. Last, I showed them Hawai'i and told them that's where Thomas was. Without any prompting from me, all three of them sat down and started talking to and waving at Thomas. It was so sweet.

2. We moved this summer and our new house has a great climbing tree in the front. Emerson has named it Henry, I believe. She spent quite a bit of time up there so one night I decided to climb up there with her. I seriously don't even know the last time I'd climbed a tree so she had to walk me through the process and I'm pretty sure I pulled my hamstring, but I made it up there!

3. That same night, I needed to run to the grocery store so I invited Campbell to come with me. When we got there, we realized they had mini shopping carts so she got one and ran the whole shopping trip. I told her what we needed, but she pulled everything off the shelf, pushed the cart, put it all up on the conveyor belt, pushed the cart out to the car, unloaded the cart into the trunk, and took the cart back to the corral. I was dying the whole time.

4. My cousin Sarah Shoaf got married this summer, so we headed down to my Grandma Shoaf's farm for a wedding reception. I didn't get any pictures of the bride and groom but I did get this killer picture of my dad with several of his brothers all standing in a circle with their blue shirts and pot bellies. I'd never seen so many of them interact that long together. :)

Grandma Shoaf. It was hot out there, and we were sweatin'.

My grandparents have a bonafide playground in their yard. After the old elememtary school in Hope closed, they got ahold of the playground equipment and it's been in their yard as long as I can remember. I have sweet memories of going to their house on Sunday evenings and playing with cousins till dark. I love that place.

5. My friend Kyri won some Colts tickets at work, so she invited me to go. We were ten rows from the field. Loved it!