Last of our Summer-

24th of July: We got back from our great family vacation in time for the 24th of July parade.  Luckily we still own our old house so we have a great spot for the parade.  Something even luckier for us is that hopefully by the end of today, if it closes and all goes through we won't own this house anymore.  

 Candy, wagons, horses, pioneers- best parade ever.

There were lots of good signs on the floats to give us some good cheering material- jazzy carts & self-esteem were a couple of my favorites.  Btw- check out that crimped hair!

 Checking out the goods.

 Isaac discovered how awesome corn on the cob is.

Look at that cute baby.   

Ava got a new booster and it's kind fo a big deal.  She loves it and I love not having to buckle & unbuckle her.

The Canal:  One day we walked to the park along the canal.  On the way home Owen wanted to try walking on the edge that's covered in plastic- it only took a couple of steps before he slipped into the canal and was scared for his life but  really I just stepped in a few feet ahead and grabbed him out and he was fine although we did get a little wet.  After we got out he said, "I think that was a bad idea."  It was pretty funny.

 It was hot and Owen was already wet so we decided what the heck and Owen & Ava jumped in.

 It was so much fun we came back after Isaac's nap with life jackets. 

Camping at the river-

Baking Experiments:  Ava is very into making "experiments" as she calls them lately.  Usually they consist of flour, water, some food coloring and some fennel seeds since somehow we have 2 bottles of those and I don't think I'll ever use them.  She's quite proud of them- this batch we had to bake and she was surprised that it tasted gross in it's gummy green grossness but what a cutie.

Isaac figured out how to climb up on this step stool and looked so big.  He was pretty happy about it.  

Last round of swimming Lessons-  We tried a ladies back yard and it was awesome.  The kids learned so much. It was kind of funny- we'd heard the head teacher lady was very strict and didn't put up with much so to prepare Owen & Ava just told them to be good listeners and they'd be fine.  Both of them after the first lesson were so excited that the teacher didn't even yell at them.

Indoor Lemonade water stand:  The kids kept asking to do a lemonade stand so to compromise between me not wanting to do one and them wanting one we had an indoor stand that they were paid well for that made all of us happy.

We made it to the Preston Rodeo and it was so much fun.  A funny story- before we went to the rodeo we ate at Big J's and the kids got their kid meals in a cowboy hat.  When we parked for the rodeo they got their hats and we started walking.  We ran into some friends with kids that were wearing real cowboy hats. After we got done chatting with them Owen wanted to get a real cowboy hat like those kids and was kind of embarrassed of his free kids meal cowboy hat and wanted to put it in the car.  

Man, we had such an awesome summer.