August 2012

When August started I couldn't believe summer was almost coming to an end. But we packed in what we could in the last couple of weeks of summer vacation.

At the beginning of the month,  we stayed one night at Mahoney State Park. I wish that we could have stayed another night, but in order to get good reservations, you have to call a year ahead. Since obviously I had not planned that far in advance, we only got one night. But we had so much fun. We did a lot of hiking and walking around the park. We walked down to the Platte River and watched the trains go by. The boys thought that was awesome. The Platte was in bad shape while we were there and it still is. There's been a drought this summer, so the river was pretty much sand. We spent the evening grilling out, hiking and working on an electrical circuit building set that the boys had gotten previously. We had a really great time and intend to go again next year.

After we got home and that same week I went out to Denver BY MYSELF to visit my sister and my good friend, Jeanne. I was there for five blissful alone days. We shopped like it was our job and I even got in a 7-mile run with Jeanne on a beautiful trail. It was awesome. While I was there, my sister and her boyfriend were in the process of closing on their first house. This meant we got to do lots of house shopping. Since we are redoing our first floor, I got to do some shopping too. I bought two big rugs and some new light fixtures. We visited Ikea, the outlets and many other places. It was fantastic. We ate out a lot, too. I had so much fun I forgot to take pictures! I need to get better about this. I took one photo of Jeanne and me in the parking lot the last time we got to hang out.


When I got back from Denver, it was just a few more days until the dreaded start of school. The boys enjoy school, but I think they enjoy being home with me during the summer even more. They didn't really want to give up days of sleeping in, playing, swimming and fun to sitting in desks.

And then, because we couldn't stop it, school started. Jack started 1st grade and Charlie started 3rd. So far the school year is going well and they really like their teachers. This is the first year I wasn't able to take the boys to their first day of school. My school started the same day, so I had to be at work. Boo. This meant Doug was in charge of photos!