First of all, let me just say thanks to those of you who mentioned that you missed the blog this summer! I missed you, too.
Brace yourselves, this is gonna' be a long one. (A few of you will now click that little "x" in the upper-right-hand corner, others will freshen up their cup of coffee and dig in. For the record, I like the second group better. You're fearless. Or something like that.)
I was going to start this work of non-fiction by stating that I had dropped the ball this summer...from a tall distance. However, I'd rather just say that summer became its own entity this year and a few things just had to jump into the backseat. This blog was one of those things. As were a few other things...like cleaning my house. Ahem.
Anyway, it was one of those summers that wasn't perfect or grand; we didn't accomplish some great feat or visit someplace wildly exotic. However, we greatly enjoyed our time together, navigating the hurdles that were tossed in our direction.
Without further ado, a recap.
Our summer started (early) with a trip to the Outer Banks, NC in late May. What a tremendous start to the summer! David posted a slide show with some beach pics here, but these are two of my favorites:
In June, we hosted Dave's mom for a few days. What a blessing our kids have in their grandparents! I wasn't great with the camera this summer, and the only shot I have of the kids with their grandma was of a badminton game in the front yard. Unfortunately, my wonderful mother-in-law was facing away from me. And I figured she'd appreciate it more if I left a picture of her hind end off the blog for the time being. You're welcome, Sheila. Oh, and feel free to email any pics that you took that week...I'll add them!
Just a few days later, we had the pleasure of meeting up with my brother and his family, as well as my parents, in the thriving metropolis of Warrens, WI. The town is almost exactly halfway between Minneapolis (where they were visiting for the week) and Janesville. Conveniently, there is a lodge-style hotel and water park located in Warrens, along with, uh ... very little else. Anyway, our kids and theirs had great fun together! The last time they had seen each other was over 2 years previous. As you can see, the cousins played as if they were next-door neighbors and Christopher warmed up to Uncle Jeff in a hurry. My parents also enjoyed the opportunity to have all 5 grandchildren in the same place at once!
The day after our Warrens trip, Christopher turned two! (And triggered the ONE other summer post I have written...) Have I ever told y'all what a blessing Christopher is to our household? Even though he is fully grasping the negative skills most two-year-olds possess, he brings a whole new flair to our household with his cars, trucks, and approximately 142 balls. One of our favorite things about this boy is the amazing way that he makes friends wherever we go. Seriously. People love this kid. But not as much as we do. Happy Birthday buddy!
In early July, David's dad and step-mom visited. (See earlier comment about our kids' fabulous grandparents!) Unfortunately, I dropped the ball on the photo-taking department (see earlier comment about dropping balls...), so I am without any proof of this visit. (David and Paula: email me a picture or two!)
We got a new dryer in July...woo-hoo... (Do you sense my lack of excitement at all?) We've lived in this house for 5 years and have owned 3 clothes dryers. That's a lot of irritation, folks. Anyway, this one is showing some potential of surviving past 2011, which would be nice.
The rest of July was monopolized with my preparations for Vacation Bible School, my 7th as a director, but my first as a non-working-children's-pastor. Did that make sense? During first 6 VBS's, I was serving as a paid children's pastor, working in the church building several hours a week. This year felt MASSIVELY different because I didn't have set working hours where I focused on all the intricacies, but instead just fit in the preparations between potty-training, diaper changing, disciplining, naps, lunches, playdates, pool time, park outings, guests, and the occasional nap. But, hallelujah, a tremendous team came together to create a great event. We saw 100 children during the week, which was both exciting and panic-attack-inducing after I had only prepared for 60! (In case you were wondering, the theme was "PandaMania".)
During the week of VBS, on Tuesday to be exact, we got one of THOSE calls. You know the ones. The phone rings and you think it's a sweet call from your step-mother-in-law, wishing you a happy day or asking for a recipe or something. Instead, she was in tears, telling me her husband (Dave's dad) was being life-flighted to the nearest burn unit after a nasty run-in with a brush pile fire. Those are the afternoons that you hope to never experience again. (I'm sure he'd agree!) Anyway, David Sr. was stabilized quickly and released after only three days in the hospital. Now, several weeks later, he is healing very well and is expected to have a full recovery with minimal or no scarring at all. Praise the Lord!
The beginning of August was full of curriculum hunting & buying, as we are embarking on a new adventure in the Fox household. In just a week, I will be in the thick of homeschooling Allyson. Woa, right? I'll be sure to keep you up to date on our progress!
We made our annual trip to Little Amerricka* to get our yearly fix of rickety, not-too-stable, kind of unkempt carnival rides. I say that (partly) in jest, as the place has quite a little bit of charm and many of the rides are benign enough for even Christopher. We'll go ahead and enjoy this yearly outing for a few more years until our offspring demand the thrill rides of Great America in Chicago.
*The family that owns the small amusement park is named Merrick, thus the strange spelling of the locale. Just a little nugget for those of you keen on Wisconsin trivia.
In mid-August, I took the kids to Minneapolis to visit my parents. David doesn't have any vacation time until the new year, so he stayed home to work and complete some home projects. The kids loved their trip to the Mall of America and Como Zoo and various parks in the vicinity of my parents' home.
During our trip, my sweet aunt's husband passed away suddenly from an apparent heart attack. He was young, only 56, and had just been married to Lori for 4 years. Although the heaviness of grief was nearly overwhelming, I am so grateful that I got to hug Lori and cry with her in person before we returned home. I haven't gone a single day without hurting for her and praying God's comfort would surround her and the family. (I swear I spent nearly an hour looking for a picture of them, but I couldn't find one. I'll add one soon!)
That brings us to this point. 4 days from Ally's first day of school at Foxy Elementary. 4 days from Natalie's first day at preschool (NOT at Foxy Elementary). Ally's first upper adult tooth emerged yesterday. Literally. In the morning it wasn't there and when we said goodnight, it had emerged. Natalie is fully trained and growing more independent every day...if that's possible. Christopher is my slowest talker, but is gaining in vocabulary every day. What's funny is the order of his words; he sounds a little like Yoda.
So there you go. That was the summer in a rather large nutshell. I have lots more I could talk about, and hopefully as we get into a daily schedule I'll talk about them soon, but for now I should do a bit of cleaning.
After all, I've done very little of that kind of thing this summer.
