Summer wrap-up

There are a lot of things we did this summer that I never got around to blogging about. I usually choose what I write about on the blog based on what I want to record for us to remember later on in life. And I'd hate to skip over an entire summer of our lives, so here's a rundown of the summer of 2011:

We attended the nearby catholic school festival with our neighbors this year. It was Morgan's first time being big enough to ride rides at a festival. She loved the train, race cars and carousel, because they all just went in a circle. She was adamant, however, that she wanted to ride the school bus (which takes the kids up into the air and around like the hands of a clock) and the airplanes (photo above). She was terrified on both of them. Our neighbor, Kadance, was so sweet and she tried to comfort Morgan on each ride without success. I was pretty proud of her for being brave enough to try the rides, though.
Morgan's favorite thing at the festival was the duck pond game. She stood at the duck pond playing with the plastic ducks for at least 20 minutes. We only paid for and took home one prize, but the operator didn't seem to mind that she kept playing with the ducks. When Morgan was finally ready to leave the duck pond, she was drenched in water. But, the temp was easily in the high 90s that day, so I figured a little bit of cold duck pond water was probably good for her!
After the kids were worn out, we took them all back to the neighbors' house and Morgan stayed there while Jeff and I had a date night. We went back up to the festival after the sun had gone down. We shared some yummy festival food, did a small amount of gambling (it was for a good cause after all), listened to some music and indulged in a bit of people-watching. Jeff even went on the spinning ride I wanted to go on, even though spinning makes him feel sick. I have such a nice husband!

Morgan received this sandbox/pool combo for her birthday. The pool was great to have during the endless record-heat this summer. The sand doesn't look anywhere near as nice as it does in this picture anymore, though.

We had an opportunity to go to the NCAA Hall of Champions here in Indy for free this summer. Here's Morgan and Jeff sporting their Spartan best and their tough guy faces.

I mentioned that there was record heat this year, right? I think everyone in the Midwest had at least a month of stifling temperatures and humidity. This photo was taken on one of those days. Morgan requested to "play chalk" and then exclaimed, "Oh, I need a hat!" I promise you I suggested a baseball cap, but this girl has a style all her own.

Our annual father's day trip to the waterpark. Morgan loves the "zero-entry" pools at these places because she likes to run into the water. It's very cute because she cocks her little arms up to the side like a cartoon character would before they start running and then she runs full speed until the water gets to her shins and then she turns around and does it again.


Kristyn, Andrea (aka Nugget), me and Tammy

Ladies Trip!! I went to Myrtle Beach with three of my lifelong BFFs. We live scattered across three states and four cities, so it was blissful to have the chance to spend three full days with these ladies without any kids/husbands/jobs/schedules to get in the way.

And last, but definitely not least, the highlight of our summer was meeting our nephew, Gabriel. He was born premature in age/development but he was born into an extended family that has an immediate and complete love for him. I was able to visit him twice in the NICU and Jeff visited 4 or 5 times (and got to touch his knee!). It's hard to get good pictures in the NICU, but I got this cute one where his little leg was propped up on his knee. Congratulations to Rachel and Jesse on their beautiful son!