Summer Love

Well,  summer has come and gone and with one very active toddler, one growing baby in my belly, and a host of other of life's distractions, I was of course not as good at documenting out summer as I'd like to have been.  I think I got the big stuff, the birthdays and summer vacations, but I didn't capture our normal summer days. I don't keep a baby book for Grady and I don't organize family photos so this blog is about all we've got as far as documenting our family. So in an effort to at least partway document our summer for posterity sake, I figured I'd dump some photos here.

When we built the pool last year, we did so in large part with our kids (one kid at the time) in mind. Chris grew up with a pool as a kid and had such fond memories of swim days with his family and friends.   For the most part Grady loved swimming this summer.  He'd have his days where he's say "no swimming, no thank you mommy", but we didn't push it and sure enough the next day he'd be ready to dive back in.  With his little floaties he was totally independent in the water this summer and could "swim" to get toys from one end of the pool to the other.  He'd love to jump in and get his face wet and come back up and yell "Suprise!"  His independence and confidence in the water both shocked me and made me swell with pride (and a little fear too!).  We had lots of swim days both as a family and with our friends throughout the summer. The pool was certainly a huge part of our summer activities and I could not have been more pleased except for maybe if  I wasn't sporting a lovely maternity swimsuit all summer.

Summer was full of lots of meals outside and summer treats.  Grady would tote a "popticle"  in his wagon whenever he went fishing with Daddy and found a new love for "ife cream", he is my son after all. We took impromptu trips down to the river.  Some ending up with a naked toddler with a very droopy diaper and others with the specific purpose of throwing as many rocks into the river as possible.  We are lucky to live just down the street from such a fun playground for both my big boy and my little boy.

We frequented the zoo, our neighborhood ponds, and  made special trips to the park to look at all the construction equipment.  Grady is mesmerized by diggers.  Summer for us means being outside.  We all love the outdoors and it gave Grady so many opportunities to learn and explore.  

Ahhh summer, I just love you and I will miss you, but for now we are one to my very favorite part of the year.  Welcome fall!