Soaking Up Summer

After having Ez all to myself the past four years I'll be sharing him with preschool in a few short weeks. More on preschool later, but for now I'll just say that I'm so, SO excited for him, and I hope he loves it and it sparks a life long interest in school and learning. 

Before we ease into daily schedules and responsibility and all that grown up stuff, there are a few more summer time activities I want to squeeze into August. I didn't make a summer bucket list this year because I knew we'd be so busy, but life has slowed down considerably this month and with fall right around the corner I have an itch to do all the summer things while we still can. A few of these are repeats that I want to do at least one more time, and a few are brand new. 

What's on your end of summer list? Or have you already moved onto back to school season? I know I say this every season of every year, but this summer has flown by so fast. 

Easing Into Summer

Summer is for...

staying up late

splashing in water

sunsets

birthdays

margaritas

county fairs

concerts

exploring

bubbles

books

evening walks

dirt trails

mountains

starry skies

s'mores

family time

So far our summer is shaping up pretty nicely. We've already found our new favorite splash pad, have plans to camp at the lake, family is coming to town, and Declan, mine, and Joe's birthdays are right around the corner. Lots of fun and excitement on the horizon and to top it all off, the weather has been unseasonably cool, which I've been relishing because come this weekend it's triple digits :( 

Hope you're soaking up all the fun and family time summer has to offer!

Goodbye Summer 2016

Another amazingly eventful summer comes to an end. I'd even venture so far as to say that this was the best summer ever, because...we got married! Hard to top that. Looking back the beginning of summer feels like so long ago because we crammed so many things into the last three months. Here's the highlight reel of a few of my favorite summer moments, and my official goodbye to summer and, I hope, the heat. I've loved summer, it's birthday season for three out of four of us after all, but bring on sweaters and pumpkin patches and long, cozy nights. I'm ready for you fall!

1. Splash pad fun: I was really hoping to fit in some more visits, but, you know, life.
2. Soccer at Stanford.
3. Motocross at the fair: quite possibly Ez's favorite moment of all time. That look on his face gets me every time. Pure joy.
4. 4th of July: We capped off the day with a hike and ended with fire works at the park.
5. Monster Trucks at the fair: Ez didn't have the same look of joy as he did with motocross, but he did talk about this event longer, so maybe it's a tie for best moment of all time in his three year old life.
6. Girl's trip to Lake Tahoe: my bachelorette weekend was basically a good old fashioned sleepover with some gambling and booze thrown in. Perfection.
7. Birthday weekend in Pinecrest: This was our best birthday getaway yet. I'll probably say that every year, but I'll mean it every year too ;)
8. Declan's 1st birthday: The cake was a letdown, but thumbs up for presents and lots of adoring relatives. I think he enjoyed himself overall.
9. We got married!!! I can't write that without exclamation points. I'm sure the novelty will eventually wear off, but hopefully not anytime soon.
10. Wine tasting in Sonoma with ALL the sisters. Five of us. So. much. FUN.
11. San Francisco day trip. We actually did several of these this summer, and sometimes I still pinch myself that we're close enough to visit this amazing city for the day whenever we want.
12. Berkeley with my sis. Thankfully she enjoys wandering around random campuses just as much as we do. Don't knock it till you've tried it.

I thought a few of these were far fetched, but it turns out we did a pretty good job crossing almost all the items off our list. I deliberately held back on the caricatures because I wanted a wedding themed one instead. We had several wonderful kid-free date nights and I'm hoping to continue that trend into fall. Declan's 1st birthday was a tad bittersweet, but overall the best celebration of my littlest man. Ez did great at his first movie theater experience, and Nemo and Dory continue to be his most beloved characters, as well as Declan's. Getting married is obviously my most favorite item on this list, and part of me still can't believe that after all those weeks of anticipation it's already come and gone in a blur of jitters and excitement and pure happiness. Now we get to settle into the best part of the wedding - marriage. So far it feels a lot like our old life, except now Joe wears a ring too ;)

Summer Bucket List: Splash Pad

It's just not summer without a few splash pad visits. One thing I love about San Jose is that the downtown area has a small park that they always update with fun seasonal activities. They had dozens of decorated Christmas trees and decorations, as well as hot chocolate and photo opportunities with Santa's reindeer at Christmas time, pumpkins and spooky decorations at Halloween, and for summer they turn on the water and bring out all kinds of giant sized games: Jenga, Connect 4, bean bag tosses, and there's even hammocks - you know, for those people who aren't busy chasing toddlers around ;)

This isn't really a traditional splash pad because it's not attached to a playground and those blasts of water are pretty strong. I think if Declan would've been brave enough to step directly on top of one he would've shot straight up in the air. Both kiddos were pretty cautious at first, but after five minutes Ez was sticking his whole head directly into the water while Declan watched him, gleefully stomping his feet and clapping his hands, cheering big bro on. He was more content to stand a good two feet back from the water, or run around weaving in and out of the fountains. 

After we were good and soaked we moved on to the games and some airplane spotting before hitting up Starbucks and taking the train back home where both boys promptly passed out in their stroller. One of the best perks of summer has to be the good napping that all these activities lead to. I've still got a few more splash pads we intend to explore before the season's up, but for now we'll go ahead and cross this off our list. Are splash pads a thing in your area? I know a lot of California ones are shut down because of the drought so I was very happy to find a few that are still open.

// motocross // camping // Declan's 1st birthday // Ez's 1st movie //

Crazy that we're already halfway through our bucket list!

Summer Bucket List: Ez's 1st Movie Theater Experience

Ez is just getting to an age where his attention span is (sometimes) long enough to sit still through a whole movie at the theater, and Joe and I were so excited to take him for the first time. The only thing we were waiting for was the perfect movie that he would actually enjoy. If it's not focused on cars, planes, trains, or basically some kind of vehicle, chances are he couldn't care less about it. The one and only exception is Finding Nemo. I've tried forcing him to watch many animated movies: Lion King, American Tale (my fave!), Big Hero 6, Frozen, Little Mermaid...all with no luck. Finding Nemo happened to be on TV one day, and he loved it. In recent weeks he's actually requested it over Monster Jam and Cars, which is a really big deal. So when Finding Dory came out we knew we had to take him. 

We left Declan with my parents and took Ez on a little solo date, just the three of us. I don't think he's had any quality solo parent time since Declan was born, so that alone was a real treat for him. I also picked up a little Dory stuffed fish to surprise him with, and we got M&Ms for our theater treat. The only seats left were in the front row, but they reclined and we had the whole row to ourselves, so it actually worked out well. Ez spent a good portion of the movie in his seat, then about halfway through he switched back and forth between snuggling with Daddy and snuggling with me. 

I was a little concerned that he'd be asking to watch Dory everyday, but so far he seems to content to just carry his Dory and Nemo toys around reenacting the movie. We hear lots of "I'm coming for you, Nemo!" or "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming." And, my personal fave: "Mine!Mine!Mine!Mine!" 

Anyone see Secret Life of Pets already? How did your kiddos like it?

Here's a little update on our Summer Bucket List, which we're actually moving through pretty quickly:

motocross, Declan's birthday, Ez's 1st movie

Summer Bucket List: Motocross at the Fair

4th of July weekend was the last weekend the fair was in town, and I really wanted to take Ez to see motocross. So on Saturday we braved hotter than desirable temps and a huge line of cars just to park and spent a few hours at the fair. We started off with some kiddie rides, which Ez seemed lukewarm about while he was riding them, but afterward he kept exclaiming over and over again how fun it was. Next we got ourselves some fruit and Mexican food for lunch, then we let Declan loose so he could run off some energy. We came across a firetruck, which both boys enjoyed sitting in, despite their less than enthusiastic photos. We pet some pigs in the livestock area, and Declan stared down a sheep that was following him, pretty much ready to fight if the sheep got one step closer. He did not appreciate being snuck up on. 

Then it was time for the big surprise...dirt bikes! As soon as the first dirt bike rode out Ez was completely transfixed and mesmerized. In all my years of going to county fairs I never even knew they had motocross, but since Ez loves it we went. Watching his face light up was completely worth it. He was screaming and pointing and bouncing up and down with uncontainable excitement. Even Declan got into it, clapping when everyone else would cheer and pointing at the dirt bikes. The show was only about 15 minutes long, but it made quite an impression on Ez who has woken up every morning since asking "Did we see dirt bikes?? Did they do back flips?? I want to go see dirt bikes again!!" It's going to be hard to top that this summer.

And here's a little update on our Summer Bucket List so far.

motocross, Declan's 1st Birthday