time flies

holy moly.

it's already august, jakey is going into his second year of preschool, i am about to go back to work, and annabelle is almost 1!! we have had the craziest and busiest summer, but no one can accuse us of not taking advantage of the time, right?



after pinecrest with ben's family, we headed up again with my sister, cat, and her family for her birthday. we spent a long weekend there and had a blast. We went kayaking, hiked around the lake, took walks and jogs and even swam. we usually don't brave the lake past our knees, so this was big! we spent one night around a campfire roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores. the weather up there was perfect.

the next weekend my other sister, steph, and her family came up to our house for the weekend. we had so much fun with them. we took the kids across the street to the park where stasia learned to ride her bike without training wheels - in about 10 minutes!! she was amazing! we also headed to osage park for more walking and biking, and steph and i thought it would be a good idea to go 5 miles in the blazing 95 degree heat in the peak of the afternoon one day. but we made it fun! the kids had a blast hanging out with each other... and the cat.



two days later my friend, jamie, and i took our kids (she has a 4 year-old, joey, who is one of jake's best buds), hopped in the car, and drove 8 hours down to poppo's. we swam a ton, hung out, ate some of poppo's fantastic cooking, and even went to Legoland with steph and her girls.

we had such a great time! we spent the night at cat's on the way back up and headed back home bright and early on saturday. it was such a whirlwind!

now we're back home for a week before we head out to the mountains of arizona for some glorified camping with my family. i'll be home for 4 days and then head back to work.
where on earth has the summer gone???