End of Summer Fun

Labor Day is supposed to be the unofficial end of summer:  the pools and water parks close, and it's the last opportunity for families to go to the beach for the holiday.  However, since Memphis still has summer weather all through the month of September, I think anything we do here in September still counts as summer fun :).

Buddy had started school the week before Labor Day, so when the holiday came around we were already ready to do something fun together.  We had never been to the Children's Museum of Memphis, so we decided to try it out!  It had a lot of great stuff for kids to play with and explore, but it still would have been more fun if Chase were a couple years older.  We still spent a few hours there, though, and I think Chase enjoyed it. 

 Chase in the "mini Kroger" tasting the fruit before putting it in his mini-cart.  Too bad it wasn't real fruit!  I wish we could taste fruit at the regular grocery store, then I wouldn't have to knock on cantaloupes and watermelons like an idiot--I have no idea what I'm listening for when I knock, but I still do it...

 This extremely flattering picture of me and Chase is to show you how impressed Chase is with my dance moves, compared to Buddy's:

He looks entranced, doesn't he?  I'm surprised that it wasn't Buddy's dance moves that won my heart...

 

Chase's favorite thing to do lately is play in the car-avoiding his car seat at all costs.  He loved all of the exhibit areas where he could crawl free in the automobiles (and planes!) :)

With Buddy at the school all day, Chase and I like to spend a lot of time outside--especially at the parks. I only wish I didn't have to drive to the parks.  It was nice over the summer to be able to walk everywhere we wanted to go.

We had a chance to meet Chase's birthday-buddy Isaac and his mom (my previous coworker) at the Shelby Farms park, and it was crazy trying to keep the two boys together for even a few seconds.  Apparently there are too many other fun things to explore, but we still had fun :)  These two pics were the best we could do at getting both of their attention:

We also had a chance to go to the Collierville sprinkler park on its last weekend open, so we drove the 40 minutes to get there hoping that it would be worth it.  Over the summer Chase was in love with all of the sprinklers in Cardston (since they have to water their lawns there to keep 'em green...), so I thought the sprinkler park would be the best place for him to have fun.  He didn't love it as much as we'd hoped (maybe because the weather wasn't the best by the time we got there), but we all still got soaked and so declared it a successful trip :)

 Buddy coaxing Chase to play with the sprinklers...

 Chase's facial expression the whole time at the park :)  ok, ok, he smiled at times, and even squealed and ran around a bit, I was just expecting full-on excitement the whole time.

Oh, yeah.  To answer the questions from the last post:  yes, it means we're having another boy!  In December!  This is me at 26 weeks (6 months).  December will be a crazy month.  Not sure what exactly is going to happen with Christmas (and Thanksgiving) plans and moving, but that makes everything more exciting, right?

The Game of Life

Well, we've successfully moved back to Memphis!  Except for the humidity and heat, it's good to be back.  Buddy's parents helped us move into our new apartment, which was so helpful.  We were able to move stuff in and get unpacked in record time.

Only four more months until we move again!  Ahh!  Our move to Maryland will be a little different than our last two moves.  Our car will look something like this:

Wish us luck! :)

Glacier Trip

Just wanted to post pics from our awesome Kalispell/Glacier National Park trip.  Sorry if I repeat some things I said about the trip.  I'm too lazy to go read and check what I wrote last post.

 It was so beautiful there.  Did I mention that we wouldn't mind living there?  It's a possibility--just as much as any other place in the country :)  Only time will tell where we'll end up when Buddy graduates...

We wish we could have stayed longer than two nights, but it was a great trip for the amount of time we had.  Our cabin was great, and it was so nice to visit Glacier National park and see just how pretty it is.

 We spent a few hours at Lake McDonald in the park.  The water was a blueish-green color.  It was probably the prettiest lake I've ever seen.  We all rented a boat, and Buddy and Michael even tried a little fishing :).  Apparently I wasn't thinking enough positive fishing thoughts, though, since we didn't catch anything.

 Buddy the fisherman!

 Yes, there's still snow in the mountains.  The road going through the park was closed off in one part because of snow removal/avalanche issues.  In July!

 Unfortunately, Chase's life jacket wasn't too comfortable.  But he didn't complain.  What a trooper!

 Chase must get his dark skin from his aunt.  They almost match perfectly!  How she manages to get so tan in Seattle is beyond me...

 Where's Buddy?  Oh, yeah, someone had to take the picture...

 Our cabin!  I would have loved to own the ranch this cabin was on so we could all come out for family reunions.  I just need 4 or 5 million dollars...

I wish we would have gotten pictures of the inside of this cabin.  It was so cute!  The living room wasn't great, but it had a nice kitchen and some cute (small) bedrooms.  Perfect for a vacation stay.  My brother-in-law got a deal for us to stay at the cabin.  What a guy!  I'd never heard of VRBO.com before, but I'll definitely check it out for our future excursions.  So much nicer to stay in a vacation rental than in a hotel.