life lately :: august

This summer sure has been a wild one! Lot's of moving around but we wouldn't have it any other way. Let's take a look at August :)

^ I flew home to Utah solo to work a few shifts! I missed McKai so much from the second I left that I chose to sit next to a baby on my flight. It was nice to be the one reading a book rather than entertaining the baby though. I haven't read a full book in one day in so long! ^

^ We floated down the Schuylkill River ^

It was quite the adventure... starting with a anxious puppy, getting stuck in weeds and deciding to just get out in the middle of nowhere... walking barefoot through mud to a railroad track that we followed a mile or so back to our car... But such a memorable adventure!

^ Visited Hershey, PA to go to Hersheypark with our best friends, Jenn & her kids! ^

It was such a hot day but so much fun! Jenn has some motion sickness so she recruited me to go on the rollercoasters with her big kids. I totally got the better end of the stick. 

McKai's first ever amusement park ride was called Coal Cracker. It was similar to splash mountain at disneyland. The ending drop was a lot bigger than I expected, I was surprised they let me take him, but I'm so glad they did! He loved it! He also loved Kissing Tower (until the end when mom tried to actually get a kiss), and the bee ride which he got to ride with his name twin Kai. 

By the end of the night, I was starting to feel my age... good grief I don't handle rollercoaster after rollercoaster as well as I used to... But, myy absolute favorite ride was Storm Runner, which was indeed a rollercoaster :)

^ exploring the Please Touch Museum! ^

Probably one of my favorite things that we have done all summer. Look at the smile on McKai's face. He was in heaven! And it was perfect because it catered to so many ages. Jenn's oldest is 12 and he still had tons of fun but there were also areas that were designed specifically for McKai's age. That bottom right picture: my favorite! We miss our friends!

^ we got family pictures taken in Wissahickon Valley ^

^ A Sunday spent in New York City ^

^ we celebrated our SIX year wedding anniversary! ^

^ I decided to be such a fun mom one day and blow up McKai's pool in the backyard... I used a bowl to fill it up from the kitchen sink and of course he only thought it was fun for maybe 10 minutes... good try mom... good try. ^

^ took my babies to Valley Forge National Park ^

Kacee loved going on a walk and McKai hated getting in and out of his carseat a million times. I'm glad we went since we live so close but it would definitely be more worthwhile with older kids...

^ spent a weekend at Niagara Falls to celebrate our anniversary! ^

^ took McKai to the Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse ^

This was so fun, I can only imagine living close by and just heading over there for an hour or two a couple times a week. It was the best for just getting out of the house and giving McKai new/different toys to play with. Plus interact with other kids! We only had about 45 minutes to play in the playhouse before it closed but he loved it. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon on the playground. It was mostly geared towards older kids (a huge wooden slide, spider webs for climbing on, etc...) but there was one section that was perfect for McKai to explore.

^ on the way home from the Smith Playground, traffic was horrible and was adding an additional hour for us to get home so I decided that instead of sitting in traffic, we would go on a walk along the river. It was so peaceful and there were a million other people running/biking the trail. We ended up going about 2 miles before getting back to our car and heading home... minimal traffic this time :) ^

^ visited Elfreth's Alley, America's oldest street ^

^ went to the Philadelphia Temple open house ^

It was our last night in Philadelphia (besides the night we stayed up packing and cleaning!) so we decided to go to Pat's for one last cheesesteak. We tried to go to Sweet Charlie's for ice cream after the temple... we thought that since it was 9:30 pm on a Thursday, the line might not be as long... we were wrong, it was even longer than when we went with my mom and sister on a Saturday night! We were super sad but McKai was tired and there was no way he was going to last.

^ drove to St. Louis for one last week of summer before heading back to Utah ^

It has been a crazy week! We initially moved all our stuff into an extended stay. But, it was tiny and McKai was having a hard time sleeping with us in the same room as him so that only lasted for two days. Then, Tristan found out there was a three bedroom apartment available so we moved everything (again!) there. It has been much better. Tristan is out selling every day, working hard for our family. McKai and I are staying home, enjoying our last few days just us before this momma heads back to work. Yesterday, we stayed in pajamas all day! We've also been enjoying a lot of walks around the apartment complex and are planning on meeting up with some friends later today.

Thanks for a great month, August.

We are looking forward to seeing the beginnings of fall.

Hello, September!