Before & After Vacation

Eventually I will write about our vacation, I really will! I'm thinking highlights and favorite memories sound like good vacation topics for a future post. But not today.

Before vacation, which seems like years ago, we went camping. We stayed local, which made things easier for a weekend trip. I find it funny that our neighbors ended up at the camp site next to ours. I guess that's what happens when you like your neighbors! :) Our friends Shawn and Rebekah joined us for the afternoon, and that made it extra special for us. We are very thankful for good friends.

Derek makes great pancakes!

Fishin'

Happy boy and dog

Picnic supper

Roasting marshmallows of course!

School ended, "summer" began, and so did the lawn mowing. When they weren't mowing, the kids did a lot of sitting around while I did a lot of vacation planning. I soaked up our "boring" 2 weeks because I knew once June began our lives would be anything but boring! Braylen attended football camp and Aaron attended basketball camp. Kaleb slept in at home every day and was my vacation planning buddy. :)

Kaleb watching the rain. We don't get much rain here, so when it rains, it's worth watching.

Mowing shenanigans :)

Kaleb's new soccer ball and my pretty columbine flowers.

We left for our trip and brought Ginger along for part of the way. She stayed with my parents since we were gone for 2 weeks. They spoiled her and loved on her way more than the kennel would have done. It was great!

We have been home for a little over one week, but memories of our vacation are still with me. I can't wait to write it out and make a photo book. Soon we are off on our next adventure--the boys to my parents' house and I am going to be a camp counselor--and Derek will hold down the fort with Ginger. Lots going on!

So this brings me to the "after" part of this post. After vacation, we had one week of doing almost nothing but mowing 12 lawns. And recovering from being gone for 2 weeks. (That means grocery shopping and other mom things like that.) It was great. Kaleb and Aaron earned a trip to the movies to see "How to Train your Dragon 2." They spent an entire day cleaning their room and boy, did it need it!!! Braylen and I went to the movies with them, and we all liked the movie very much. :)

The room is finally clean!

I did not take any "before" pics. It was too depressing!

Kaleb can sit at his desk now and look at his new Declaration of Independence hanging on the wall. :)

This is as clean as Aaron's dresser will ever be. He is a hoarder collector.

We played at the park with some friends last week. Aaron was very happy to get together with his best buddy again. On another day we invited my niece to come over and play. It was such a great day! They had fun and I baked cookies and brownies for the weekend. It had been a loooong time since my family enjoyed home made goodies.

Kaleb and Aaron reenacting the civil war, complete with "canon booms" from the thunder app on my iPad. See it in the bottom right of this picture? ;)

Aaron & Analise, with Ginger rolling around in the grass. :)

Oh, and one more thing. The day after we came home I went to the clinic for a cough I developed in Washington, DC. What I thought was bronchitis was actually pneumonia! Good grief! I knew I had a fever for a few days in DC. But without a thermometer, I never knew how high it was. And I never felt like I needed to be in bed. Advil made it all better...for 4 hours at a time. The fever went away and the cough remained. I'm thankful I didn't need a doctor in DC. Or a hospital! Who knew pneumonia could develop with only 2 symptoms? A fever and cough. The cough didn't even hurt. So strange!

Well, that's about it. Time to do some packing, some cooking, and some more packing. :) I'm already looking forward to unpacking, ha!!! :)