All That August

The Arsenal had a 5K early one morning...like EARLY.  Macky and I opted to sleep thru it.  Mike got the other 3 up though (at like 5am) and they all ran the race...no strollers!  Mike did carry Davis a bit, but he did a lot on his own too.   Mike may or may not have bribed them with a treat afterwards...

  our neighbor had a birthday party complete with her very own pony.  nora was in heaven.  i fully expected her to come home announcing that she wanted a horse.  no word of it yet, although it's not her birthday yet either! 

 

 the weather here has been amazeballs this summer and we've been spending a lot of time outside enjoying it.   i just love this sweet picture capturing a fun evening with my family. 

 

 Macky "us"ies 

 the twins had swim camp at the Y--their first real swim lessons.  They did a great job, Nora passed the first level and will be ready to move up next time.  Holden needs more work in beginners level, but for a kid who was absolutely TERRIFIED of water a year ago, he came out of lessons voluntarily putting his face under the water.  While the twins had lessons Davis got to play in the water with Daddy one day.  He was SO EXCITED.

 slow mornings of cuddling are the best--and with our new schedules, they're had to come by these days

 bedtime stories with Daddy

 Macky loving his glowworm while watching his aquarium.  How he falls to sleep every night.   Heart.Melted

We have a great children's museum in this city--its a super fun place to spend a free morning or have a play date.  Davis runs from exhibit to exhibit, but Nora and Holden usually really focus in on one thing.  Like Nora and the Veterinarian's Office. She sure loves animals! 

 Macky conversing with his roommates

 and practicing his crawling moves too! 

 Daddy date to the carwash....yep, that's free popcorn while they wait and alone time for Mommy!  Win. Win. 

This sweet duo giving baby Holly a birthday party. I cut them a little cake and got them some candles to make the party more fun! 

 we call this KNOCKED OUT

Macky's first swing at the park.  He is definitely a fan!

and we added a new lizard to the collection, meet Spots our Leopard Gecko.  He's a bit bigger than i liked at first, but he's grown on me.  We've had some trouble with keeping the little anoles alive since we've moved...not sure why, so we thought we'd try a different kind and see how it went. 

 Macky playing with sweet Charlie, our friends new kitty

 on the day before kindergarten officially started the twins spent the whole day outside make believing and playing.  they were so sweet.  can't believe these 5 years have gone so fast.  i could have listened to their sweet laughter all day. 

Our first dentist visit in the QC were a little different than we're used to.  The kids are going to a pediatric dentist and the amount of things to do in that office was insane!  They didn't want to leave! 

 

 The dentist told me "they had the best oral hygiene of kids their age that he has seen in a long time"  i took that for code to "go get some ice cream" :) 

Great Wolf Lodge

For all the headaches caused by the Army (just keeping it real ya'll) there are definitely some perks.  Like the Strong Bonds conferences (marriage retreats) for families almost always held at some fun resort where parents and kids can always have fun.  We attended one in Hawaii when the twins were around 18 months and last month we were given the opportunity to go again.  This time the conference was at Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin Dells.  We were actually on a waiting list for this event and got a call two days before telling us we got in.  Of course we dropped all of our plans and got ready, no need to pass up a free family fun vacay. 

 On top of that, it's one more state we can knock off our list.  And may i just say, Wisconsin was beautiful.  I don't know that i had any preconceived idea of what it would look like, but i did not expect it to be so beautiful.   Driving through there, on all of the country roads, passing all the amazing farm houses and land, i kept telling Mike that this was the place we should live... get a dairy farm, live in the country.  Seriously It.Was.Gorgeous.   Mike kept having to remind me we weren't farmers.  And that the winter would most definitely change my mind.  Still, we gotta go back.   I may have fell in love. 

The Dells is only about 3 hours from us...so no big deal at all.  Davis was absolutely ready for this road trip! 

Macky was pretty excited about our room.  Of course he thought this would be his bed....

The kids LOVED the water park.  There was such a difference from when we took the twins there a year ago.  Everyone had the best time and was much more comfortable in the water.  

Davis did amazing for not having much water/pool experience. 

Nora went down a few slides! 

and Holden did almost everything!  even some of the big stuff by himself! 

 

Macky also did wonderful.  He played in the water a teeny bit, but mostly slept.  I still can't believe we have a baby that will sleep while we are out and about.  I thought that was a myth!  Anyway that gave us a lot of time to hang out with our other 3 littles and really play. 

 

riding the slides with my biggest boy!

meeting the characters :) 

 

We even had a date night!  While I think most everyone else opted to leave the hotel and check out the town, Mike and I opted to take our 3 hours kid free and go back to the water park and ride all the rides we wanted together, NO KIDS.  and kids, it was awesome! Once we had our fill, we quickly showered, went down to the lounge and had some dinner together before picking up the kids and having ice cream.  It was a pretty stellar night...

...until this guys fell hard into the nightstand.  Then there was some drama, but what's new really? He bruises his face ALL.THE.TIME.

and yes, there were classes we had to attend too.  they weren't all that great, but small price to pay for a fun weekend with the family.  funniest part?  Mike throwing his coffee all over me and my workbook.  smooth move. 

and because we are water park lovers...we had to go once more before we drove back home...so here's our tired, end of the weekend, wet hair, family picture to remember our time at Great Wolf Lodge. 

and while we're usually pretty good at getting good photos of the kids....we do have our failures.  

like these...

 

we were tired and gave up.

but really.  it was an awesome weekend :)