You Blinked. Now It's August.

I don't know if you noticed this, but IT'S AUGUST.  How did July fly by so fast???  I just finished blogging about summer being this tidal wave about to wash me away, and suddenly I've only got three weeks of it left? WHAT???  How?  Why???

Anyway, my life is a whirlwind.  But what else is new?

We kept busy.  Swim team was a big one for us, and now that it's done I'm both relieved and also missing it.  Like so many things.

Going to swim practice one morning, it was in the 60s.  So Camille dressed like this.  Of course.

Kendra getting ready to line up

Colton and Ryder playing a game that our neighbors brought during a meet

Ryder diving!

Ryder wins a heat!

Bentley not happy to have his picture taken right before his race

 And we did other summery stuff, too...

Camille blowing bubbles

Such a Ryder face!  This was at Carter Mountain for the Summer Sunset Nights.

Dress like a cow day at Chick-fil-A (I especially like the ears Kendra made for herself)

Camille covered in dirt at our ward's Pioneer Day celebration

 The party also featured the biggest slip-n-slide that I have ever seen!  So naturally, Camille went down it all by herself.  (Later she went with Daddy like a normal 3-year-old who ought to be scared of such things!)

There goes Kendra!

And Ryder is zooming!

Shortly after my birthday (39! Woot!) Craig had a conference in Philadelphia.  We had originally hoped to all go with him, but that wasn't really possible.  So I managed alone while he got to sit through boring meetings and then do a bit of sightseeing at night.

His first night he went to the temple.  While DC and North Carolina are closed and Richmond is in the works, this is our temple!

He ran up the Rocky steps like a champ!

And-- oh, look!-- it's the Liberty Bell!

I tried to have fun with the kids-- we went to a new splash pad and got these amazing homemade popsicles after.  I had the sister missionaries over for dinner (yay for not having elders for once!).  I took the kids to see The Muppets Take Manhattan at our local theater.  (There's a movie that hasn't aged very well.  But at least it was cheap!)  And we played over at my friend Sarah's house (this was as much for me as for them-- I needed some grown-up time by then!).  We did pretty well, but Craig was sorely missed.

He returned home Friday evening.  I picked him up and when we got home, the kids were all lined up to greet him.  It was so cute!  They all demanded great big hugs from him.  Even Bentley.

We hurried the kids to bed.  I'd been packing all day.  The next day was going to be a big one for us...