Moving Into Fall

I feel like we just keep chugging along here!  The weather is starting to cool down beautifully at night, so when you first get up in the morning it just feels wonderful outside.  This is especially great because I am back to exercising at 5:30am again, so it's nice that it's no longer 70°+ and muggy!  That was a bit unbearable...!  (Also unbearable was how sore my arms were after that first time back!  Who knew a few measly push ups could make EVERYTHING HURT?)

With the kids all in school, it's weird how my days just sort of fill up.  Last Friday I'd offered to help a friend move a mattress (it turns out a twin is REALLY easy to shove into my van!), and then that morning I got a text from my neighbor asking if I could fill in since her nanny was sick.  So I had almost-2-year-old Zevi with me all day while I drove from Lake Monticello to Richmond and back to Charlottesville helping my friend.  When the little kids got home from school, they were quite leery of this new little guy, asking me carefully who he was and looking quite relieved when I explained that Zevi lived down the street and would be returning home shortly.  

It was kind of nice to realize that Zevi was incredibly easy to take care of.  When I needed to change his diaper, I just asked him to lay down on the changing pad and he did!  I had him changed in about 30 seconds like it was the easiest thing in the world.  A far cry from Isaiah, where it would take three of us to wrestle him down and I'd be sweating profusely by the time I was done...  I think trying so hard to take care of Isaiah and sort of not being able to do it really messed with my head and left me wondering if I just really couldn't handle watching other kids at all.  It was kind of nice to get some confirmation that the problem wasn't me.  Or at least it wasn't just me...

The youth had a hiking activity that sort of turned into a just getting milkshakes activity (because the trails were closing).  They didn't seem to upset by the change, though...

This is Bentley's favorite way to stand awkwardly.  What a goofball!

He's not always a weirdo, though!  (With him are his buds, Ivan and Aaron!)

And Kendra finds the girls to hang out with!  (Avery, sitting in the car, has cerebral palsy, so it's much easier for her to sit.  Lest you think her lazy for not standing around the parking lot like the rest of them!  I'm sort of impressed she was willing to try hiking, actually...)

On Saturday we spent one last day at Kings Dominion before they switch over to their scary Halloween stuff.

They finally have their Eiffel Tower open, so that was the first thing we did!  Apparently it's one-fifth the size of the real thing, which is just insane to think about.  Made me miss Paris...

I just love Camille's cool face here...

Waiting for forEVer for the log ride...  They really need to hire more workers here!!!

It was a fun day, but I was glad we had Monday off, too, so we could have a relaxing day before the week started again!  So for that "relaxing day," Craig cleaned out the garage and I took Ryder and Colton to buy gear for baseball.  Ryder's been playing for a little while now, and he made it look so fun that Colton decided he wanted to try it, too.  This, naturally, enraged Ryder because baseball is supposed to be "his" thing.  I had to explain to him that he doesn't get to hog baseball all to himself.  (Although, as a fellow middle child, I do understand the need to differentiate yourself from your siblings!  Why do you think I took Japanese in high school rather than French???)  Anyway, they're on the same team, which I'd been trying to avoid, but now that I see how busy we'll be with games and practices, I'm very glad that we don't have to double that!

After that shopping, Colton and Camille went with the Palmers to splash in...  some lake somewhere?  I have no idea.  I'm a really great mother.  But they had fun, wherever they were!

And there's Sydney's super cute puppy, who was named Rosie, but then became Lexi. I was super proud of myself when I figured it out.  

And in the evening we had dinner at the pool.  It will be closing at the end of this week, so we have to squeeze in our last few visits!

And a few more random pictures to wrap up this post!  I liked these two matching at the bus stop:

And here are Ryder and Owen at the top of the spider web during recess.  Apparently they've taken to calling themselves the high council, a fact which I find absolutely hysterical!

And here's Camille climbing a fence during baseball practice!

Yay for September and autumn and all that great stuff!