Dude Trip

 The dude's in our camp planned a boy's only trip to Arizona as the curtain was closing on summer. Carving out intentional time together is just what Miller craves. He likes being the center of attention,  you're kind of a big deal, it's all about you {for a weekend}--  get away.  Landon's cousin was getting married so I traded in my ticket to give Miller the opportunity at his first plane ride. Truth be told, I was invited by Landon as well, but I really wanted Miller to have solo time with Landon. 

There's nothing like getting photo texts of how the whole weekend went down. Skyclub made Miller feel like he was in the big leagues before boarding the plane. A front window seat to the runway action was the perfect backdrop to an afternoon snack. Landon was finishing up work on his laptop while Miller was identifying the planes and expelling his 1,000 word count for the day...lol! This boy has a lot to say!

 And, leave it to my guys to get the first class treatment with their boldness. Miller got the cockpit tour complete with a plastic wings souvenir for his first flight. I was absolutely giddy receiving these precious memories on my phone before take off.  Leave it to Miller to absorb pilot vocabulary, verbiage & information about flight patterns to retell the whole scenario to his lonely momma back at home;) I hang onto his every detail. He shares it all. 

Miller's convinced that he wants to be a pilot now that he assumed full command in the cockpit with the captain's hat and all. This was one of the highlights of his dude trip.

A window seat-perfection!

Miller got to meet up with Uncle Jeremy & Cory along with Landon's high school friends and kids at a cabin overnight spend the night reunion before cruising to the Grand Canyon. Papa and Omi gave Miller the official tour of one of the most majestic places in the U.S. in my opinion;)

If I toured the canyon with Miller, I'm sure my anxiousness about him slipping off the edge would have totally ruined the moment.  They are standing on the south rim of the canyon looking at the Colorado River. Miller commented that the canyon was, "awesome!" Pictures never do it justice {especially iPhone pics}

Papa took the crew by the clinic where he spent his early days in medicine working and where he ended up meeting Omi . Walking down memory lane added a sense of nostalgia for everyone.

Riding in Uncle Chip's cherry red Corvette in Prescott ranked right up there with the Grand Canyon in Miller's 2nd grade world. When I got these pictures texted to me, I could feel the happiness oozing out of my car enthusiast.

Details of the wedding and second cousin meet and greet were mixed into the dude trip recap upon their plane landing back in Atlanta. I surely missed my boys, but knew they'd be talking about this time together for years down the road. Closing down summer with a little get away was just the ending Miller was hoping for.

Best Week Ever

Camp Winshape was a welcome week of activity for Miller and wonderful reprieve from scheduling daily playdates for this momma. Miller was finally old enough to attend Winshape's Day Camp this year as part of the Jellyfish crew. He represented sporting blue and flashing his "ocean swag" sign.  We visited the camp store for our ocean ninja mask to really look the part during the week. The best part of this camp is that you can choose between 15 activities in your rotation. Miller loved that he had different friends along the way in the groups. There is never an opportunity to grow bored with all of that movement between activities.

 Miller poured over all of the choices & we finally picked our top three after a week of investigation. I wanted him to have at least one session inside to escape the sweltering July heat. Wacky Science was just the ticket to get him cooled off. On Friday, the parents were invited to attend and participate.

 We shook up some vanilla ice cream with all of our ingredients in the science lab.

 Eliza Kate joined in with her straw for some milkshake sipping action. Miller was so proud to show us around camp. EK loved participating with the big kids:)

 Lacrosse is the one activity that Miller insisted on in his rotation.  Fortunately it was rec lacrosse and he didn't need a helmet or padding. He kept up with the crew & at the very last 2 minutes of the game scored a goal for his team. Now, that was a story worth sharing with the grandparents.

 Flag football was fun to watch, but Miller was a little done at this point in the morning. He kept up with his team, but didn't seem too interested. He did enjoy a cool cone of water and the watering hole with his teammates.

 Although, he sure did look the part in his team vest:) It was trial and error figuring out what he loved the most. He made sure to comment that he wanted to sign up for "Man Land" next year to learn how to change oil in a car, shave, and grill out:) How awesome is that? This one is going to make a great daddy one day.

Chick fil- A sponsored family day and Landon met up with us for the final chapel service and a free lunch. Eliza Kate is really into character visits ever since we traveled to Disney. She made sure to get a photo with the cow.

8-5 p.m. all week wore out our Miller. It was nice to ship him off while I knew that he was having a grand time all day.  He's already hounding us for the Winshape overnight experience when he is in third grade. We'll see about that one!

A Night at the Mountain

One of our favorite summer traditions is viewing the Laser Show at Stone Mountain Park. When you visit in early July, the patriotic element added to the show is hometown Americana at it's finest:) The kids love running on the massive lawn and playing soccer & football. When you get there early to picnic, their are wide open spaces for the littles to roam.

 Or goof off! These active boys are a trip together in itself...Laughing hysterically and falling out of lawn chairs with boy shenanigans.

 And, there was plenty of personality to go around as evidenced by this picture. Oh my!  It's hard to believe that all of these littles came from three mommas. We've got poses, shrugs, smiles & pucker faces all in one frame--awesome!

 There's nothing like keeping in touch with your high school bests. This boggles Landon's mind to have friends for 20 plus years as he moved around quite a bit.  These families are such a blessing to us. If only, we could coordinate schedules for family outings more frequently.

 Miller the photog scored this winner before sunset. The happy chaos of so many kids requesting glow sticks, water, and dessert quickly interrupted our serene couple's shot moment. It wasn't long before we settled into a cozy spot to enjoy the best summer nighttime show around. Our kids were amazed and the firework sparkling fountains at various times during the night captivated their interest. The Frozen inspired sing a long commanded an impromptu karaoke quartet by the girls in the group. Insert eyeball rolls from Miller;) He's so patient with Eliza Kate belting out her best operatic voice at every opportunity.

It's not every night that this sassy, sweet one gets to stay up past 10:00p.m.. She zonked out on the journey home. Here's to checking off traditions on our summer bucket list. We're having an intentional summer enjoying togetherness. We'll meet up at the mountain again next year!

good ole' summertime fun

Book club continued hopping on over to the Grice family's backyard to celebrate reading Mission to Mars together.  The whole family meandered over for a cookout. The boys decorated their space masks and shot balloon Martian men with Nerf Guns. 

 Adorable, right?  Book buddies sure know how to have fun together. Our summer book log is filling up quite nicely with book club books.

 The little sister club got into decorating bags and flying saucers of their own. 

 2nd grade boys were all over the place of a Mission to Mars. I think the goal of making reading fun was accomplished this summer.

 The Morrow boys and Auntie T came into town for some backyard fun in July. Baby Caleb was adored by Eliza Kate. We celebrated Landon's birthday by grilling out, jumping on the trampoline, and chasing through the sprinklers.

 It was so humid, but a great outlet to burn up all that energy from their car ride to Atlanta.

 Miller loves hosting a spend the night party at our house. This was Logan and Will's first spend the night adventure outside of their cousin's house. The humdrum of summer was broken up by the fun chaos of our reunion. We loved hosting this special family!

 A lopsided maple cake from the delivery car of Grandmama was a much appreciated gift in celebration of Landon's birthday. The little blew out the candles. 36 years, oh my!

 I don't think he'd have it any other way!

 Besties since college:) Can you tell I gave us a little airbrushing help?  I turned back the clock 10 years, right? Yeah- we needed a little help at the end of a long day. Summertime exhaustion has a way of zapping beauty rest;)

 We took an early morning swim on their way out of town. These boys opened the pool on this morning. Even baby Caleb joined us in his baby float. As you can see, he was a happy, happy baby! There's nothing like a baby laugh to make your day.

Book clubs, parties, and visits from long time friends was the recipe for  good ole' fashioned summer fun. We're blessed with such wonderful friends!

A Knoxville 4th!

Our Knoxville 4th could be broken up into a few posts, but I'm trying to be better about condensing these weekend getaways into one post for posterity sake. So get ready for a picture heavy post reflecting on the most wonderful Independence Day at Omi and Papa's house in Knoxville. It involved everything that a summer reunion trip should be:)

We swam a lot at their neighborhood community pool. Since these two started off so cute in their swimsuits, I posed them with our festive flags. I swoon for kids in red, white, and navy:)

These patriotic cuties were oozing brother and sisterly love for a split second, so why not capture it.? I'm sure 30 years from now, I'll only reminisce on these sweet moments and have momnesia about their fighting:)

We celebrated our July birthdays with Omi's famous Southern Living Strawberry Cake. It is my very favorite summer dessert.

The next morning we packed up sack lunches and headed north to Sweetwater, TN to tour The Lost Sea.  It's been on our bucket list for a few years and Eliza Kate was finally old enough to walk the 3/4 mile sloping hike. Our guide, was entertaining and explained the cavern's history. We also learned about the geological development of the cavern rooms and rare formations. Miller got to observe both stalactites, stalagmites and cave flowers in person. He was in cave exploration heaven:) Not thinking, I didn't prepare for the much cooler temperatures down below the earth. Temps in the cave remain at a cool 58 degrees. Miller could have used a pullover. EK's swim cover up doubled as a sweater!

I could really bore you with all of our scientific photographs. Miller wanted to remember all of the stops along the way. Miller couldn't get over the fact that the cavern is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as America's largest underground lake.

Who knows what Miller the spelunker was thinking?:)

Colorful spotlights illuminated special formations and commanded a lot of ohhs & ahhs down below. At the bottom of our hike, we boarded up a glass bottom boat in the dark for an exciting trip on the lake . They added rainbow trout to the waters in the cave years ago and because of the pitch blackness, the fish have all become blind. The trout are also albino--new word for Miller. They get their beautiful colors from sunlight. So, if you want to see thousands of teeming white trout--this boat trip is for you;) We got to reach in and feel the mineral water, but made sure not to put our hands anywhere near our faces.  Dripping stalactites also splashed minerals on our head during the boat tour. This really was right up a little boy's alley!

The Sweetwater village was so cute to explore. These kiddos worked up an appetite. I'm thankful we loaded up a picnic lunch.

Meridith joined us later on for a 4th of July dinner at Omi and Papa's house. The cousins were up to all kind of crazy chasing shenanigans in no time.

The weather was unseasonably cool--almost fall like and perfect for playing an adult game of bad mitten:)

Of course, the littles were up for more swimming action before the street fireworks show.

Ek's Sophia goggles created quite a fashion splash this summer. She adore her water accessories. Look at Miller taking off in perfect freestyle form;)

The boys ventured out to "Bimbo's Fireworks" to snag some driveway fireworks. Little did I know, that the word bimbo would be uttered 99 times that evening in Miller's excitement about the dude field trip to the firework's warehouse. All I could do was cringe every time that awesome word rolled off the lips on my classy dude:) 

He could not contain his absolute joy over the fireworks show. His heart was pounding and words rambling all kinds of fireworks vocabulary educating us on all of the names and colors. Oh my!

Eliza Kate was  little timid after a few sparks touched her toes!

And, here's Landon. He forgot his hanging patriotic swag at home. Forgive his green. Although, we think daddy looks handsome in anything.

It was a fabulous trip to visit family. It was the perfect burst of activity that we needed in the middle of our summer slow down. It's weekends like these that I feel so thankful for my family:)