Life Lately

Well, I suppose we're approaching the halfway mark through the summer, aren't we!? Whew! I do appreciate a summer passing quickly, as it's NOT EASY AT ALL working from home with my precious sons here 24/7. ;)

Here's a bit of what we've been up to lately!

Canoeing the Roanoke River. Scott, one of his fellow surgery residents, and Nathan went and canoed and fished on the Roanoke River. They had a fun {and wet!} time! I'm not even sure how this is possible in a canoe, but they did flip. Geez louise, give me a heart attack why dontcha!?

Birthday breakfast date. On the morning of Nathan's fifth birthday {that still sounds weird. FIVE!? Is anyone else having a panic attack?? No?? Just me??}, he and I had a special breakfast date at Sweet Donkey. Nathan said, "I want to go to Sweet Donkey, because I juuuuust loooooove their cinnamon casserole!" He means cinnamon roll. But, come on, that's just the cutest thing. :)

The 4th of July. The morning of July 4th, I got to go out by myself and for an eight mile run. It was overcast. I ran right by the river. It was PERFECT. Then, we went out for a yummy lunch at Fork in the Alley. In all honesty, the rest of the day was much, much less than perfect {ha! long story involving a failed pig roast}, but the first half of the day was great!

Wheeeeee!!!!!

Splish, splash! Okay, Roanoke, I get it. You like to invite the rain. Awesome. And I love that the temperature rarely ventures into the nineties in the dead of summer, BUT STILL! Enough with the rain!!! It does make for cute puddle pictures, though! :)

Trips to the park. So fun!. . . until the fighting and bickering takes over and melts into screaming and wailing as we leave. Just keeping it real! ;)

"Hey, look! I'm Mom!" #smartyPants

A picnic in the front yard! It would be too easy just to show you these pictures and let you think that I lead a picture perfect life where we eat lunch on a quilt in the front yard and the boys run around catching lizards. No. There was fighting and disobedience and eventually a trip to time out and me rolling up the picnic blanket and marching back inside and wanting to scream for the zillionth time, "HEY! I'M TRYING TO MAKE YOUR LIFE FUN AND ENJOYABLE! STOP GETTING IN THE WAY OF YOUR OWN DANG ENJOYMENT!" Mom life. SO not glamorous.

Virginia Safari Park

On Nathan's birthday, my mom announced, "I want to go on an adventure!" She suggested Virginia Safari Park, and so off we went!

I had no idea (1) how messy my car would get {our second stop afterward was the car wash} and (2) how stinkin' close the animals would get {side note: I loathe animals. Moving on.}.

It took us a solid hour to drive the three-mile loop through the safari park. Then, we walked around seeing the animals. The boys were having so much fun!

Nathan's very favorite part of the entire experience was getting to feed and hold the birds. And I have to say, it was mine, too.

While Nathan and my mom went off to go lure some birds, I slowly walked behind Jack. In this boy's sweet two-and-a-half years of life, this stands out as one of the most memorable moments to me. He was so gentle with the birds. He stood and called, "Excuse me! Excuse me, birds! Want a lollipop?" I thought my heart was going to EXPLODE. This boy is typically all punches and tantrums and LOUD laughs and screams and splashes in the tub. To see him being so gentle with those birds touched my heart.

What an adventure it was! I'm fairly certain I will never go back, due to the state that my car was in afterward. But, it was fun! And it was a memory. :)

Nathan's 5th Birthday Party

Nathan's birthday party was a blast! {And, BONUS!, very laid back!} We rented a bouncy house, ate pizza and cake, and let the kiddos run around in the back yard. It.was.PERFECT!

My mom came in town to celebrate with the birthday boy, which of course made it all the more special. We love it when BeeGee is in town!

Also, it doesn't hurt that we now live in Virginia, and the high temperature was a whopping 76 degrees. Um, perfection!!

Father's Day at SML

This past Sunday, we celebrated Scott as the wonderful, selfless, fun dad that he is! Sunday morning, he was up at the hospital rounding on his patients, and the boys and I went to church. {How cute do they look!? My mom sewed those seersucker shorts!}

Scott wanted to spend the day at Smith Mountain Lake. And as it was HIS day, that's exactly what we did!

We had so much fun with the boys. We swam, played on the beach, and soaked up some great family time!