Summer Lovin', Happened so Fast....

Despite the 92 degree weather outside, the anticipation of colder weather hovers.  Looking back, I feel so blessed for the summer that we shared with our kids.  As much as I feel bad that we aren't able to take more time of with them, I think back to all the fun we've had over the past several months.  The kids made a trek to Massanutten in early spring as the temperatures rose.  We finally made a long promised trip to the beach.  They've had their fair share of birthday parties, holiday picnics, trips to the park, their first experience on a slip and slide, had a visit from Uncle Sean and the Moriarty clan from Kansas, made smores, ate as much sand as they did cool pops, rode their first fair rides by themselves, fed the ducks, watch a bird lay eggs in their birdhouse, set off fireworks, covered their limbs in silly bands, swam at the lake, tackled their first ice cream cone, saw a real live tractor pull, learned how to ride new bikes, washed our cars, and laughed every step of the way.  I am so grateful for every tiny experience we shared with them, and hope the cold weather brings many new adventures!

15 Year Class Reunion

This weekend was my 15th year reunion.  Planning for the event fell very last minute, so we were not able to reach all of our classmates.  Turnout, given the circumstances, was not bad, and actually made for a more comfy gathering.  The neat part of these gatherings is to see how much we have all changed and shifted priorities. The majority of those that attended had children, and it was amazing to see how much those little tiny faces resembled their parents.  It was like staring at our junior high year book.  All of the kids gelled so well together and parents really just provided peripheral supervision while we chatted about memories from school, careers, and raising children.  The one thing I took away was that 15 years after high school, every last remnant of the divisions between us had disappeared, and for our children, those division have yet to exist for many more years...On that playground, there was no cool group, no jocks, no nerds, only old and new friends.  And we wonder why high school seemed so tough! I'm still never sure I still know what group I belonged to.  That is a strange phrase! "belonged too".  A great evening with great people though. 

I snapped a few great candids of the kids tonight.  I just fell in love with this picture of Jack and Caleb.  They are best buds, and almost every day care story retold on the car ride home unravels around Jack.  Caleb has missed him terribly this summer while he wasn't at daycare.  Sydney played hard tonight. She is such an independent little spirit. I counted about 23 continuous loops from the ground, stairs, platform, and slide before she finally took a rest on the ledge.

Caleb and Sydney's First Beach Expedition

I had felt like such a terrible mother when I realized that at 2 and 3 years of age, my children had never seen a REAL ocean or sandy beach.  Caleb talked about it often when he planned his pretend vacations at bedtime, but he was only able to draw on his knowledge of the beach from episodes of Dora.  At the beginning of this summer, I vowed that we were taking a mini beach vacation. 

We left on a Thursday night at 6:00 pm, hoping the kids would fall asleep for at least a portion of the 3 1/2 hour trip.  To our dismay, we made three bathroom pit stops and faced all but the last half hour of the trip with overly tired kids that all of a sudden wanted to go home.  Seeing their little angel faces sleeping as we pulled into our destination, and knowing the excitement on their faces we would see the next morning made the trip worthwhile.

The next morning, we ventured out to a small beach in Lewes, Delaware, which was PERFECT! Not crowded, and being bay side, the waves were just the right size for little people.  Fishing boats bobbed in the waves about 20 ft from shore.  We weren't sure what to expect at the beach since Caleb from time to time still exhibited his fear of water.  The waves were definitely a new concept to them, but certainly not the cold water.  In the 2 hours we spent on the water, the kiddos were shoulder deep, squealing and pulling on our arms to jump above each wave that came at them.  We had to do a brief question and answer period as we stepped around horseshoe crabs (or Hershey crabs as Caleb called them), seashells, driftwood, jellyfish, and the occasional piece of trash.  Sydney left the water ever so often to go play in the "sandbox"..the biggest one she's ever seen.  She was very bold in the water I must say.  "I walk" she informed us, until the next wave toppled her back, then back at it again.

The weekend was low key.  We stayed with Linda, my godmother, and cooked dinners at the house.  The kids loved eating under the screened in patio table, and swimming in the pool before nap time.  Caleb really impressed me.  After some brief hesitation, he was soon motoring all over the pool with his arm floaties on, stopping to float when he got tired.  Syd resorted to lounging in a raft in all her diva-ness. 

The weekend flew by fast, but the most important thing was that my children finally experienced the beach first hand, and hearing their laughter and amazement made it fulfilling.  The pictures I have posted really capture that.  They weren't the portrait opportunities most would aim for, but really show the true personalities of our kids and the joy one 3-day weekend brought them!

The blog that will chronical it all!

So for years I have told my closest friends and family that I am going to write a book. That "book" and its theme have changed probably about 137 times as events in my life have changed or a different lesson has been learned. Anyone who truly knows me, knows the following to be true: I will never write a book. Don't get my wrong, I love to write, but I have the attention span of a 3 year old. I could dedicate an entire blog to the projects that have been started, and have never made it to the finish line. I have 2 journals I had started when my children were born, where I professed my dedication to writing in it weekly as my children grew to chronical their life. Caleb's journal, I must say, is much more robust because for 16 months was an only child. Sydney's is a sporadic picture of major milestones. In finally facing reality of my short attention span, and my resistance to handwriting ANYTHING, I decided this blog was the best way to capture our life as quickly as it is flying by. This blog is dedicated to my children and the Roth clan!