The very next week after Isaac's first birthday, our summer began with a very big event - at least it was a big event for this mama. Alana went to summer camp for a whole week. In case you're not getting it, that's a whole week without her mama! Or actually, a whole week for this mama without her little girl. Of course, Alana had a wonderful time. She didn't go completely by herself, she had her good friend Bethanie with her. Alana was ready to be home by the end of the week, which comforted me only slightly. I guess I was a little disappointed that she wasn't heart-broken without her parents:)
It may seem like small potatoes in light of things like camp, but Mr. Isaac had a milestone too. He switched to a forward-facing, big boy carseat. And just like his brother, he hated it for the first few car rides. He loves it now though.
After Alana's camp, we had VBS at our church and the Fourth of July holiday the week after. Then came one of the biggest surprises (for me at least) of our summer. We all went to youth camp! Tom has been the part-time Youth Minister at our church for a few months and we had planned for him to take the youth to camp. The surprise was for the whole family to get to go. It was a bit of a last-minute decision and I had no idea what I was getting myself into - going to youth camp with 3 kids! But it turned out to be great. We had a wonderful time as a family, as well as with our youth. It was definitely stretching in some areas. For instance, the A/C in our room didn't work too well. We felt like we were sweating for a solid week. And we had to eat our meals outside on a picnic table (in the heat) - not the easiest way to feed a family of five for every meal with a picky 3 year old and a baby. But we did it. And it really boosted my confidence for what I can handle with three children.
After youth camp, our summer was supposed to start winding down. Alana had horse camp the week after we got home and then the Olympics were scheduled to start. My plan was for us to watch the Olympics (we LOVE the Olympics - especially gymnastics) and then to start homeschool a week of two after that. The Sunday morning after the Olympics opening ceremonies, I woke up at 4 a.m. to a very hot house. We survived the next four days without A/C, but were delivered the news we would need a whole new A/C system. This was a blow we had certainly not planned on. Also, we new it would take some time to work out all the details for that so we ended up at my parents' house for a week.
This is my new best friend:)
Let me tell you, air conditioning is a luxury and I know people not all that long ago lived without it, but we spoiled people cannot. We LOVE our cool house!
The day after we got our new A/C, these two boys came down with some kind of nasty virus (and high fevers) that caused three trips to the pediatrician, two antibiotics, and lots of Tylenol/Motrin. They are finally better.
And boy do they love each other! That's been another of our changes this summer, watching this fun, brotherly relationship develop. There is nothing like boys!
So, there is our summer in a nutshell. It was busy, hard, fun and at times - HOT:)
