It's almost Halloween and the Kansas weather is officially doing that thing where if you dress for the morning temperatures you will basically be dying by the time the afternoon rolls around.  Luckily it is also the time of year where the humidity is mostly gone and I praise the Lord every day that we are no longer living in the south.  Four seasons for life y'all.

In my last post I announced our latest news.  This pregnancy has been relatively rough.  I'm VERY tired all the time.  I spend my afternoons napping while Brooke does and somehow wake up still tired.  Luckily the morning sickness and nausea has for the most part subsided.  I've been playing catch up on the house when I am not sleeping and I'm always busy running Grace all over town to her activities.  So blogging has definitely hit the back burner.  Probably a lot like how most of my leisurely activities will once this baby makes his/her debut.

Today I am here to officially close and wrap up our summer 2017.

Starting with July.

-We celebrated the 4th with some of our new neighbors.  They had a gathering at their house with and it was a great opportunity to meet even more neighbors from our street.  I will probably never stop talking about how happy I am that where we finally decided to settle down came with some super friendly neighbors that we trust and appreciate.

-The girls and I spent one hot morning going to our first Touch-A-Truck event.  In the past this has been on my list of events to attend but the word free often brings rather large crowds when it comes to the military community so we never made it out.  My sister works for the recreation department in a town just south of Kansas City.  So we were able to enjoy the event without huge crowds and both girls really enjoyed themselves, minus the scorching heat of the day.

-I said a few posts ago that we aren't big pool people.  When we moved to Lawrence, Rob joined the local country club for the golf benefits and with it came an amazing new walk in pool that is rarely overcrowded.  We spent a few evenings this summer swimming, playing and in Brooke's case, floating.  Grace also completed swim lessons this summer.  We are a few blocks away from the University of Kansas and in the summer swim team students teach lessons to local kiddos.  We saw a HUGE improvement from these lessons and while she still isn't a huge fan of putting her head under water, she will put half her face in and knows how to kick herself around.  Making it 100% worth it in our mind.


-What seems like forever ago, we finally got to hang out with and meet Jen and E at Wonderscope in Kansas City.  It's an indoor children's play museum with rooms for painting, a farm, grocery store, nursery and vet's office among many other activities.  It was awesome finally getting to meet Jen after all this time of keeping up with each other via blogs.  Hopefully before to long we will be able to catch up again.


-We went to our second Royals game of the season in mid-July.  Kara and her fiancé Mike invited us to the Royals vs. Rangers game.  The boys claim the Rangers and all 4 girls claim the Royals (sorry Rob!).  It was a CLOSE game but the Royals pulled it off.  Baseball games are not my favorite for entertaining my children... but somehow we made it through.  Definitely with the help of Kara!

-At the very end of July my core group of friends from high school were all reunited for one evening in Manhattan for dinner, drinks and catching up.  Kara, Megan and I drove out to meet up with Allison and we laughed and talked, probably embarrassing the people near us at the restaurant.  It was just like our pre kids dinner outings.  Now 6 kids and 2 on the way later, things are a wee bit different.  Megan stayed the night as our first official house guest in our new home and more chatting, good food and trips to the pool later, we accomplished all the time spending together we hoped to.

-We capped off the month of July with another trip to the lake with my family.  Rob was able to master my dad's new toy, a jet ski.  So most of the weekend was spent on the water playing, napping and feeding the fish.  Grace used her new found swimming skills to actually swim alone and really had us all impressed with her abilities and trust for her lifejacket.

On to August.

-The girls and I started the month of August with a trip out to Western Kansas.  My cousin Shelley and her family were back visiting from South Carolina, so we made the 5 hour drive to spend time with them and other family members.  This trip coincided with the county fair.  Cheap tickets and food make it still the best fair I've ever been to after all these years.  The girls both got to ride some rides and the train and we played a few games.  By the second night the crowds were growing so we dipped out a bit earlier.  I was able to see several of my cousins and aunts and uncles before we headed back home. So it was definitely worth it.  Even though... I was coming down with..

-I spent one very miserable week with hand, foot and mouth.  It was AWFUL.  I'm 90% sure I caught it at the local indoor playground... that we have yet to step foot in since.  Adults are supposed to be mostly immune to this... except me, of course.  Luckily I was the only one to catch a major case of it. Thank God.


-We went to the US Open Cup semi-final match where Sporting Kansas City ended up winning after a VERY intense penalty kick shootout.  It was a late night, but definitely worth it to witness another major win for our city.  My family was able to join us and even though my dad still doesn't like soccer as much as football, everyone had lots of fun.

-One afternoon was spent at the mall with Kara and her sister.  We were there to help pick out engagement picture outfits, but spent a good chunk of time cruising the Disney store and riding the carousel.


-We took another trip out to the lake with Rob's grandparents and my family.  Rob was able to take Grace out on the jet ski and we spent one really nice afternoon floating and listening to a live band play in a nearby cove.  It was a really good, exhausting weekend that we all enjoyed.


-Grace started soccer in August too.  While it ended up not being her thing right now, we think it may be someday.  I went ahead and signed her up for the local club soccer team.  But at 3 they spend a lot of time running drills and after dribbling the ball up and down the field, Grace wasn't into any of the other drills and it turned into meltdown city with Rob and I very frustrated by the time we headed back to the car on Saturday mornings.  So after a few weeks of this we abandoned it all together.  I don't fight with Grace at all when it comes to gymnastics, so I knew that right now this isn't her thing.  We will try again in a few years when she can actually play an entire game.

-Oh and we found out about number 3 at the end of August too!

So that's the last of our summer.  It was a good one for the most part. A few lows, but mostly highs capped off our entire summer.  We definitely didn't plan for it to end with me pregnant... but we firmly believe that everything happens for a reason.

Here's to the holidays (hopefully I actually get back in here before then. ;) )!


always,
amanda