It has been a moment.  And by moment I clearly mean most of the summer and into the fall that our life has mostly been off the blog.  I'm doing my best to document it on Instagram and other forms of social media... but this is where I want it to end up.  This is our family scrapbook.

So I'm going to take it back to this summer and write about a few of my favorite moments post Father's day.

Probably the best part of our summer was getting to vacation with my college best friend and her family.  I wrote all about the Branson portion here.


We spent the last few days our sweet California friends were in Kansas doing all sorts of local things.  We started off with dinner with Kara and getting eaten alive by mosquitos all in the name of a good photo.


Rob took the two big girls and Joe to a Sporting KC game that night.  Grace absolutely loved it and we converted Brylee to a Sporting KC fan, even when they were playing LA.  So we consider that a win on all accounts.


That last night we spent together we popped up the tent in the living room and let the girls camp out.  I hope these little memories of time spent with special friends doing special things will stick with them well into adulthood.  Because I know they all loved it!


On our last day with our sweet friends we drove into Kansas City to go to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead and eat dinner before parting ways.  It was a good last day spent making even more memories.  Plus BreeAnna and Joe asked Rob and I to be Dakota's Godparents, of which they hold the same title for Emily.  Something I truly honor - because I absolutely adore that girl, just like the rest of her family.  It was a fantastic way to wrap up our big trip of the summer.  And we can't wait to do something similar again in a few years in a new location.


We got to celebrate some of our local friends as they baptized their girls into the Catholic faith.  Always a day for celebration and we were glad to be able to make it straight out of the pool and into church.


This year I said yes to joining the steering team for my MOPs group.  We had our retreat late this summer and it was such a fun way to bond and get to know one another.  So far this MOPs year has been nothing short of amazing and with such a creative group of ladies, it has been lots of fun to see what everyone has come up with to make it exciting and special.


Shortly before school started back up we took a quick road trip to spend the day in Wamego with some friends.  We visited the Oz Museum, the Oz winery and got lunch.  It was a fantastic morning doing something we haven't yet gotten to do.  If you are local, we definitely recommend a day trip out to Wamego... we were surprised by all that there is to do.


We spent our last weekend at the lake for the summer.  We really look forward to the years where going to the lake is actually relaxing.  Unfortunately, I think we still have a couple of seasons before all of our girls enjoy it to the full potential and we don't have to watch like a hawk to make sure no accidents happen.  We enjoy our time spent there, but it really isn't a weekend getaway just yet.  In time though we know it is going to be just that.


The girls and I spent a day on the Country Club Plaza with my mom.  I had to run an errand for the husband and we ended up walking around and taking it all in.  I always love the architecture in that neck of the woods but we rarely have a reason to go down there, so it was a nice day spent taking in the views.


Finally, our last adventure before school started back up was our annual trip to Western Kansas.  Our true reason for the trip this year was my cousin getting married, but we managed to turn it into a few days of fun.  She planned it perfectly (on accident) with the Decatur County Fair we so love to drive out and enjoy.  It is one of those volunteer ran fairs where the county owns all the rides and everything costs 25 cents.  For a mere $20, you can entertain yourself all night long.  This year was extra special because Rob made the trip with us.  We rode the little train, checked out all the rides and won the kids prizes before taking off to Colby for the night.  Saturday was the wedding in a gorgeous old barn.  Unfortunately there isn't any A/C so we were all dripping in sweat and pretty grimy by the end of it but it was nice to be there to celebrate with my cousin.  We ended up calling it a night a bit early because the kids were just not having it anymore.  Our Saturday night festivities wrapped up with a massive storm blowing through town and the hotel we were staying in losing power for several hours.  That is an experience a little too close to apocalyptic for me.  It was out for a little over an hour but we definitely made the most of it with 3/5ths of my family already asleep.  Sunday morning we celebrated my cousins baby turning 1 before we headed out of town for the big week of Grace starting kindergarten.

It was the best way to wrap up the unofficial end of summer.

And if you made it all the way to the end of this post, I commend you.  Playing catch up is sometimes boring for anyone not directly involved.  Am I right?!