Summer has been great, but the last two weeks have been fairly busy and we haven't had much family time. Coleson was in Vegas this past week for work and the week before that both Ryan and Abby had camps. Ryan's camp was an evening camp, which meant no family dinners and no Mommy/Daddy time after bedtime - it's hard to do that when Ryan's up til all hours of the night :)
Coleson returned from Vegas Thursday night, and the kids and I picked him up from the airport. We arrived a little early so we could hang out in the cell phone lot watching the planes. We enjoyed that quite a bit, and it was so nice to see Daddy!
Friday night we had our first homecooked, family dinner in what felt like forever. Taco pasta, one of Mommy's favorites, yumm! Ryan's been growing his hair out - well, more like Ryan just hasn't had a haircut. He doesn't like it long, but he doesn't want it cut. And it's summertime, and Mommy doesn't care, so it's just been growing wild. The topic of his hair came up again at dinner and Ryan decided he was ready for a cut and he wanted it short again. Well, the long look is looking pretty good on him, so after a bit of convincing, off went Mommy and Ryan for a real haircut. Not a Mommy buzz, but a professional with scissors and everything. He picked Sport Clips, based solely on the name and that they had TVs. It's still "long," at least for Ryan, but it's all cleaned up and trimmed. He looks so super handsome and way too grown up!
Saturday we went on a cave tour and gold mining with Ryan's Cub Scouts pack. I'd never been either, so I was actually really looking forward to it. We were at Consolidated Gold Mines in Dahlonega. We learned the name is because at one time there were six different mines in that area that consolidated together. There were about 30 or 35 of us on our tour - John was the only other boy from Ryan's den, so they stuck together most of the time. The mine was really pretty neat. Lots of cool things to see and a guide who told us lots of cool facts. The kids all did great, even when he turned off the lights. And even when he turned on one of the old drills that echoed loudly around the mine. The girls won't use hand dryers in public restrooms, but they did fine with the drill, go figure! After the tour, we went panning for gold. It was okay, but the kids enjoyed it and we all got our token three or four specks. The gems were way more fun, in my opinion. Each kid had a huge bucket of sand with gems and rocks. They were able to shovel them on to the sifters and find the treasures. It was a lot more interactive and fun and messy! We returned home for some downtime in the afternoon, followed by dinner at our favorite Mexican place - Las Palmas. It was a really nice dinner. Very relaxing and enjoyable, a great end to our day.
More adventures on Sunday - after church and lawn mowing, we rented a canoe and kayak on Lake Allatoona. It was a blast! The canoe held three of us and the kayak two. The kids weren't much help paddling, but Mommy and Daddy got a workout :) We explored for awhile and even ventured across the lake [boats and waves, but it actually wasn't bad at all]. We then pulled the boats to the shore for a break. The kids loved swimming in the lake! It was a perfect day - low 80s instead of the high 90s we've been having. Lots of blue sky and sunshine. We saw huge birds, and the train crossed the cool bridge across the lake three times during our two-hour rental. After some snacks, we boarded our boats again to meander around the lake some more. But all the kids really wanted to do was get back in the water. So once we were back in the no-wake zone, we let them jump out for a quick swim before returning the boats. It was soo much fun!! I could get used to life on the lake! At some point, Abby said something about loving this day, and they kept asking when we could go again. We picked up some Little Ceaser's on the way home to cap off our pretty-much-perfect weekend. I'm so thankful for this amazing family of ours, and the wonderful opportunities we are blessed with! I could say something cliché about being intentional and experiencing life together, but let's leave it at : it's so much fun having fun with them!! :)
And PS, despite our 2-4pm canoe rental timeframe, no one got sunburnt, or even red! Hooray!
No comments:
Post a Comment