Spending Summer Well

After a couple days settling back in at home from the beach, we jumped right back in to spending summer well at home.  Firstly, in this heat, we went swimming with friends in the next neighborhood over.  Sonny and Anna were classmates in kindergarten ... and luckily, Noah gets along "swimmingly" with Sonny as well.

 

In fact, this time Anna gravitated to Sonny's sister Lyla and left the boys to do all their shenanigans and stunts jumping in and out of the pool.

Amanda and I could gab and gab forever, I think.  There just never seems to be enough time to fully catch up!  How cute is the grin on Tice's face?  Too much cuteness.

Another day, Josh had a chiro appt. and needed to use a Sick Day or lose it, so use it, he did!  He joined us in Portland to pick blueberries and blackberries and otherwise horse around on the slides and merry-go-round.  After that, he spoiled the children further by taking them to Chuck-E-Cheese.

And, feeling adventurous, on Friday we joined Karla and Lisa and their crews in a little road trip north into Kentucky to check out Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo.  We got our hands dirty with a little gem mining...

We got friendly with some lemurs.

We got {really} friendly with some lorakeets.  Noah was quite anxious when all the birds flocked to his orange self.  I couldn't stop giggling at Anna guffawing at Noah's predicament ...from a safe distance.  I was on the outside of the enclosure, attempting to soothe Noah by reminding him to remain calm.

This shot cracks me up.  Noah was crying out, "Get them off!  Help!" and Lisa, a girl after my own heart, started taking pics instead.  Ha!

She got me these gems.

Ever a bunch of city and suburb peeps, we were QUITE impressed with the sheep herding demonstrations.  You don't see the border collie that was herding them in this shot, but it was something to see!  Way cool.

Next up was a trip LITERALLY down under ... into Mammoth Onyx Cave. We were thankful for the 58 degree reprieve from the heat at that point.

That's Lisa, Melanie, and Karla there in the middle coming down the stairs to the lowest point in the cave where I was at the head of the line with the bigger kids.

We grabbed some grub at the place there on site.  Noah and I ate so quickly that we had time to walk around the Outback exhibit while the rest of our party waited on their food to come up.

And thennnnn, the rain came down.  We chillaxed under the covering where we had lunch and the kids wandered around in between cloudbursts.  It was so relaxing! Look at this fun shot I caught, happening all on its own.

And then more rain...

And I do mean, rain.  It was really exciting when the thunder and lightening came at us.  And the wind!  Wow, the wind.  Also exciting was getting to see how the emu and kangaroos responded to the weather.  They ignored it ... until the wind.

Back at the barn, we heard a little about some of their other critters.

And we got friendly with those critters, too.

Then it was back out to the outback after another light drizzle.  The 'roos were less soft by then, but no less friendly and approachable.

See baby?

Seriously friendly kangaroos.  Not counting the two males who kept a safe distance.  Anna only had to be shouted at once by the guide when he spotted her across the yard cornering one of them.  Eek!

What a treat to share a day in July with these guys! The fun didn't end there either.  Back at home, we headed straight for Karla's pool.  We enjoyed laughs with Josh and Jason after work and devoured some pizza poolside for dinner while the kiddos swam and swam and swam.  We didn't head home that night til a ferocious storm popped up. And then, you know us, we only sat on the back porch and watched the weather drama.

I know a handful of our homeschool friends that are already back at the books by now.  I thought that would be us this year, too.  But summer break is just too, too wonderful. I couldn't bring myself to buckle down in July at all.  Not even a little!  Here's to a few more free-as-a-jaybird weeks of summer that somehow fill up with leisurely fun every day!