A weekend with company - off to the dunes!

This weekend Ben's parents and aunt and uncle came to visit. Saturday morning we went into town, hit the farm market and walked Front St. a little bit. I realized I hadn't been downtown since earlier in the spring so I hadn't seen which stores moved and what new things got added for this year's tourist season.

By the time we got back home it was really heating up. We age lunch, relaxed a bit and decided that maybe heading west would find us some slightly cooler weather.

We weren't disappointed, by the time we got to Empire it had dropped 10 degrees. Since it was 90 in TC when we left that made it still almost 80 but with the wind off the lake it was tolerable. We did the scenic drive and stopped for a few brave souls to do part of the dune climb before going farther north.

And I am also loving...

the fact that Alex has started reading Encyclopedia Brown books! I remember reading all of these when I was little. I had suggested them several times this spring at the library but Alex was really into the Magic Treehouse series at the time and kept saying "no thanks". Last week I just went ahead and checked one out and started reading it out loud one day. Alex finished the rest of the mysteries in that book himself by the end of that afternoon and when the babysitter took them back to the library this week he came home with a bunch more!

Alex is also loving

this book series: Dinosaur Cove by Rex Stone. He's read books 1-9 over the past week.

I think there are a few more in the series he hasn't read yet so we'll have to hunt them down!

A very Harry Potter summer!

I'm very excited to say that Alex has started the Harry Potter series! I started reading book one aloud last month. We read most of it together over the course of a couple weeks.

This week we started book 2, I am reading some to him, he is reading some on his own and today he read a few chapters to me!

I think we will let him read through book 3 for now and then I told him he'd have to wait a few years to read on. The 4th one gets a lot more intense and one of the characters actually dies at the end so I think that is a bit much for him right now.

So far though reading the slightly scary parts has been really good for him - he's very nervous/anxious about conflict and suspense in books and movies and he likes these stories enough to be able to push through that initial anxiety and want to know what happens.

Off to the beach

We had rain this morning and got a few chores done around the house, did some book reading and even some TV watching (and some taking the dog out in the rain). After lunch it had cleared up into another warm and muggy day so we tired out the puppy, put him to sleep and headed to the beach for a few hours.

Summer nature table

We were a little late with our change from spring to summer but then I've been even later posting a picture. We will add little things here and there that get made or found but this is our start.

I guess she was "done" for the day

I came home from work last Friday and found Maya like this on the couch. Our babysitter had been reading her a story and I guess she just couldn't make it to the end!

Summer days outside will do that to you sometimes.

I've been working through some of Erik Larson's other books since I enjoyed "Devil in the White City" so much. I'm on the waiting list at the library for his newest one but this one was available off the shelf as it is older. I've read a couple other books over the years about the Galveston Hurricane (1900) so I was really interested to read his take on it. Just as in "Devil in the White City" he did a great job of bringing to life what it was like to live during that time period. I cannot imagine dressing according to the style and social norm of that time and living in the gulf coast climate. Having just been in Galveston last August it was interesting to study the maps in the book and visualize what things are built now where some of the former original buildings stood. One of the most startling was that the current Wal-Mart is built on the original site of the orphanage where 90 children were trapped and died.

It dragged in parts a little more than "Devil in the White City" but was still a very good read.

Summer mornings

I really love these slow, cool, summer mornings. A gentle breeze blowing in all the open windows. Staying in our pajamas for a while. Reading in the sunlit living room. Playing with our furry little puppy in the sunny spots on the floor.

Sunday evening

Since Alex has never done well with loud noises we have always avoided the large scale fireworks displays over the 4th. A few years ago we fell into the tradition of having some other families over for a bonfire and more kid scale fireworks. It's so much fun to watch a pack of kids just run wild outside on a warm summer night. I think they played with everything, basketball, ladder ball, bocce, bikes. Then of course pop its and sparklers and marshmallows....

By the time we got out the fireworks some of the neighbors were out to and we had quite the little display.

Sunday July 3rd

After lunch on Sunday we decided to brave the beach crowds at the State Park. (Sometimes on July 4th weekend you can't even get a parking spot) There were a few parking spots left and we found a small patch of unoccupied sand and settled down to watch the last half of the Cherry Festival Air Show from a distance.

The kids loved being able to see some of the tricks and formations without having to deal with the super loud close up fly by's you get when watching from west bay.

Swimming and sand castles and then back home to check on our little Charlie.

Just finished

Picked it up Friday from the library. I'd checked it out once before but didn't have time to read it before it was due. Flew through it in 3 days this time. Great book, one of those books that makes you sad when it's over. Apparently there is a movie coming out later this summer - it's also one of those kind of books that makes me not really sure I'd want to see it as a movie because it's likely to not be as good.

$4

I got this inflatable kiddy pool the summer that Alex turned 2. It was on clearance at KMart for $4. The top yellow ring has a slow leak but it still works perfectly fine. I'd say we've gotten our $4 worth out of it!

The top picture is what you get after a full day of bike rides, hiking, backyard goofiness including the pool, golf clubs and disc golf with hula hoops.