Blake is the planner of our family, always plotting little trips and such, so I was not surprised when last week, he told me that we'd planned to do a bike ride to the park on our Summer To-Do list and we had yet to check that off.  We are in the midst of a pretty serious heat wave, reaching uppper 90s every day and even into the 100s from time to time.  So we rose early (8) for us, ate a quick breakfast and were off to the park, which is just a short bike ride down the bike path that runs directly behind our house.

We've been spending a whole lot of time on the back patio in the pool lately.  Oh, how I love summer and the beautiful pictures that come with it!

So bright!

Blake is the master of the garden hose and chiefest of sprayers.

On this particular day our little fawn friend stopped to watch us play for a bit.

Lunch time!

And back to sliding.

I like the splashing pictures a lot!

Whew, what fun!

It's been awhile since I snapped some pictures of the church kiddos doing what they do after services. 

The real reason I  had my camera out was to get a few pictures for Rachel and Grandma Jeannie of the cute matching cousins below.

And then I spotted these two friends...

Discussing world matters, I'm sure.

Blake's friend, Avery had a really fun Gymnastics birthday party at our local YMCA a couple of weeks ago, and we had a great time playing.

It took Alexandria awhile to warm up to jumping on the trampoline, but she really liked it once she did.

Running and jumping into the foam pit was probably Blake's favorite thing to do.  He moves fast, so I didn't get nearly as many pictures of him at the party.

Group pictures.

And in other summer happenings...

Blake is finished with all of his preschool camps.

And on rare evenings when it's not still in the 90s in the evenings, we fire up the fire pit and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.

A couple of weeks ago Blake went in to the doctor for his Kindergarten physical and shots.  The past few times Blake had to get shots, he did really great and didn't cry, which always surprised me because he usually cries pretty readily about things that probably don't hurt that much. 

He really liked climbing all over the table while we were waiting, and he didn't even flinch during his first two shots.  But there was plenty of crying when the nurse injected him with the third and fourth shots, which caused Alexandria to get nervous (she was just looking on, not there for an appt. of her own) and start whimpering.  Shortly after that the nurse brought in cool backpacks for the kids, and that was just enough to distract them from their tears.

And now we have officially checked everything off of the list of things to do before Kindergarten, except school supply shopping...and accepting the fact that my firstborn is going to school.

I know I've mentioned this before, but Blake's preschool teacher is AMAZING!  In the summer, she does Preschool camps for the preschoolers, and Blake was fortunate enough to get into all three camps this summer.  Not only does she have these great camps, but every day she e-mails a newsletter with pictures to us!  Blake has already shed tears over missing Mrs. Garrison when he goes to Kindergarten.  Alexandria will be starting three year-old preschool with Mrs. Garrison this Fall though, so she is wildly excited about that.

The last camp that Blake attended this summer was Down on the Farm camp.  And almost all of these pictures are ones that Mrs. Garrison included in her newsletter.

Sign for horse, I think.

One day Blake brought home this handkerchief that he had made at preschool camp, and he showed us exactly how to use it to wipe the sweat off his brow with it.

Tee ball has finally come to an end for the season.  Because of vacation, campout, weekend trips, and rain, it seems like we made it to less than half of the regularly scheduled games.  There were definite signs of improvement by the whole team. 

He still likes the dirt!

And Dad still have to tell hims exactly where to stand sometimes.

But he says he had a good time still.

I've been telling Blake all summer that we'd go to Raging Rivers, and last week we finally found the time to go.  And as an added bonus, Angela was in town to go with us!  We must have picked the right day to go because there weren't really any lines and we easily found a spot with some chairs.  Oh, and it was almost 100 degrees, so the water felt awesome!  Aside from burning a little skin off our feet from the hot concrete, it was a perfect day.

Blake was very excited to see that they had a big bucket that periodically dumped water out.

Alexandria was much less adventurous, as usual, and played it safe on the steps, far from any potential water dumps.

We had fun on the big water slides too, but my camera wasn't feeling brave enough to tag along for those rides.

I do love going on trips, and I would vacation once a month if we had the time and money to do so, but more than anything, I love coming home.  I love being back in our daily routines and staying home all day long if we want to.  After a week back home, I feel like everything is back in its rightful place.  And for as much as the kids love the campout, they are just as thrilled to be home (Alexandria much more so than Blake).  I think the day after we got home they played quietly for several hours by themselves, reacquainting themselves with their toys and favorite books.  That's how I managed to get all of my campout blogging done so quickly!

Just playing outside in our jammies.

We have managed to get rid of the John Deere, whose transmission was pretty well shot, since we've been home.  Thank you, Craigslist! 

How quickly the week goes.

Rodney had the morning devotional.

The super sweet kids from our Pre-K class.

Eric had announcements on Friday...they saved the windiest guy for last!

Traditional Dawn/Kelly picture on the last day of the campout.  We've been doing this for a LONG time now.

Plaid sisters-in-law.

Cleaning up the audio area.  We've got a lot of great workers at Prince Rd. who help out with the various campout efforts.

Camp take-down.  This is always kind of sad to see.

We miss these guys a bunch...and the other half of the Hermon family too!

While Matt loaded up the car, the kids got their last few minutes to play.

Blake made a bridge over someone's trench.

Moses helped out.

You know the week is over when the campground is this clear and the swings are vacant.

Still working on their bridge.

Multiple bridges.

Time for us to go too!

This one was so ready to get home!

About 20 minutes from home, Roy passed us!

What a blessed week it was, and how good it was to be back home safely, as well.