sianora summertime!

Sweet Mindy is getting bigger and cuter!

Chloe keeping herself busy one night while I cooked dinner.  I gave her a value pack to keep her entertained and ....she ate it.

 

My friend from growing up paid us a visit with her sweet Callie and of course it involved dress up!

We have had a great summer this year.  The girls were getting more independent at the pool which made life so much sweeter for me.   We didn't have any glamorous plans or big vacations but we did the small simple things and had a ball with the good family days.   We love our pool and we keep them in business some weeks almost daily.    Abigail mastered her swimming and even decided she would take a crack at the diving board one night.  It was hilarious.  She watched a gymnast do some impressive dives off of the high dive and decided there was no reason she could take up flipping off the diving board as well.  It was almost like she didn't know to be intimidated by it.  She walked up turned around backwards and flipped into the water upside down and head first.  It was a riot!  She flipped off time after time and even had the lifeguards cheering for her.  She looked so tiny flipping over and cutting into the water.   I really think she doesn't have enough mass for it to hurt her when her little body smacked the water in random positions.  :)  Chloe is fearless as always with anything life can throw at her.  It drove her nuts that Abigail could go off the diving board and she couldn't, so of course by summers end we let her do it too.
  The rule was they can't go off with any floatation devices so a few brave (or stupid) times we took off Chloe's floaty and one of us sat on a noodle  in the water under the diving board.  The other one would make sure she got up the ladder ok and helped her walk the plank if you will.    We learned the hard way to spot her on the ladder when she went off backwards when she was too tired one night and slapped her back, bum and head on the concrete.  I never knew how fast I could pop out of a pool and that the lifeguards have a distress whistle blow consisting of 3 hard blows.  The whole pool emptied and lifeguards came running out of the offices and down from their platforms to check on our Chloe.  So typical,  that this girl be the one to prompt the stress whistle!!!  The good news is she knew to brace her fall on her back and bum and her skull never hit hard if at all.  Gave us all a good scare, and Chloe was over it in 20 min and begged to go again.  Brian and me however took longer to shake off  the shakes.  :) 
   Both girls grew a lot this summer and Brian and I had fun keeping up.  He and I got some nice date nights.  He took me up to a nice Brazilian restaurant one night. It was a beautiful summer evening out on a veranda patio.  The sun was setting and the panorama of mountains kept us happy and content catching up with out... distractions.  :)  Amazing how much you forget how wonderful it is simply talking.  You know, Brian's a nice guy, I miss just having a conversation with him.  We rarely get to do that anymore.  It was heavenly.  He took me shopping at Khols after then to ice cream at Dairy Queen.  Yeah,  good times. 
 

 one of my favorite pictures of my niece ,  so true to my Maddie!! And I see so much of her mommy in those baby brown eyes

 we have more pictures with Abigail grabbing her sister's head to turn her to me to take a picture!

 Chloe's standard "I will rebel against my picture being taken" face  ....grrrr.

Had a great visit with Sue and her family this weekend.  Mom, and the girls and me headed east to enjoy some time away.   We had a blast with Sue and Dave and the kids.   Every time we get together the little cousins get closer and closer to each other as friends.  It motivates us to keep it up so they continue to develop those relationships.   We mostly hung out at their home and a trip to the ocean but we made some great memories together.   Chloe gave us a good scare (as usual) when we went swimming in the ocean that night.  The surf was crazy dangerous and the undertow was enough we probably shouldn't have let the kids in the water.  And I tried my darndest not to let Chloe in but it took all my strength and pulled my shoulders almost out constantly grabbing Chloe's straps on her little floatation swimmer thing as time after time she would bolt full speed into the surf.  It would break in her face and she just coughed and sputtered and laughed out loud.  I was exhausted trying to keep her safe.  So much that I swore I wouldn't go again w/o her daddy!!!  She just knows no fear whatsoever and the bigger the challenge the more she laughs and hits it harder.   Abigail had a ball dancing all over the sandy beach with her sweet cousin Maddie Anne.
  I think we all wore each other out and I completely lost my voice by the time we got back to Roanoke.  No one can talk like my mom and sisters!!!   Totally worth it though!!!! I love my family and watching the next generation of us all is a true blessing;

VBS time!

 The girls modeling their outfits for red night

The kids had a blast this week at our home church's vacation Bible school week.  It was an unexpected delight to be allowed to bring BOTH girls to the events.  We didn't think they would take little Chloe since she wasn't 3 years old yet but we slipped her in and she did just great.   I knew it would be a tough week if we had to drop Abigail off every night with her little sister feeling left out.  So we were elated when the head of it all said to go ahead and include Chloe.  As a result of it all Brian and I had 5 nights in a row of kid free evenings!  What a treat!!  It went from 5:30 to 8:30 every night and we got more quality time in then we had in years together.  One night we just drove a riverside park and sat on a rock and threw stones in the water and talked....for a long time uninterrupted.  I told him with surprise "wow,  you're fun to talk to, no wonder I married you!".   It was delightful and knowing the girls were having so much fun made it mentally relaxing too.  The kids learned a lot and I had so much fun showing up a little early to pick them up and watching them in the closing music dance around w/ glee.   I was so proud of our little church.  I know from my years at dads bookstore that you can buy VBS materials in packages, complete with music crafts, skits all to a chosen theme.  Our church, not being stocked with big money hand made, and thought through it all on it's own.  Even the decorations were all done by members,  the worship team wrote their own songs and the crafts were all made up to go with the LEGO theme.  It was more heart then I have ever seen in a VBS week.  So much Christ centered honesty that the workers just poured out God's love to those 130 kids each night.   It was such a blessing to watch.  I was so proud of all the work they put into it. As if the kids weren't tired enough,   we ended the maddening week with a late night Olympic kick off party with our good buddies Ryan and Alisa and little Cohen after the finale night of VBS.  We came home, put our sleepy lazy clothes on and they came over for fun food and to stay up and watch the opening ceremonies together.  It was a late night,  they left around midnight.  Chloe and Cohen were long gone passed out but Abigail, my little night owl was all about any party that kept her up after dark went strong all the way to the end.  It was a great close to a special summer week.

 my festive Olympic baked brie cheese complete with the 5 rings I was quite proud of,  Alisa gave me a gold medal but Abigail voted for Alisa's chocolate desert instead

Love lazy friends that come over in sleepy pants to party!