The Road Goes Ever On...: In Summer

August started out in a rush.

On the first, I took Gideon and Aurelia to the Washington pool. Rebecca and Jessica met us there with their kids too.

She was happy

Isaiah, Eva, Avery

Then they came back to our house for lunch and played a while.

After they left, I put the kids down for naps and cleaned the house and packed. When Nathan got home from work we loaded up the van and left for Leo.

Since I work at Gateway now, we have to go to the sale. And, not only that, I have to sing in the employee choir. I had to be there a day early to practice, so the kids got to spend a long weekend playing at Rita's.

Gideon love's Rita's house because she has this cool train set.

and they have a pool :)

Kray :)

Nathan and I pretty much chilled at Rita and Loren's, stayed out of the chaos, and enjoyed basically a mini vacation.

They sale went well. I'm not one for huge crowds and auctions intimidate me, but it went well and we had fun.

The kids didn't last very long...

We took the kids back for naps around noon. So, I really didn't get to experience the full scale of the sale.

We spent another quiet afternoon by their pool. :)

Rita kept apologizing for lack of entertainment...there was no need. We had a great time. :)

Oh, so Kacie accidentally bought a trampoline. To spare her the wrath of her parents, and because Gideon would love a trampoline, we decided to take it off of her hands.

It fit!

Tate entertaining Gideon

Troy went out for ice cream with us in the evening.

We stayed for church on Sunday and then headed home. It just so happened that Sunday was our 6 year anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to us.

Aurelia doesn't travel well. Gideon doesn't do much better. They did nap for the first 2-ish hours but then it was pretty much whining and screaming for the last 3. What fun.

I came home to a glorious garden though!

Cafe au Lait daliahs are seriously one of my favorite flowers.

Tomatoes, flowers, beans...

Monday, Russ and Jay Mogler were in town. A bunch of Metzgers gathered at a lake house for the occasion. And, since there was family, food, a beach and swimming, we said sure, we'd come. :)

kids playing on the beach

I didn't get a very good picture, but Gideon did go down this slide.

All the cousins adoring Logan

Metzgers

Our car needed new brakes and we had just replaced the brakes on the van so when they quoted us $700, we decided to try to do it with help. Nathan's uncle Jim willingly assisted. We used the farm shop and they got it done in two hours and for less than half the cost!

Gideon joining in

"helping"

We live right by the train tracks. Every time a train passes we all have to run to the door and watch it. Aurelia can even make a "choo-choo" sound of sorts.

We went to the farm one day to work on more produce. This time it was peaches.

Dad brought in his honey that he extracted from his hives.

It's fantastic.

A watched pot never boils

fresh canned peaches :)

or jars of sunshine...whichever

Gideon got a Lego farm set at the Leo sale.

It has kept him occupied for hours

These two...

If only they were always this kind to each other

My dad came and helped us mulch one evening. Gideon of course was a very willing helper.

I tried very hard not to worry

iyiyi

Fresh mulch always makes things look so nice

"I wanna be like you-ooo"

At least it's just a tomato

:) she thinks she's a little queen

Aurelia got her first trip to the ER.

As you can tell, she was not in the least bit distressed.

The story is Aurelia puts everything and anything in her mouth. Some rather large things have passed through with no difficulty. One Sunday evening, I noticed she had something in her mouth. She refused to give it to me or let me look in her mouth. So, I gave up and stuck her in her highchair for supper. Then she stared full on choking. Only for a little and she managed to get whatever it was out. But she couldn't swallow it down. She was gagging, and swallowing over and over again. Then she puked but nothing would come out but spit. I could see anything at the back of her throat and she was screaming her head off. It took a while to calm her down. Needless to say we were a bit scared. She was fine, but since we didn't know what it was, and it could have been a Lego, a bobby pin, or any number of other things that may not be able to make it out again, we decided to take her in.

She was fine. The x-ray didn't show anything metal and nothing has come through in her diapers since, so we probably will never know.

You know... kids are exhausting.

sigh.

A week or so late, Nathan and I finally made it out to eat for our anniversary.

So stinkin' good

Nathan likes shrimp...

Watching the garbage truck

We have hummingbirds!

Our grill has been broken all summer and we finally got it fixed. I broke it in with some steaks and sweet potato fries.

We celebrated Grandma's birthday after church Wednesday night.

Mom and Dad came over in the evening and helped us set up the trampoline. :)

Grandpa even did some jumping

Aurelia loves animals. She sings songs to this book. hehe. :)

We've been spending a lot more time outside now that we have a trampoline.

hehehe

Last Saturday, the 17th, we went over to Lori's for a pre-wedding family dinner.

The 18th, was Trent and Tiffany's wedding. It was beautiful.

We didn't get to spend much time in the actual wedding. I got to haul kids out of church from way up front twice. They were both exhausted and cranky, so we decided to leave a bit early and head to the reception in hopes they would nap. They did, so we sat in the parking lot and they both got a partial nap in.