The Start of Summer

Today was my official first day of summer! Knowing I have two months to spend with Caroline gives me so much joy; I want to enjoy every moment. I am excited for this summer because Caroline is at such a fun stage. All her stages have been wonderful, but this is a great age for summer. She loves outside and is an adventurous child.  I know she will really enjoy the pool, vacation, and all the other fun things we will do.

The start of summer began with a mishap. Caroline was running around the living room and fell onto my water bottle.Yes, she had the entire floor and she managed to hit a water bottle. I thought she hit her head but when she took her hand out of her mouth it was covered in blood. I am not going to lie, it scared me. Caroline was crying and spitting blood. Once the bleeding stopped we were able to see that she busted the inside of her lip. As the day went on her lip began to swell. I am impressed because it hasn't seemed to bother her. She has still played and hasn't whimpered or cried about it since it happened.

It was hard to get a picture to show her lip, this was the best I could get. 

The busted lip and cold weather didn't slow her down.

   

Farm Fun

Caroline and I spent a few days at my parents this past week. I wanted to get in one more visit before school started. It's nice to visit them for longer periods of time and I know they LOVE spending all that time with Caroline. In the mornings mom would sit outside with Caroline and watch the birds so I could get a little more sleep- very nice. Caroline loves the outdoors! During the afternoon we would sit outside, play, take walks so Callie could run, and visit the creek. After dinner, we would take the RTV "up on top" to enjoy the view. Callie loves it " on top" (that's what we call the area of land) because there is a pond, tall grass, and lots of room to run. She flushed a turkey out and after she found it she just stared at it not knowing what to do. We spotted deer and even a fawn. We had a great visit!

Caroline is already a farm girl playing in the creek and the dirt!

In the evenings we would ride to " up on top" and enjoy the view

An old barn on my parents property that I thought made a neat picture

 Playing with Granny and Grandpa

Sitting ontop with mommy

We saw a momma deer with her babies

Callie loves the farm too!

Summer Time with Caroline

I have always had a summer; I had a summer as a student and now as a teacher. I love my summers! In the past they have been spent at the pool working on my tan, gym classes, or reading books. Well it's summer and I am pale, don't have a gym membership anymore, and have not opened the 2 books I checked out at the library.  Why the changes you may ask... a baby! My summer days aren't filled with what they used to but they are now filled with something better. Caroline and I have a month and a half ahead of us to fill with whatever we want! In the past 2 days we have run errands, played, read books, made early trips to the dog park, gone for evening walks, and cuddled. I am going to soak up every moment with her this summer! 

Things we like to do:

Reading Books

Taking Callie to the dog park 

Playing on play mat

I love taking pictures of her! 

Spending time as a family 

Grandpa makes me laugh! 

Hanging out with Uncle Derek  

           Hanging out with Uncle Alex

Going for walks 

Playing with Callie in my sun dome 

Taking naps while cuddling

Hiking and Camping (well attempted camping!)

We went on a hiking adventure and let me tell you it was an adventure! David and I went hiking with family, Susan, Spencer, Lindsay, and Dustin (pictured below).

 The hiking trip started off smoothly with nice trails and scenic views. The weather was perfect, low 80's and sunny, with low humidity. We were enjoying our hike until we reached the Indian Staircase- a steep climb up a rock face. Now the boys were all excited about this hike-naturally! The Indian Staircase was intimidating for me but it was up or nothing so I went up and just kept on climbing until I reached the top and was safely on completely flat ground. There are foot holes that help you climb but my heart was beating fast. I knew if I stopped or looked down I would have chickened out so I just kept going up. 

The view of the Indian Staircase from the ridge we hiked along. If I would have seen this view first I never would have gone up it! 

We all made it up successfully and finished the trail. The trail took us to a cave and other beautiful sights (pictured below). It might have only been a 3 mile hike but my legs were tired after, there were lots of steep hills up and down. Going down some of the trail required fast, high stepping so you wouldn't fall- Susan and I looked like we were running fast but not going anywhere. It was a great hike and we had a great time! 

 Once the hike was complete we drove around looking for a place to camp. David knew a place but when we got there we couldn't camp due to a sign saying that it was no longer a camping area. In fact they had planted a tree in what used to be a fire pit. So we went to a place Spencer recommend. We got the tents put up, the chairs out, the food all set up, and scavenged for firewood. Below you will see the "piece" of firewood Spencer came back with- yes it is a dead tree branch! 

We were sitting around the campfire discussing what would win in a fight, a lion or a grizzly bear, when it started to rain. It was just a little drizzle and we figured it would pass soon- WRONG! We got up and were snacking on some food because we hadn't cooked the hot dogs or smores yet when all of a sudden it started to downpour. We ran into the closest tent and hung out hoping it would let up. We figured it couldn't rain like this for too long- WRONG again! Dustin had an umbrella and was able to make runs to bring the food that was still salvageable inside the tent. Thank goodness I brought peanut butter and a bread because we were able to eat a half a sandwich while we waited. It continued to storm and thunder. We had the brains to grab 2 flashlights before we ran into the tent, thank goodness. We were waiting out the storm but then the tent started to get wet from underneath. There was no way we could get another fire lit, we hadn't had dinner yet, and 1 of the 2 tents was taking in water. We made the decision to ditch camp and go home! The rain let up enough to start packing up all the stuff- packing up wet camping stuff is not fun. Especially when there is a small river practically running through your camp site. We got the cars loaded and took off for home. You'll never guess what happened when we got home- if you guessed started storming when we pulled into the neighborhood- you are right. It is only fitting that we loaded and unloaded in the rain! We are glad we decided to come home though because the place where we were camping ended up getting hit with more storms that night. We can now look back and have a good story to tell. It sure was an adventure! 

Images of my Summer

It is amazing how fast the month of June seems to go! I have had many fun events to kick off the start to summer and anticipate many more fun events. I haven't taken pictures at all the events but here are a few to illustrate what we have been doing. 

We went to the Reds vs. Cardinals game

My father in law visited one weekend and we had a cookout

Had a baby shower for one of my best friends

Went to see Quidam- a Cirque du Soleil show 

My Summer Has Begun

It is officially here- summer! This means sleeping in, reading, drinking coffee lazily, not having to get ready at a certain time, sitting in the sun, spending time with friends and family and not having to worry about leaving at a certain time because I have to get up at 5am, lunch dates- not 20 minutes to scarf down my food, staying up late, etc. It is a wonderful time of year!!!

Callie loves summer too because I can take her to the farm to play with Lily!

First Wedding of the Summer

I LOVE when my friends get married! Two of David and my friends had a destination wedding in April and then their reception this weekend. It was a fun night of celebrating and dancing (reception dancing is so much fun!). The parents of the groom have seen many of our group of friends grow up (David has been friends with the groom since grade school) and they loved seeing us all as adults. I love my friends and I love that I have stayed somewhere long enough to see people grow-up. I moved around so much growing up I never had that, so these friends I have known since high school. Another great thing about this weekend is that one of my friends who moved to Kansas flew in and stayed with us for the wedding, which was great to spend time with her. She curled my hair and I loved it! She is a fabulous hair stylist and I realized that if I won the lottery (which we don't play but it's fun to pretend) I would have someone do my hair everyday. It was a fabulous weekend, which is why I used love so much!

School Ends and Summer Begins

It is hard to believe that another school year has ended. In fact, it is hard to believe that I have taught for 5 years! This was an especially difficult year to say goodbye to my students and parents because I had known many of the families for two years (I  switched from 2nd to 3rd grade this year). Now that a fabulous school year has ended, summer can begin.

It has been a great start to the summer! Last night my brother stayed with us. Since I cooked dinner I told my husband and my brother they had to play whatever game I wanted and I chose Mario Party. See I love this game and no one ever wants to play with me. I don't really know why I love it so much because I always lose to my brothers- ALWAYS. Growing up with 2 brothers pretty much guaranteed me that I would never win at any video game ever. Well I have to toot my own horn because I WON! That's right I smoked David and Alex! It was a very rewarding feeling! Then this morning started with a Zumba class with a friend, followed by laying out reading a good book, and will end with a girls night. Talk about a good day!

Summer Time

Well summer is over and school is back in full swing. I had such a wonderful summer! I didn't have any grad school class or any major obligations so I really was able to enjoy myself. Here are some pictures of some of my summer time fun!

David and I celebrated our good friends wedding.

We had a great time celebrating the 4th of July with friends and Callie!

We went downtown to watch the fireworks.

I went to Lake Cumberland with some friends for the weekend.

I walked at graduation from Grad School.

I went to Huber Winery in Louisville with my girlfriends for a girls trip.

I went canoeing with my family.

Other things I did that aren't documented with pictures:

• Saw some excellent movies such as Harry Potter, Water for Elephants, and Something Borrowed.
• Read some wonderful books that required little thinking and lots of entertainment!
• Had lunches and dinners with friends
• Watched all the Twilight movies in a row while David was taking the Bar- I had a much better time than he did! In the mornings I watched Twilight, then met him for his lunch break, and then went to the pool in the afternoon. It was nice me time.
• Visited my parents several times.
• Went to the pool.. ahh I will miss laying out and reading in the sun.