Another summer departs: A photographic recap

Well, judging from all the back to school pictures and pumpkin-featuring recipes in my Facebook feed, most people have kissed summer goodbye weeks ago and have dived headlong into the fall season. 

I however, have not. I remain with one foot stubbornly fixed in the 'it's still summer' camp, with the beach bag still packed and ready to go at a moment's notice. I will admit I may have indulged in one or two pumpkin muffins this month, but other than that, I heartily continue to maintain that summer is not quite over. 

Sigh. 

Now it is September 23rd, the autumnal equinox, and I am forced to face the facts. All good things must come to an end, and this summer. has. ended. 

I'm finally allowing myself to sit down and post this summer recap. A warning: It's heavy and prolific on the photographs. So please, sit back and take a second (or many more) to scroll through the pictures which happily summarize our sunny, sweaty adventures.

Our summer has consisted of (in no particular order)...

Eating many home-made fish tacos. You might call this an obsession, the hunt for the perfect recipe. 

Mopping out flooded garage. Twice. Oh and then there was the time where our freezer was not shut properly (nobody's naming names) and we lost every speck of meat, veggies, and other sundries, and I got to clean out the freezer, drenched in the juices of rotting, long-defrosted meat. It was a blast. Anyways, I digress.

Summer mornings of running around in Elmo jam-jams (yup, Han, I said it) and indulging in fruit and yogurt parfaits (heavy on the fresh fruits...sigh...I love summer).

Cuddles, hugs and tackles on the lawn

Telling stories on the couch

Frolicking in summer rainstorms

Of course, in our family, no summer would be complete without a blueberry picking trip to Michigan

 I think this blueberry-loving little boy thought he was in heaven with all the easy access to these plump, ripe, juicy berries. 

He really couldn't keep his hands off of them.

 I'm pretty sure he ate at least 2/3 of the berries in my bucket.

 And he had a blast doing it. I can't say I blamed him.

Yay for sweaty, smelly, red-cheeked boys enjoying summery blueberry adventures.

We also took a spontaneous little road trip to Grand Rapids. Yup, you may remember this post wherein we spent some time there last summer. Yes, I do enjoy spending time there. And now there is the added bonus of one of my dearest college friends (among many others) who has relocated there and now she's only 3 short hours away! 

It was so fun to catch up with her (i.e. hours upon hours of talking, talking, drinking, eating, and more talking) and see our kids playing together as well.

We did fun things (which, admittedly, were slightly less fun with four kids under the age of four compared to when we did them in our college days) like go to quaint bakeries and coffee shops

and farmers markets

I foresee that there will be many more fun little trips to this fair city. 

Oh, I forgot to mention that we also made a little stop in Lansing to catch up with my dear college roommate. I didn't get a ton of shots there, but the stop did involve two extremely wound-up little boys running around like maniacs after being in the car for six hours. It also involved a ball-pit romp (I think he thought he'd died and gone to heaven)

 and my introduction to the newest little member of my roommate's sweet family

Enjoy it C, they don't stay tiny for long, as you know :)

As I am writing this post, I am realizing that it keeps getting more and more horrifically long, and yet I can't stop. I need to get this all out and done with! Sorry!
I'm also realizing that we did quite a bit in the past six weeks. No wonder I feel exhausted!

We had some nice family vacation time with the grandparents in Milwaukee. Here are some favorite photos of our time there.

Lastly, thanks to the generosity of my sister-in-law and brother, I ended the summer with the cake topper or the proverbial sundae cherry...a trip to So-cal to visit them and my darling little nephew.

Laguna Beach at the Montage, my favorite daytime beach trip

We had a great time, hitting up 4 beaches and viewing 3 sunsets in 3.5 days.
This meant for many beach photo ops, as I couldn't stop clicking sunset beach pics, or pics of my little son getting his first experience at the ocean (an experience his older brother has not yet experienced), or pics of the two cousins together, or my brother and his cute little family :)

We've been blessed to have a wonderful summer, and blessed to have wonderful friends and family. Hope you've had a great summer too!

I will leave you with my favorite picture from California, and a memory of a perfect night, as we chased toddlers through warm, salty ocean waves, and devoured delicous sandwiches while watching the golden sun sink beneath the palm tree studded horizon.

A successful experiment!

Way back in May (feels like yesterday) my elder son and I embarked on an adventure. An organic experiment of sorts.

We decided to attempt to grow sweet corn in our very own backyard.

This little guy painstakingly poured the dirt into the planting trays and and carefully nestled each seed in its own compartment. (Must have taken a lot of concentration for this 3 year old)

He proudly finished the project, and spent the next month eagerly watering the seeds each day.

When the ground was warm enough (early June), I carefully transferred the seedlings (each about a foot high) out to the garden. I used weed fabric, which I laid out on the ground and then cut an 'x' in rows of 4x4. The weed fabric turned out to be a great idea as I only had to weed the bed once all summer!!

So now fast foward to last week, when William and I got to reap the rewards of a summer of patience.

Early one morning, we trekked out to the yard, green grass still wet with dew, and surveyed for ears among the stalks.

I'm happy to say that the naysayers, who warned us that the raccoons would raid and destroy the corn before we got to it, were wrong. We harvested about eleven ears in all.

(Lest you think that face reflects his excitement about the armful of corn, let me let you in behind the scenes. I actually cheated and posed this question to him right before snapping the shutter release: "Now tell me, who do you think would win in a fight, Superman or the Flash?" Works like a charm, every time.)

And in case you wondered, a 3 year old is not great at pretending to eat corn on the cob. 

Well, I guess pictures of people eating are rarely flattering...

At any rate, the corn was amazingly delicious and worth the months of patience.

It was a successful gardening experiment, one which we will surely repeat in the future.

And for next summer, we're on to potatoes! (If I don't chicken or lazy out)