It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

IT. IS. SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm just a bit excited to see these faces all day every day.

I truly just can't. 

Now, it's time to do all the things and eat all the food.  For the most part, summer 2017 has been a series of amazingly wonderful fun days. With a few exceptions where we entered the 9th circle of hell.

One really fun thing about Dalton's age is that he feels like a real participant in the family, not just someone along for the ride (aka his brother). He's started to choose the activities we do. The weekend before school ended, he wanted to go to the aquarium.

Checking out the stingrays.

This was the first time Royce seemed to actually get something out of the visit! When I would hold him up to the tanks, he would get all excited and start babbling and banging on the glass (not the greatest habit but you get the idea) when the fish swam by.

I actually went out after bedtime once to attend my lifelong BFF's birthday party.

Blurry, crappy picture (but we look good).

Eric was bartending, so it was a babysitter/Lyft night. This is a BIG DEAL for me, quite a rarity. It was totally worth it. She had a blind wine tasting, so everyone brought a bottle of wine, covered the label, and then they were lettered. You tried them at your leisure and made notes on a big bulletin board.

We spent an evening at the Greek Festival. Royce was hilarious and just kept yanking pieces of chicken out of every chicken souvlaki pita he could reach. 

On the first official day of summer (for us, aka the first day off from school), we hit a local lake beach. I knew about it because I used to do open water swims there when I trained for triathlons. My, how times have changed.

Both kids absolutely loved the sand and the waves. Royce ate a handful early on, and that seemed to do the trick and he didn't attempt to eat any the rest of the visit.

We decided to start a Father's Day tradition of inviting all the dads over for smoked meat. And then attempted a mom/baby picture. Dalton is never one to follow the crowd.

The following day was my birthday. The best birthday gift ever, in my opinion, is waking up whenever I damn well pleased on a Monday morning, to no alarm.

A bunch of friends joined us at Play Cafe (a coffee shop that has a kids play area that you can see from all the tables) and we had a huge playdate.

Starting year 34 off with my favorite people!

Later that day, I went shopping alone, got my free Starbucks drink, and Dalton and I made a cake. Pretty perfect. 

Now, let's get in to the 9th circle of hell part. I was so excited to spend four days in the Poconos. We had never been on a family vacation, Royce was finally walking, Dalton was old enough to understand and anticipate it, it was going to be great. 

The first day was great. We spent it hiking and swimming.

We went out for ice cream that night and Dalton was so excited to choose what he wanted (chocolate with chocolate sprinkles, #soproud). As we were ordering, I uttered the famous last words: "Does he feel hot to you?". 

We got our ice cream and Dalton just...sat there. Didn't reach for it, didn't speak, barely even looked at it. We were like it's about to go down.

Yep. Stomach flu. I won't get in to too many details, since I'm sure we are all familiar with what that entails. The next two days of our trip, only Dalton was sick. I managed to get out and have a little fun with Royce.

The morning we needed to leave, I woke up early and was like oooooh noooooo. I knew it had hit me. Royce was also acting weird - he kept standing up in his pack and play like he was up for the day, then just laying back down and passing out like he just couldn't. I felt similar. 

Somehow we got the house we were staying in packed up with both kids nonstop crying and me trying unsuccessfully to not puke. Awful. We got in the car, stopped for gas, and Royce threw up all over his car seat. The rest of the trip home was just as pleasant as you might imagine. Royce and I basically just checked out of humanity for the next three days. It was brutal. Luckily, Eric didn't get sick and Dalton was mainly recovered by then. If 3/4 family members must be taken down by stomach flu, at least it was staggered.


When I was ready to rejoin humanity, Dalton and I took a much anticipated day trip - a train ride to Washington, D.C.!

How cute are these little passengers?

We went to the Museum of Natural History. Dalton loved the butterflies, but honestly would have been just as happy riding the train all day. All the kids would have.

The three 2 year olds seriously were amazing. They held it together through train delays, transfers, waiting in lines - these kids are awesome. I'm so impressed with how well they did. Also, anyone who has kids in a city that requires public transportation has all my respect now. Taking that stroller on and off the metro was not easy.

A local nature center had a "mini mud day". They had all sorts of mud centers (painting, making mud pies, mud wrestling, etc) set up. While Dalton spent the entire ride there chanting "mud mud mud!" and couldn't wait to arrive...he wouldn't even so much as touch it. Luckily there was one of the best playground I've ever seen (yes, I'm now in the business of evaluating playgrounds) nearby. Royce was a tad hesitant at first, but he got past that quickly.

Little piggie!

I dressed them in matching giraffe shirts and took them to the zoo. #twinning #winning

I mean, tell me these boys are not the cutest?!

In between all the excitement, we've had a lot of fun just hanging out, grilling, and playing in the yard.

Showing his brother how to hold a raspberry.

Pool time.

We joined the rest of suburbia at Costco to get meat for our Fourth of July BBQ.

Feeding your kids Costco samples for lunch is acceptable parenting, right?

Reading books in boxes, as one does.

For the big holiday, does it get more patriotic than dressing the whole family up for a run where our national anthem was written? I think not.

He loved his "necklace".

We had a barbecue with amazing food and friends. I forgot to take any pictures, but I got this half assed one of the kids checking out the sparklers.

And now we are back in (summer) school. I want to try to post more often but, we shall see!