Summer Fun

Here I am again...at least it hasn't been half a year since I posted last. Summer vacation is winding down. It's been fun. Lots of time with family and lots of playing with friends for the girls. The first week I kept sending the girls to daycare for a few days so I could do some major cleaning out and reorganizing. While I didn't get everything done that I hoped to, I did make a lot of progress. Our house is small and the layout is not that great, so the less clutter the better. And, the more organized, the better! The girls' room is probably the highlight. I'll have to take a picture of their closet.

So, I guess I'm finally getting settled in after two years of being in Lincoln. It was a bit of a rough transition moving here, being in the first trimester of pregnancy and functioning as a single parent for a few months until Brian was done with our house in Iowa (which we still miss, by the way). Then there was a practice to help get started and a newborn to care for! Not to mention, a full-time job to manage along with all of that. On the other side of the first year of Nora's life and the birth of Brian's practice, life is going along much more smoothly. Looking back, it seems like a lot and sometimes it was overwhelming, but we just kept taking care of the most important things to us and let the rest slide. Hence the need for cleaning out and reorganizing. =)

Anyways, back to the present. During my vacation, we went to a family reunion in Concordia, KS. One of my mom's cousins lives there and hosted everyone. The girls had fun playing with the other kids. My parents were there as well as two of my aunts from Oregon. It was fun to hear the older generation reminisce about times past and see old pictures. My mom's parents moved from Kansas to Oregon when she was five, which explains why there is still family there. She actually shares a birthplace with Brian! It seems, then, that I have returned to my Midwestern roots.

After the family reunion, my parents came to stay with us for a little over a week. We had a nice time hanging out and visiting a couple of museums. Mostly for me, I really enjoyed having an extra set of hands to help with the girls and things around the house. We tried to convince them to stay longer, but eventually they had to get back to their lives at home. We did celebrate Clara's birthday with them before they left.

For the 4th of July weekend we went to the farm to celebrate with Brian's family. With the exception of his sister and her husband, all of his dad's side of the family was there Friday night at Brian's uncle's house...all the way from great grandma down to the great grandkids. And, to think we didn't take a picture of everyone all together. Food and then fireworks did make for a late night. Another family picnic after church made for some more fun memories. Clara definitely loves playing with all of her cousins. Saturday evening we celebrated her birthday again with Brian's parents and his brother's family. We did come back home on Sunday for Brian to do some work and rest up from all of the fun times!

Also in the past few weeks, some friends from Scottsbluff were in town so we got together with them and the kids played. Their kids are essentially the same ages as our kids, so that makes it really nice. One of my coworkers invited the kids to come play with their kids of similar ages. So, that was fun, too! And, I've watched my friend Gina's kids a couple of times. Clara and Jack used to go to daycare together until Jack had a baby brother named Owen and our daycare provider had a baby named Olivia a few months ago. This past Tuesday was me with the 4 kids. It went pretty well, other than when Owen wanted to eat right when I was in the middle of fixing lunch for the other 3. All in all, lots of kid time for everyone.

One other thing I don't want to forget to mention is how much I love Lincoln Libraries. Clara is participating in the summer reading program for the first time and yesterday we went to a special kid's science presentation. Clara loved it and Nora was mildly interested. =) The presentation was about famous scientists from different part of the world to go along with the reading program theme of "One world, many stories." For each scientist talked about, the presenter did an experiment like that of the famous scientist. I thought it was really well done and that the explanations were sound while being age appropriate. Best of all, it was free!

Well, that's a rundown of the past few weeks. Here are more pictures!