Let's Catch Up

So, I haven't been blogging much recently and I feel like I have missed so much! 

The problem is time. There is just not enough time in the day to do all the fun things I want to do, all the things I have to do, and still have time to sit down and write about it. And at the end of the day I would rather be living my life than recording it, so thus explains the stale blog and my full backlog of photos waiting to be posted or shared somewhere.   

There is no way I could cover every fun thing we have done during my blogging hiatus, (and lets face it, no one would be interested in reading that much about us anyway) so I thought I would just do a quick picture catch up to let you in on a few of the fun things we have been up to.

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Uncle Drew visited for a few days...

and Attia showed him her belly button.

And her feet :-)

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We played at the new kid place in town, LOL Family Zone, and it was loads of fun! We can't wait to go back!

Attia had lots of fun crawling through the giant indoor jungle gym.

And she made friends with a ventriloquist dummy, who she thought she needed to take to every activity with her - the bounce pillow, the cars, dress up... :-)

 There were several other areas and rooms that she liked too. The stage and dress up area, the art room, and the kitchen were big hits. Before we could leave she had to run around to each thing and try it out one more time. We will definitely have to go back!


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We made a few trips to the library...

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And a few trips to the playground...

 

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And every Sunday for the past few weeks (and some other random days too) we have been going out for a ride with the tandem and trailer. It has become a really enjoyable weekly family activity!

One day she insisted on where bike clothes also. She pulled it out of daddy's drawer and wasn't satisfied until I put it on her. 

Sometimes baby comes along.

And of course there are fun perks that come with bike rides too.

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We watched a couple of concerts in South Park, put on by the Lawrence City Band.

Marching to the
Mickey Mouse March

We met up with Jack and Aunt Heidi for the Children's Concert. 

And we went to the last concert of the season with Aunt Heidi, Uncle Drew, Jack, Gram and Grump. This one was a 'Star Spangled Spectacular' complete with fireworks and a canon! Attia had mixed emotions about the fireworks. :-)

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I'm sure we did many more really fun things, but that's all I will take your time with for now. I'm sure there will be many more to come. :-)

Whiz, Bang, Pop

Yeah I know, this post is getting to be pretty late. But the Fourth of July is a favorite holiday around here, so I can't let it go by without mention.

The 4th usually means three things at this house: fireworks, bike racing, and (drum-roll) Austin's birthday! This year the weather was soooo hot (we're talking triple digits) that it shortened some of our holiday activities, but we still had a lot of fun!

First came the bike races the weekend before the fourth of July, with the Tour of Lawrence. Austin planned on participating in all three days of races, but with temperatures soaring into the triple digits it was just too hot on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was a little cooler - you know, like 97° - so he did race in the downtown criterium, and he did really well! He rode very strongly throughout the whole race. Check out a couple laps of the race in this video. Austin is #167 and he has white arm coolers on.

Next up was the 4th. We had plans to check out some of the festivities going on at the local park, but again, it was crazy hot. We ended up hiding away in the AC most of the day, but we did manage to get out for a while in the afternoon to do some grilling and shoot off a few small fireworks of our own.

Here we are hanging out inside munching on some frozen treats - that's my favorite way to beat the heat. Notice her pose. She had just started thinking it was really cool to lean against the wall like mommy. She loves to do this all the time now, especially when I am leaning against the cabinets in the kitchen. :-) 

Wow! Poppers! How fun!

And of course there had to be a tank or two.

After shooting off firecrackers Austin did a little grilling for us.

And shot off a couple M-80s in the process. Oh Boy! Attia thought that was pretty exciting!

Later in the evening Austin and I managed to see some of the city fireworks too. Attia doesn't stay up late enough for us to go down to the riverfront to watch them yet, but luckily our house is close enough that we can see them from our street. That is really nice!

We wrapped up the summer holiday festivities with Austin's 29th birthday. His birthday fell on a Friday this year, so unfortunately he had to work, but we had a yummy Wheatfield's lunch, Austin's favorite chinese for dinner, and Attia was super excited to celebrate with him when he got home!

Who's birthday is it again?

Oh yeah, daddy's. Let's feed him.

Cupcakes, scotch, a new bike seat, and a happy baby - what could be better?

Happy Birthday!