Speed Blogging

Our summer consisted of 8 weeks covering 9 states and sleeping in 11 different beds. Needless to say no free directory assistant would have been able to find us this summer. So to share some of our summer adventures I thought I would do a bit of "speed blogging".

The kids and I flew back to the states on June 12. We spent the first week at the beach with Keri, Shannon and their kids. It was relaxing to work my jet lag off with my feet in the sand.



See more beach week #1 pictures here.

The following week Emily went to gymnastics camp, the kids and I spent visiting North Carolina friends, at the pool and attending Sami and Ryan's "wedding".




See more Hanging in NC pictures here.

Matt flew into North Carolina June 26, where we spent our annual week at the beach with college friends and their families. This year the beach crew consisted of 5 houses with 23 kids aged 13 and under.





You can see more Beach Week #2 pictures here.

On July 5 we headed to our parents house, but not before stopping in Columbus to attend a "Blackburn Hall" reunion and staying overnight with our friends Josh and Laurie.


The next 3 weeks, before Matt flew back to Japan, were full of spending time with family and friends, soccer camp, an overnight trip to Put-in-Bay, a family reunion at Lake Erie and camping with all our nieces and nephews.






Lots more pictures can be found here, here and here.

Matt flew back on July 23, while the girls and I took a road trip to Missouri and Illinois for a week. (Chris stayed back for some one-on-one time with the grandparents) It was a very nice and relaxing week.







Lots of Missouri pictures here and Illinois pictures here.

After Illinois it was back to Ohio for 9 days, before driving back to North Carolina for a day and then flying out.





It was a jam packed summer, as you can tell. But it was also a summer full of memories, laughter and even some tears.

Knock Knock... Who's There?

I am sure people don't remember me since it has been SIX weeks since my last entry. Yikes! I know. I had all these envisions of blogging all our summer experiences and trips, but somehow time has just gone by so quickly that when I actually found the time to sit and think about blogging it was 2 am.

This summer has been crazy busy. We spent two weeks at the beach in Oak Island, went to a college dorm "reunion" cookout, my family reunion, camping, Put-in-Bay, Illinois, Missouri, and spent lots of time visiting family and friends. Don't worry, I promise to post pictures from all this.

The kids have done great up until the past few days. They are more than ready to stop living out of suitcases, sleep in their own bed again and just get back into their normal routine.

So after being here 7 1/2 weeks we fly out in only 5 days. I am sure the next 5 days will be full of packing, last minute shopping, last visits and probably even a few tears.

And for all my blogging pals that I am 6 weeks behind in reading, I promise to get to them soon.

Thursday Thirteen - Things I'm looking forward to this summer

Thirteen Things I Am Looking Forward To This Summer No more carpool. I despise carpool with a passion. Our bus driver is never consistent in the morning so the kids only ride the bus home. I hope next year they can take both ways. Beach trips. Besides some day trips, I am spending TWO weeks at the beach this summer. It will be weird staying for so long when we live so close now (compared to our 17+ hours before) but I would be on the beach everyday if I could. Reading. Summer is when I pump out reading tons of books. I have signed up for a challenge to read 25 books over the summer. Let's see if I can do it. Going to Illinois. We are going back to our old stomping ground for a week in July. It will be awesome to spend time visiting old friends and going to our old hangouts. Put-In-Bay. We are doing an adult only weekend with a bunch of people from college. I haven't been to Put-In-Bay in years, so it should be a fun time. Plus they have some great wineries on the island. A new coach. It was confirmed that we are getting an additional coach at the gym. And we are excited because he is coming from an Olympic Training Center. Emily (and I) cannot wait. I think he is going to be a great addition to our gymnastics team. Now we will have two rocking coaches. BBQ. I love grilling out (BBQing for those in the South) and we do it almost daily in the summer. Plus it will be nice because we have neighbors that we can invite on over anytime. Swimming. We will probably spend our days living at the pool this summer. Perfect place for the kids to play and hang out, and for me to read and soak up some rays. Fresh veggies. I love summer just for the food. I love being able to get fresh veggies that taste awesome. And yesterday I planted 8 tomato and 5 pepper plants so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they do well. Salsa. I only make homemade salsa in the summer. Yum, yum, yum. No more homework. Our evenings will be homework and fighting free. Other than reading the kids are school free for 11 weeks. My plants. I can't wait to see how my trees, bushes and flowers do this summer. I'm sure I'll be taking lots of pictures. Boating. I can't wait to be able to use our boat everyday (well if time allows). I am looking forward to attempt wake boarding myself. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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