Ugh.

Yoi. It's been a month since I've blogged. Sorry. I blame my lack of motivation. Once it gets cold (now) I feel resentful that I can't be hibernating like the more intelligent creatures who have the sense to do it...

So what have we been up to until this cold hit? Squeezing the joy out of every last drop of sunshine and warmth, that's what. The kids have been on roller blades attempting to stand up and skate, riding bikes, playing ball in the yard, running around like the kooks they are, and last but not least, we took a trip after school to Sidecut park to play by the river.

I'd said all spring that I wanted to get them down by the water to throw rocks and explore and wade, but then we were gone for 7 weeks this summer and then school started so it kind of went by the wayside. Last Thursday, poor Dada was out of town again, but it was 79 degrees and I'd be darned if I was going to waste that day. Instead of going to the Y, (sorry, Mama Rita) I packed up the kids and their rubber boots and popped them in the car. They were all kinda, "oh, we wanna play outside, we don't wanna go anywhere, yadda yadda yadda." Once we got there, they were all, "can we play on the playground?" I convinced them to cross the street and scuff through the leaves along the road. We found a place that passed as a path and made it down to the river. It was very low and Carrie crossed it without getting water over her rainboots. The place where we were was incredibly rocky, so the boys especially had a fabulous time chucking rocks into the river. They found some leaves that were bigger than their heads, some of those bean pod-ish things from those trees they hang on, and even some shells which really surprised me. I found a piece of a shell bigger than Damon's hand, and Carrie found a handful of tiny little ones. They proclaimed it, "the best day ever!" even though we were only there for an hour. I'm glad we took advantage of it; I'd always put it off because I wasn't sure how I'd handle all three of them near water. They can be... not the best of listeners, shall we say. I think we're all glad we had one last summer fling!

Okay, now that that story is out there, time to go update the rest of the blog. I think you're in for a treat!