Catching up

Ben and I went to San Diego!  We had a wonderful trip, full of delicious food, stops by the beach, evenings in the hot tub and a little shopping.  Our days were also full of Ben working and house hunting, but we still had fun.  We are looking forward to calling this place home soon.

Back at Sea Cliff beach, Alison sang at 'Broadway on the Beach'.  I love how the community comes together for these evenings.

And speaking of community, we went to our last summer feast that our church throws.  I just had to snap a picture of the boys playing volleyball and all the dads talking at the back.

 

Adirondack Mountains, part 2

Colin was ready for a challenge and asked Ben to take him on a hike where they could do some scrambling.  There was a tower at the peak that they climbed.

Ben and I went on a hike to find a waterfall.

This trip was perfect for our season of life.  I needed some time to just soak up nature and quietness.  It was a perfect balance of activity and rest and if you wanted to join in, you could, or it was fine to just chill at the house.

There may have been some beat saboring happening at the house.

We made a somewhat impulse decision to go white water rafting.

We had a lot of fun and it felt like a camp experience for the kids (i.e. the guides had a camp counselor vibe to them).  One of the cons of this trip were the horse flies!  I've been around horse flies before, but these suckers attacked!  I guess another con would be that Colin's foot got too far stuck in the raft to secure himself and he ended up hurting his foot.

Alison was the champ of the rafting and asked to sit up front and was the first person to jump off the rock.

 

Adirondack Mountains; lake Abanakee

Part 1

We took our longest to-date, just our little family vacation.  We spent 6 days up in the Adirondack Mountains and rented a house right on the lake.  It was the perfect spot to unplug.

The boys went canoeing and fishing.

Maya was NOT a fan of them leaving her.

Unfortunately, no fish were caught while we were there.

Apparently I've made it a vacation thing that we watch HGTV.  I didn't realize that I had until Colin turned it on and when I asked what he was doing, he said, "It's vacation!  We have to watch HGTV!" 

We went on several hikes.  On the first one, Colin, Ben and I went.

It was muddy and very buggy, but also had an amazing view.

There was a whole lot of relaxing, reading books, playing games, canoeing, exploring and roasting marshmallows.