Snapshots of Summer

This summer has flown by.  I'm still scratching my head how it is the end of July already and I'm still a month behind on the blog!  Quickest way to catch up is just to share snapshots from our month:

(This has been the wettest summer I can ever remember.  Our backyard has turned into a swamp multiple times.  There have been roads shut down and several cars stuck in water multiple times -- not ours, of course!)

(So how's our basement held up?! Surprisingly well!  We had one night where our basement flooded in the middle of the night, but receeded by morning.  We only knew it had flood by the water line and items being wet -- all the way into the laundry room this time!  We lost nothing, and are thankful that we now only have issues when the city's system is inundated with water.)

(That "pond" between the trees is our neighbors yard.  We are high enough that we only had issues in our backyard. This has been the first straight week of no rain and their yard is still a little on the squishy side!)

(The rain finally stopped and we were able to join Sara & James at the pool!)

( Bean was hesitant to get in at first.  I finally just had to force her to go in.  I put her on my lap and did a bouncy game until she was fully in the water.  She then realized she could just walk around on her own and had fun the rest of the afternoon.  She slipped and went under a couple times, but I was right there to pull her up whenever that happened.)

(Just checking out a magazine while eating a banana.)

(Mmmmm, more icing??  More coookie??)

(Selfie with Momma!)

(Our neighbor's granddaughters come over to play with Bean (and now James) and oftentimes bring their old toys over for Bean.  Her new favorite hand-me-down is a Dora doll.)

(Teaching James how to properly play the Kazoo.)

(For my birthday/father's day, we did a join gift and got an ice cream maker attachment for my stand mixer!  I've only made 1 batch of ice cream -- strawberry.  The ice cream was delicious, but I learned that next time, I'd blend the strawberries into more of a puree than just being chunks.  It made the texture weird and was hard to scoop.  I just got ingredients to make a snickerdoodle concoction from an ice cream book from Sara.)

(Steve got some virtual reality Conan phone viewer online for free.  He got to tour Versailles from the comforts from our own home.  I was skeptical about it until I used it.  It's actually very cool technology.  You can "look" all around the room and see all around.  It messes with my eyes, but is still neat!)

(Bean is now discovering the importance of sunglasses... Or maybe she just likes the fashion??)

(Exploring outside)

(Confession: We go to BWW's A LOT. I'm ashamed to admit the amount.  In reality, it's not that much, but for us who never eat out, it's a lot. Anyway, we love that Bean can be completely crazy and it doesn't interrupt anyone's dinner because it's already noisy and full of tv distractions.  We've recently made the decision to take Bean to Disney this fall.  Only issue is that she is afraid to ride things like animals on a carousel or the little mechanical horse at the store.  She kept asking to ride this machine in the corner, so her and Steve hopped on it.  We'll call that a small win!)

(A couple of weeks ago, I noticed some bumps on Bean's legs.  I thought maybe they were mosquito bites, but there were a lot of bumps all over - even in diaper area -- and some where small like a pimple while others were big like a hive.  Then I realized she had a fever 101.9.  I called the doctor and there happened to be a cancellation within the hour.  So I took her.  She wasn't diagnosed with anything official -- maybe a UTI that is revealed as a rash or maybe some reaction to something?  She was put on a heavy duty antibiotic.  The bumps went away in a few days, but the fever stuck around for almost a week.  She's done with the antibiotics now, bumps are gone, and fever is gone.  She's been really sleepy and having some tummy issues now, but I'm thinking it is just from the medicine wearing out of her system.  Sheesh kids!)