Good-Bye Summer

What seemed like a quiet, lazy summer still managed to pass us by so fast. The weather was mild, so we spent lots of time outside, playing at the park, digging in the backyard and searching for rocks, bugs and other stuff.

In just a summer, Grant's interests have moved from dinosaurs to ice age creatures to insects. He talks endlessly about mammoths and mastodons, praying mantises and dragonflies. He is a nerd in the best kind of way.

Miles' vocabulary grew over the summer, and when he can get his voice in, tells elaborate stories about trains, airplanes and "neigh horsies."

We spent many, many hours exploring the backyard, searching and collecting bugs of all kinds. Grant's love of insects was further cemented at a week of Creepy Crawly camp at the Science Center.

Look Mom -- a worm!

It could be said that it was the summer of mud, as both boys were obsessed with a certain patch in our backyard where grass doesn't grow. They could literally spend hours playing in the mud: driving trucks through it and pretending that their dinosaurs were caught in it. But they played happily and quietly together, even if they had to be bathed more often.

One of my favorite things about this summer, though, was our bike rides around town. This was the first summer that both Kent and I had bikes, and G is able to cruise alongside us on his Strider bike, while Kent pulled Miles in the bike trailer. We often went to parks along the bike trail near our house or just pedaled around the neighborhood.

Still getting used to training wheels.

It was one of our best summers yet.