The Second Week In June

Clever title.  I know... But seriously, remember when I wrote about having less blogging time because now I have chores to do?  I obviously hadn't anticipated the time commitment that is vacuuming the "outside" my toddler brings inside EVERY TIME we go out, or the hanging of the bathing suits and towels or the refilling and cleaning of the kiddie pools (yes, that's poolS- 3 of them) or the lack of time due to decreasing or non-existent napping.  So the chores aren't getting done either.  DO NOT go into the master bathroom...

The above paragraph is the most I anticipate writing for a while.  Maybe in the fall things will slow down.  Until then, more of our summer fun in photographs:

A bike ride in the Burley:

to a playground:

A carousel ride at the park:

An afternoon at the beach:

A play date at Gavin Park:

An afternoon at Congress Park:

And a new playground in Luther Forest:

**Saturday Bob and I went to the Saratoga Brewfest, which was amazing.  Sunday, of course, was Father's Day.  Happy Father's Day to my dad and MiniM.E.'s dad.  You are both wonderful fathers!

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day!  I'm not really sure I've ever really gotten into Labor Day, though I don't know many people who find Labor Day to be their favorite holiday.  For most people I think it's all about the day off from work... which I guess they deserve for having worked all year... since it is a holiday celebrating workers....

We had a pretty relaxing weekend, with a few cook-outs and some family visiting.

After seeing a flyer for a local dairy farm and checking it out online, we decided to stop by, sample some food, grab some milk and eggs and pet some cows.  Unfortunately, it turns out you aren't allowed to pet the cows for health and safety reasons, and they didn't have any samples, so it wasn't such a fun trip.  At least we got to look at the cows...

We made it downtown for an hour or so to check out the Final Stretch Music Festival.  MiniM.E. wasn't super excited about it, it was late, and a lot of the bands were on a break, but it was nice to get out and go downtown in the evening.

Though I have to say, moms don't really get the day off... so I wasn't as excited about it as Bob, who couldn't wait to sleep in (a whole extra hour!) and relax.

We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and the day off and spend some time outdoors.  We packed MiniM.E. up and went back to the Zim Trail for another bike ride.  This time we chose to go early in the morning.  Which normally would have been a great idea since MiniM.E. is her best and most cutest early in the day (things just go downhill from there... I mean, she's always cute and adorable, but the Mommy-itis, clinginess, fussiness, etc. definitely get exponentially worse as the day goes on), but since she is recovering from some bug (she's had a fever the past few days), we didn't even get as far on our bike ride as we did last time. We were going to try, but after a few minutes of screaming and an attempt to climb out of the trailer, resulting in her lying sideways (how she got that way, we can't figure out...) we decided to take a break and turn around.

Fortunately we were by a playground when the meltdown occurred.  And playgrounds are MiniM.E.'s new favorite thing.  She knows what they are and points to them, which is pretty cute.

Until today, we've only really been to one other playground where we found out she loves the baby swings almost as much as her swing at home.

until she tried to climb out the front

 At this playground they had other things she liked too!  Like the bouncy seesaw:

And the dome jungle gym:

sitting with Daddy

practicing standing

standing all by herself!

By far, the best part of the playground was playing with the mulch:

She climbed into the dome all by herself!

 Later in the day we went downtown for a relaxing stroll:

And a couple rides on the carousel:

After such an exciting weekend, MiniM.E. was pretty worn out... and is taking a nap.