sum up the summer

Well, if you step outside you wouldn't think summer is coming to a close anytime soon, but Zach has been back to work since the first week of August (ridiculous right?) and two weeks ago I started teaching my Stage Properties class at Phoenix College.  So we are starting to get back in the swing of things.  I thought I would share a bunch of pictures from this summer that didn't make it into earlier posts.  

Let's start with some from Jimmy's favorite Splash Pad:

 Yay for naked babies! I don't even know why we bother to put clothes on them in the summer.

 Of course, there was tons of swimming at various swimming pools.

Here is our Mom's Group at Jenny's house.

 We don't have a real swimming pool, but my boys loved the blow-up ones plenty.

And we took plenty of runs in the sprinklers.

And this guy is just cute dry or wet:

 The only way to actually hang out at the park for a picnic is post-swim lessons when you are still in your swimsuit 

(or maybe you could go at 6 am, but we have never ventured that).

 Mostly, we hung out indoors a lot with the AC cranked up (or is it down?).

Here is Jimmy in a "Chef Outfit" of his and Dad's creation.

 We got a new piano that is fun to bang on.

 We watched lots of movies including my favorite summertime Disney classic Summer Magic.

Of course, "Ugly Bug Ball" was the biggest hit.

We got to make a huge train set-up with Babbee's trains.

 And we got to share it with our cousin Sybil who came to visit.

(and also her little sister Arianna who was usually moving too fast to get any pictures of).

We made lots of easy no-oven meals like pasta salad.

 We built lots of forts.

Gus enjoyed this one from Aunt Emmy's:

 We had fun with the Burch's at The Arizona Science Center.

 The kids and Zach spent lots of time building this house:

 But I think they had more fun knocking it over.

 Zach and Jimmy tried out the bed of nails.

(Jimmy's face looked appropriately worried the whole time)

 And Jimmy loved this pulley system.  

He wanted to do it himself, but he was glad Dad was there to help.

It was a happy summer of many adventures, but now it just drags on.  

Good thing I have such cute boys to keep me happy.

Dear God, please just let the temperature drop 10 degrees and then we will all be happy!