A Visit with Grandpa Bob

After leaving Brittany's house, we drove an hour to Grandpa Bob's house.  I figured there was no reason to not spend some time with him and Susan, since I was already so close.  It's really important to me that my girls know their family and spend as much time with as possible.  Especially their grandparents. Plus, grandpa Bob is newly retired, and has plenty of free time now.  

Riley, just hanging out on the back deck.  

Pool time.  

More pool time

While with Grandpa Bob, Hannah learned to drive a golf cart.  She started out a little rough, driving all over the drive way and almost running into the car but by the end of the of trip she was pro.  We went swimming every night.  Hannah gained a lot of confidence in the water.  At the beginning of the trip, Hannah was pretty timid in the water but by the end of the trip she was going in with wings only.  Grandpa had a lot of fun throwing Riley in the air.  

While hanging out, Grandpa and I talked about all kinds of exciting stuff: politics, money matters and homeschooling.  And I discovered the joy of shopping at a Goodwill.  Like I said, exciting stuff.  

Italy Gals Reunited

The third week in June Michelle, Patricia, Brittany and I met up at Brittany's house in Dahlonega, Georgia for a reunion of sorts.  This part of Georgia is absolutely gorgeous.  It's green, mountainous, and peaceful.  Brittany's house sits tucked in the mountains, she's got a big back yard with a pool and an awesome tree house.  

Brittany's house

Here we are at Amicalola Falls State Park.

Just one of the waterfalls located within the park.

Panning for gold at Crisson Gold Mine.  Georgia was the site of a very large gold rush

The most awesome tree house ever!

Swimming

The big water balloon fight.  Why is filling water balloons so time consuming?!??

5 years 

I feel so fortunate to have meet these ladies.  Ya see, unlike many "moms groups," we all knew each other before we got pregnant.  It started with Susan, Michelle and I.  Then this group formed when we got pregnant, we all gave birth within about 6 weeks of each other.  Except for Gretchen, who couldn't make it this time.  She's our group advice leader; her kids are much older than ours. ; )  We've stuck it our for 5 years so far.  We have our own little email circulations, emailing about daily to each other.  Sometimes it's less, sometimes it's many in a day.  Sometimes our emails contain 1 sentence, other times they are small novels.  And we discuss all sorts of things!  We want to make our get reunions annually, but it's hard because we're all so spread out.

Next year, we'll see where we end up.  With Gretchen in Texas and me in Chicago, we're trying to find the middle from there.    

The last month or so

has been loads of fun.  I've been all over the place, which is pretty easy to do when you're "houseless."  I went to Georgia and spent 3 weeks there.  Then I spent a few nights with Amy and Tom.  Then I came back up to Chicago to celebrate our 10 year anniversary, David's 30th birthday and Riley's 1st birthday.  It's been a summer full of BIG events!

We've spent a lot of time at parks, enjoying the warm sun.  

We've been so busy having fun, I forgot all about blogging!