The Joys of August

Well, much has happened in August and now that it is September 6th I shall document. Maybe one of these days I will get caught up with my to do list. My one that has to do with photography, blogging, scrapbooking, etc is longer than my arm. It is crazy that August has come and gone. It started with a wonderful b-day bash for my incredible mother-in-law who turned 50. Yes, you read that right, my mother-in-law is only 50. And she doesn't even look it. We had an adult only birthday dinner at Bre's new house. We had all written favorite memories of mom and printed them on papers and posted them on the wall. Then we had fixed a meal we knew she would love. Lastly, we gave her what she always wanted..."Peace, Love, and Happiness" So, we couldn't actually give theose things, but Willow Tree makes a set of figurines which are called "Peace, Love, and Joy." Whenever we give mom a gift, it is always fun to see if we can make her cry....well.....The other joy of the evening was seeing my cute little nephew again, Easton. I can't get enough of this little guy.
All summer the kids worked extremely hard. Call us the worst parents in the world, but we actually made them do a list full of chores daily, read at least 20 min, practice the piano, do school workbooks, and a book report each month. Their "reward" besides increasing their brain cells, was a trip to Lagoon. The last Friday before school started we took the two oldest ones. We thought it would be fun to take just them so we could all goes on rides together. My little Kayla did all the big rides except Wicked (which was fine with me since last year I seriously thought Ryan was going to fall out of his seat.....seriously, it scared me to death).
I was super glad to take this picture. It meant they survived!!! Wicked really is one Wicked ride.
This is a picture of Ryan and Brad on Wicked. I missed my DSLR with my zoom lens, we took our small digital camera so you can't really see them. Man, am I spoiled or what?

Kayla loves me taking pictures of her. She especially wanted me to document her by the Colasses, which she rode on twice.
We loved Snakewater Rapids. The best/worst part is there is a HUGE waterfall that no matter where you sit on that blasted raft you CANNOT avoid. Believe me, I tried. My family laughed at me trying. I made the kids take this picture. Kayla cannot make funny faces. She just can't help it. The camera is out and her beautiful smile is on her face, no matter what!!! At least Ryan is a good sport to look silly with his mother.

This one is for you Kayla.

Ryan and Makayla are the perfect age for Lagoon. They are tall enough for all the big fun rides they want to go on, yet small enough for the kiddie rides that they have loved for years!!!!
We really had a good time. I was super proud of my kids for working hard all summer long. Good job you two.