Summer Days

As you've seen on previous posts, our summer has been filled with lots of big adventures. But then there's the day-to-day summer fun...

I took the boys to the zoo a couple weeks ago. It was the first time Charlie has been since he's old enough to even notice there are animals around. He seems to be an animal lover, so I was curious to see his reaction. He definitely noticed them, if they were close enough and/or moving; he'd point and babble in his little language. My favorite was his reaction to the polar bears; one was quite close to the glass, and when I pointed it out to Charlie and made my best polar bear noise, he gritted his teeth and shook his fists. I decided that was his interpretation of a growl.

Zach got to ride the rides at Como Town (part of the zoo) for the first time. I suspect that'll be a regular part of our zoo outings now! Apparently it was a good morning for both boys, since this is how they looked on the ride home:

I'm a little concerned to see our next water bill. As it has been in much of the country, it's been crazy-hot here. So we've had the sprinkler, slip 'n slide, and kiddie pools out pretty regularly. I'm amazed at how much fun "big kids" can have in an inflatable kiddie pool!

And we can't forget kickball - the summer sport that has become Zach's obsession. Sometimes he's outside playing against just his dad, and other nights our driveway looks like this:

We continue to have our weekly "bocce nights," a no-longer-fitting name for our Thursday night barbecues with friends. It's been amazing how much the group has expanded; we've been over-run by people aged 6 or less.


^ We try to take a picture of all the kids each week. Sometimes we get imperfect but still cute pictures. The week we hosted was not one of those weeks!

I'll close with some random pictures from this summer:

(Yes, I've read the warnings about letting babies play with plastic bags. What can I say? He loves them.)