It's not ideal...it's life

Yesterday while I sat getting my hair colored, my stylist inquired about how my classes were going.  I was honest with her.  "It's not ideal," was my reply.  That's the truth.  It's harder than I could have imagined having the kids home for the summer while trying to keep up with classes.  My plans to have them attend camps and for Kinley to go to school three mornings a week seemed to have backfired on me, leaving me doing more driving around than I ever anticipated.   Add that to the fact that I desire to be with them, spending the summer afternoons swimming or just hanging out, and you won't find much time for school.  It's not ideal.  But it is life.  And I have yet to come across anyone who truly has an ideal situation.   So we plug on.  I find time to sneak in some study time while the kids have some down time.  I might even go as far as to say that it's been a positive for them.   They have made new friends and taken on new responsibilities.  McKenna has virtually taken over laundry duties which has been absolutely wonderful.  She also is quite adept at cooking and can make a simple meal, or bake a cake or brownies.   Again, wonderful stuff!   Cooper has been hanging out with the neighborhood boys.  From my perch in the office I was able to observe 6 kids in my yard for a full afternoon.  They had so much fun playing basketball, soccer, and just being boys.  So really I'm blessed to be here at home for probably what will be my last non-working summer.   While it may feel like it's not ideal some days, in the grand scheme of things it's pretty awesome

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Disney in Pictures

I am convinced that blogging was easier when my pictures were not split between my phone and my camera.  At any rate, this post contains my favorite photos taken with my iPhone during our trip. 

I never, ever get tired of this view.

Or this one.

Gosh I wish I could freeze time.

Cooper's first trip on Space Mountain.

Oh wait, we did see ONE princess.

But the shirt says it all.  Minnie is my bestie.  Let me just tell about the attention Minnie gave her when she saw that shirt.

Yak and Yeti dinner.  Oh.my.goodness.  Seriously, the only way to find better lo mein has to be to go directly to Asia. 

Our trip to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon

While we enjoy our regular trips to places like Disney World and the beach, we decided to make an effort to explore places closer to home this summer.  The Pennsylvania Grand Canyon has been on our list for the past couple of years and this summer seemed like an ideal time to check it out.

We donned our hiking clothes and set out on our adventure to northern PA.

The scenery was beautiful and we were lucky to have a day that wasn't too hot.  We had enough hot in Disney to last us awhile.   Though we weren't comfortable taking the kids on some of the tougher trails, we were able to make the one mile trek up and down one side of the gorge. 

Kinley did well on her first hike. 

McKenna documented a good portion of our trip.  She's still experimenting and learning how to use her camera but she has fun in the process and I am happy to have someone else share the picture taking responsibilities.

After a picnic lunch we packed it up and headed home.  It seemed like a short trip but this picture is proof that everyone was sufficiently tired out from out adventure.  I believe that we all came away from our day together feeling like we are ready to be more spontaneous and adventurous. 

Walt Disney World 2016

I thought it would be fun to start this post out with a little "Joy"!  Joy, from "Inside Out" was one of the new characters we met on our most recent trip to Disney.  We had heard that Sadness was there too but we were fine that she didn't make it into our picture. 

 One of our favorite breakfast spots happens to have a host of some of our favorite characters.  Breakfast was fabulous and pictures with Goofy, Donald and Minnie turned out great, too. 

 One of the biggest surprises of this trip was that we didn't have many long lines.  I was a bit nervous that all those crowd calendars floating around the internet were right and we would spend a lot of time waiting.   However, we were pleasantly surprised that the parks seemed less crowded than our last November visit. All that to say that I snapped this quick picture of Kinley and Cooper while we waited in line for Mickey and Minnie.

 There he is, the famous mouse.  We had our picture taken here but later in the week he actually did a card trick for us.  It was very cool.

 This latest trip was kind of bitter sweet.  I was fully prepared to re-visit princesses and Jake, Sophia, Doc McStuffins, etc. with Kinley while she still enjoyed those Playhouse Disney characters.  Unfortunately it seems I missed my window of opportunity because she was more interested in Star Wars characters than anything else. Except maybe Minnie.

 We decided that a heat index of 114 degrees warranted a trip to the waterpark.  We had settled on Blizzard Beach a few months before our trip and it turned out to be a great choice.  We enjoyed the slides and especially one mile long lazy river.  It felt sooo good to cool off.

 Speaking of cool... Olaf in summer...very cool. 

 Lilo was as close as we got to a princess this trip.  We literally happened upon Lilo and Stitch and the girls were thrilled.  Believe it or not, we have never met up with this duo. 

Parade time is one of my absolute favorites.  And I can't help it, I love watching the kids wave to the characters when they are little like this. Something tells me this may have been the last time I hold one of my kids on my lap while watching a Disney parade.  So sad.

We have definitely all grown and matured but being in our favorite place together gives us time to reflect and reconnect.  We wouldn't trade it for the world.