August Fun!

 We have been on the GO this summer. I'm not sure we spent more than 1 day at home in the 3-4 weeks leading up to vacation! Lots of fun times and memories:) Needless to say, all I wanted to do today was play at home. I finally needed a break. 

Paint and Sip with our amazing friends/neighbors!

These two have been rekindling their train play lately...goofs!

I love our neighborhood almost solely because of these girls' family! I love the impromptu after dinner fun/stay up late catching lightning bug times. It was too dark for my camera to get a good pic.

This kid is one sweet and spicy funny-man. Can't wait to see his personality continue to develop!

We are so thankful to live near the beach...and that our kids LOVE it!

I ran a 5k race in town and in a shocking turn of events, I got a trophy! 2nd place in my age group...its kinda a joke. It was my fastest 5k, but I don't know that it was trophy material.

This is the only race pic I've ever seen of myself from any race where I'm smiling...waving at the kids:)

Sporting their new VT shirts

I was instructed to "take a picture of us mama!"

We enjoyed a fun last minute visit from the Crews. Tucker and Wesley had fun at camp and Tyler and Brayden loved the pool!

A very fun night at the Easton Carnival with Nama and Papa!

These guys are obsessed with motorcycles. Our neighbor, Matt, has one that is a loud rumbling Harley, and whenever Brayden hears or sees a motorcycle he yells "matt, matt." repetitively!

 We FINALLY got the kids out on the kayaks! The loved it! It was a perfect night....it's been a perfect summer!

Tucker planted this sunflower from a seed at preschool in april/may.  We've been taking care of it diligently, and I'm soo super pumped that we (I) didn't kill it!

They love S'Mores! Mostly just the chocolate, but they've both gotten good at roasting the marshmallows....although max or I usually have to finish roasting Brayden's!

Haha! Pulling Nama and B in the wagon! Can't believe Kare fit in that thing!

 Brayden and I enjoyed a fun day at the lake with William while Tucker was at camp. It was so nice to have one day a week with just B! We never get that:)

We followed up the lake with lunch at Panera...he draws quite the crowd. Little cutie:)

Uncle Chris teaching the boys all about how/where to find the best worms! I'm so glad it was not me! I do not like worms, but refuse to let the kids know:) They had a blast!

Those Hoefer girls are resourceful! That's one way for Brayden to get around!

We went to Cape Cod for a week (later post to come) and the day after we got back, we celebrated Max's 35th birthday!

The boys helped me make the cake and had fun decorating. They put so many sprinkles on that when Max blew out the candles the sprinkles went flying! Tucker picked out a blue velvet cake, and bright blue funfetti frosting! Max said it was his Buffalo Bills cake:)

I think Max's (and the boys') favorite part of his birthday was Uncle Jay coming! These two woke up Monday morning and the first they wanted to know was where Uncle Jay/Shay (as Brayden says) was! They're going to be very sad when he leaves tomorrow:(

Weekend in VT!

Max and I enjoyed a kid-free weekend a couple of weekends ago! Thanks to my parents, we ventured up to VT for a long weekend...it was SUCH a BLAST! We were able to do so many active things and just enjoy time together DOING stuff-something we don't get to do often these days:)

This is how our weekend began...dinner at the Harpoon Brewery. Such a fun place! Try the Leviathan...delish!

We enjoyed a delicious coffee on Friday morning...nicest looking latte I've gotten in awhile!

We obviously had to go to breakfast at my fave, Sugar and Spice!

We even just happened to "stumble upon" "vermont's house". This is the ski lodge we grew up going to. Lots of great memories!

We checked out a disc golf place-much different throwing than frisbee golf. It was a very cool course through the woods. If there was a "wet area," my disc found it! 

We ended our afternoon with a ride up the Gondola at Killington. The view was perfect that day!

I had to reenact this picture...I don't think I got quite as much air as 4 years ago...

We thought it would be a great idea to hike down the mountain...despite the nice wildflowers, my knees and flutes were not happy! I found it easier to run down most of the 2 miles than it was to walk!

There was a jeep off-roading event going on...we found these guys parked like this at one of the base lodges...that's tough to do!

We had dinner at the Foundry...great place!

Saturday we headed out to Bromley Mountain to experience their summer excitement.  We were most excited to do the ropes' course. Despite both of us working on and running different adventure courses, we haven't gone through one together since we were dating! This course was awesome! Besides the fool proof belay system, it had 5 different courses with 55 total elements of all different degrees of difficulty. We did the green course (2nd easiest), blue and then finally the black diamond course. They made you do them in order, and I was exhausted when we were finally done! The first two weren't too difficult, but I have never been on a course harder than the Black Diamond. The second element I wasn't sure how I was gonna make it.  My arms were literally burning at the end. It was a really fun place!

We also went here for the Alpine Slide. We only went down once by the time we made it there but it was a good run!

This thing looked a little cooler than it actually was, but it was still fun. It was a 1/2 mile long zip line that started up VERY high, but there wasn't any drop when you left the platform. And you didn't have to step off, it just sent you all at once. Definitely worth it though:)

We are indebted to my parents for allowing us to get away and have such a fun time with each other:) I can't wait to bring the kids here some day!