Goodbye to Summer: Our August

The above scene just melted my heart on August 2nd. Daddy sure loves his girls and they love him right back!

I threw my kids in the tub whenever my desire to pick off the dried/dead skin from hand-foot-mouth was nearly uncontrollable (yes, I'm a picker). The water would soften up the skin and I could lather them up when they got out. You can see the spots on Nell's shoulders. They were pretty much everywhere else on her body. But mostly, I'm sharing this photo because of that cute pinchable butt! Love those thigh rolls!

We had plenty of time to lie around and snuggle, thanks to our bout with HFM. They sure are a loving set of siblings! So grateful for that.

I wrote about our weekend nature hike back here, and Ben's week in Reno back here, and our trip to the County Fair, here. It's nice to have August fairly well documented. It makes it so this post can just focus on the ridiculous and silly photos I took throughout the month. Like this one:

Or the sweet, heart warming ones like this:

Or the random photos I caught of our many trips to Target. Love that three kiddo cart!

(pictures)

And then there was our trip to the dentist:

We all spent so much energy trying to encourage Nell to be brave and go with the hygienist all by herself, but she wasn't buying any of it. I was certain I'd have to be in the room with her the whole time, but after we checked in two hygienists flung the door open and called both her and Reid back. She was definitely still scared, but she went on back all by herself and had very minimal crying! I was so proud.

Reid loves the dentist. He thinks all their machines are really cool, and he loves the polish at the end. He also refused to take a picture without his mouth gaping open. Silly boy. Coraline did really well for a 1&1/2-year-old. I think that was the least amount of crying and fighting I've ever had while holding a child on my lap for their dental checkup.

The day before we went to the actual beach, the kids decided to make a beach right in front of our house.

The towel was really Nell's way of problem solving. She wanted to sit down, but I told her she could not get wet (like her sister clearly had). So she went into the garage and came out with the towel. Problem solved! She kept calling it "the beach." We have sure had a lot of fun with that big road puddle after each summer rain.

I just loved seeing Lou's footprints climbing up the driveway as we headed inside.

Meanwhile, we also attended two birthday parties as a family, went to a friend's house for a BBQ, enjoyed a Schnitzel Fest at another friend's house, hosted a book club of sorts in our home, helped some people move in and out of our ward (congregation), cleaned the Church, and more. It was a busy month and as it began to wind down I felt the sudden need to squeeze in some of my favorite summer activities.

Like this yummy grilled chicken:

It is even more delicious than it looks, and I never make it enough during fresh tomato and basil season. I could eat that whole platter right now. I better move on before my mouth starts watering.

We spent an afternoon at the community pool, back here, and I took the kids on a day trip to Sheboygan, back here. We had a couple of long overdue playdates and even made it to the splash pad before they turned off the water (Labor Day Weekend).

All our running around sure wore Lou out!

And I almost forgot, Reid and Nell took another round of swim lessons and each of them passed their current level! They have turned into little fish who sure love the water. They are still eager for another round of lessons in their new -- more challenging -- classes.

This August was a perfect farewell to a wonderful summer. Man alive, how does time move so fast?