Family's summer fun

This summer, we let our oldest child choose (to some degree) where we would go on vacation. She was about to start college, so we weren't sure how many more vacations she would be able to join us. We weren't surprised at all when she chose the beach!! So, we headed to Ocean City, NJ for four nights in July. The weather was wonderful and the beach, as always, was very relaxing! Just hanging out with my kids makes my heart happy :)
On the boardwalk, we found these great Thing 1, Thing 2, etc. shirts. I loved them, but wasn't sure I wanted to put out $15 per shirt (it adds up when you mulitply by 5!). After talking with a couple of store owners, I got a reduced price and the kids started picking out their favorite colored shirt. Fun!

One afternoon, we stayed at our hotel and hung out. Josiah wandered around Jeff's chair just watching him for a few minutes. Then, he climbed up on his own chair to do like Daddy :)

Dutch Blitz is one of our favorite card games. It's tough to find the time at home with our schedules, so this was such a treat. They are so fun to play with.

Marissa (she's the one in the middle) turned 18 at the end of August!! She chose to invite a few friends to go out to the Olive Garden for dinner and I got to tag along. What a great group of young ladies they are.

Now, we are onto September and activities are in full swing. Marissa is attending college for phycial therapy and working part time, Spencer is in 10th grade and playing fall baseball. Naomi is in 7th grade and back into her regular gymnastics practices and Hayden is in 3rd grade and also playing fall baseball like his big brother :) Josiah? Well, he is almost 3 and as the youngest of five, he does his best to just keep up! He's awesome and keeps us laughing most days with his growing vocabulary and hysterical faces.

Hope you all had a great summer too and can do your best to keep all in balance now that we are back into the 'scheduled' life.