I never really caught up with July and I can't believe it's the end of August. This summer has sort of been a blur. I can't believe how fast it has flown by!

Way back in the end of July we got to go to Lake Compounce for the day. Jason's boss, very generously hosts a company trip their each summer. It's such a nice park and we had such a great time. The weather was supposed to be awful the rain held off for the most part and we had a great day in the park!

Isabella loves to go on fast crazy rides. Last year she went on the Boulderdash which is a neat old wooden coaster built into the side of a mountain. This year she decided to try the Zoomerang! It was her first upside down coaster. She loved it!

In between busy outings and running around crazily, Isaac lost his first tooth! He looks so cute. I just love seeing a new smile! I can't wait for him to lose those tops ones, he'll be ridiculously cute.

Isn't it funny how sometimes even when time flies by it seems to take forever for one particular thing to come? That's how I felt about vacation this year. I think our whole family has been eagerly awaiting it since last summer when it ended. It was worth the wait. We had the most incredible weather and got to spend lots of time on the beach. Our favorite beach is called Sandy Point. It's a sand bar off the coast of CT and my dad drives us out there on his boat.

Bella, my mom and Isaac made this beautiful Mermaid as soon as we got there.
In the evenings we had so much fun crabbing. We did pretty good this year. They boys were even big enough to go crabbing by themselves in a little tide pool that we can see from the cottage deck. It was really neat to watch them over there exploring "on their own."

Every year, the boys and Jason look very forward to fishing on Papa's boat. Before we left this year, our friend Nicky (an adorable elderly Greek woman) told us she would be praying that they catch a big huge fish. God heard her prayers and Jason caught his biggest fish ever! He caught a 44 inch striped bass. It was as big as the boys!

After my dad cut off the fillets the beast slipped off the cutting board and into the water before Jason and the boys could do the "autopsy." I know I have mentioned how interested my boys are in dissection so, being the wonderful dad that he is, he took out a hook and fished the filleted fish out of the water, again so they could cut him open and explore. The second catch wasn't nearly as exciting as the first, but fun nonetheless.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to go to the beach with my kids this year. They were so much fun. This is such a great time of life. My kids are big enough to do fun things and young enough that they still enjoy doing them with me and Jason. I loved watching them play with hermit crabs and explore so many of the other "treasures" that the beach offers.

Our friend Don Farley blessed us with passes to the Mystic Seaport and the Mystic Aquarium. He came down for the day and we had a double field trip day! The kids were soooo tired at the end of the day. It was so much fun.

They made their own boats at the Seaport and really enjoyed sailing them back at the cottage.

We also had a lot of fun at the Aquarium. Our favorite thing was touching the rays and watching the sea lion show.

At the end of our stay on the beautiful coast of Connecticut my niece Madilynn joined us with her mom and dad. She is sooo cute. I think I took 100 pictures of her on the beach!

On our last night at the cottage my baby sister Kimmy joined us too and the kids were so excited to see her when they woke up in the morning. It was so nice to have my whole family together in one place. Seems like times like these are fewer and farther between as everyone is all grown up now. We enjoyed a great day on the beach all together. It was just wonderful.

While we were on vacation Jason and I celebrated 9 glorious years of marriage! Hard to believe it's been that long. Time sure flies when you're having fun!

Since we've gotten back we have done lots of other fun things and I have even taken some pictures but I've added so many from vacation that I will spare you. We went and picked 6 lbs of blueberries and made some yummy blueberry sauce. It was supposed to be jam but I'm having a hard time getting it thick enough w/o adding sugar. Needs more pectin I guess, I'll figure it out eventually and none of it will go to waste anyway, it's delicious on our homemade yogurt! We also have spent lots of time visiting friends and family.

This past weekend we got to have a really fun day at Grammy and Papa Corbett's house. All of our cousins were there that we don't get to see very often. A hot day with a big pool, tacos, and sundaes made for a spectacular event. In addition to all of the fun, we decided to release our pet turtle Tiny Tim into Grammy's pond. He has out grown our tank and it was time to let him go. We hope he stays in her pond, he seems to be enjoying it so far, but we understand if he decides to explore the world. We'll miss him. We have had him for 3 years now. I was very proud of Isaac for loving him enough to let him go. After we let him go we enjoyed our day of swimming and sun. Isaac and Ian were both very brave in grammy's pool (after much coaxing) and they even both jumped off the edge of the deck with grammy's help.

So now it's crunch time for me. I am pulling together all of our curriculum and lessons for TLC Academy. This year I'll have one 4th grader, two 3rd graders, two 1st graders, one Kindergartener and one preschooler!! Lots to plan and lots of fun ahead!