Stepping Into Fall

This summer has been full of activity, but not exactly tons of fun stuff. Our fully-staged house has been on the market since mid-May and we have had less than two handfuls of showings. Even without many showings, this has put a crimp in our family life as I have not wanted to go out of the house unless it was in great shape...just in case. We've discovered through this that although we do like a clean home, we really want to live here even more. Some furniture had been moved for a better presentation, but that has proved far less functional for our young family. We're ready to put things back in their family-friendly places, to move some belongings back in from the garage and just enjoy living here without pressure again. We will be taking our listing off the market within the next week and we're thinking of a family celebration to mark that event.

Aside from having our house on the market, we were concerned about my grandma and her health and then traveling to say goodbye and then traveling again to grieve and celebrate her life with all of the family. We continue to grieve this loss.

But, in between the stress and sadness we've experienced this summer, we've had some enjoyable times, too.

Sportster enjoyed being on his first team and looks forward to soccer this fall.

The kids enjoyed splashing in our backyard pool.

We enjoyed our July 4th weekend at home with a neighbor's party and fireworks and a outing to a very nice county park.

Surprisingly our littlest guy delighted in our hike the most.

My garden gave me LOTS of surpise pumpkin plants, which added lots of green to our backyard. And the kids are excited about the sunflowers, too! And we ended up with some free landscaping materials from a professional job next door which helped the cause, too. The tomatoes are coming along, too, so I am hoping the frost doesn't come too early as they still need much more time to ripen.

We endured a family camping trip with our church community. It will a great memory in the distant future, but the details are still a little too fresh to see it that way now, though we know it will certainly get easier as the kids grow up. In years to come we may actually be able to sit by the fire and fellowship or go hiking with those we went camping with.

We have been able to help with teaching Sister's Sunday School class and have so much more appreciation for those who serve in Children's Ministry!

We celebrated Smiley's birthday and transitioned him to a big bed, though the transition is still in process. He is enjoying the freedom a little too much.

And we have decided on a school option for Sportster which best suits him and our family for this year.

So, all in all, the summer was fine, but maybe not all we had hoped it would be. There are still many things on the Summer Fun 2008 sheet we made at the beginning of the summer which have not been even remotely attemped and with school starting tomorrow morning we will not get them done. But we're thinking it is going to be a great fall! Maybe I'll just make a new list....Fall Fun 2008!

We hope to get out and enjoy this beautiful place called Colorado even more!

P.S. - Most of these shots were taken by my husband and I think they turned out great! Also, this post is actually being published early on Monday, August 25th but I can't seem to change the date from the initial draft. If you know how to do this, please fill me in!