Goodbye Summer

This summer we discovered some new (to us) and wonderful places to visit. 

Paisley adores Aaron. He is pretty sweet with her too! 

 One of the best is The River. We have been coming to The River since June and have really enjoyed watching how The River changes from visit to visit. It is similar to our beach but different in many ways. The best difference is that it is fresh water, which means that showers are not essential when you return home. It is a rocky beach which means that most of our swim stuff is no longer covered in sand. Win Win in my book!

Ruby and Honor discover more sticks.

 Although the water is cold the children enjoyed floating and really excelled at becoming more confident in the water this summer. Life Jackets were mandatory for the 7 and under crowd. Aaron and Erik loved crawdad fishing and finding many of the river dwelling species.
On our last visit of the season there were hundreds of dead salmon. After talking to some local fisherman we learned that they were spawning. The children lined them up on the riverbank but soon grew tired of that. We identified differences between the different species and even found some salmon eggs. They squished some open and felt them and inspected them.

Some game where Ian "The Protector of the Littles" was defending against Aaron.
It might have been an even match. 

 The only downfall is the constant hunger. Between Jess and I we have 11 kids at home and they all need to eat about 47 times a day. We have finally learned to fill the cooler and place it a fair distance away so everyone can help themselves without asking every 2.4 seconds, "What else can I eat?"

I truly love the life my children are experiencing. 

 I also love the creativity and space at The River. It allows the children a little more freedom without me constantly hovering over them. They are safe to explore and build forts, rock houses, sand (on the far beach) or simply float. All the while they are within sight of me.

Because every 7 year old girl plays with dead fish. 

Still being in the early stages of pregnancy and still feeling quite sick the potty situation was less than ideal. Especially after helping Libby go, I proceeded to puke all over her went. I also had to keep a fair distance from my children that were eating tuna salad.
Otherwise it was ideal to bring my chair down to The River's Edge and soak my feet in the cool water and get up every 45 minutes to dunk under the refreshing water and cool off. Oh how I long to have to cool off again.