I think one of our favorite things to do as a family is go to the beach.  Now that the kids are getting older and we don't have to chase them every which way, we've been able to go more and more.  My favorite time of day to go is dinner time.  We bring a picnic lunch (usually sandwiches from Subway or as the kids say Subaway) and go to spend a couple of hours in the sand.  Tyler loves to try to surf and dig in the sand.  Juliana is all about the water, from the second we get there that's all she wants to do.  No matter how cold the water, she never complains, just jumps right in.  This year they both have boogie boards, and watching her swim out and wait to catch a wave is just adorable.  I personally don't like going in the water, but I do like to get my toes wet.  There's just a certain beauty at the beach that makes you believe all is right in the world.  Stephen likes to play frisbee with Tyler, of course we have to be sure that aren't too many innocent victims, I mean beach-goers in the area for him to hit.  Steve also spends a lot of time in the water with the kids, which is good for them since like I said before, I don't like to go in the water.  Hopefully our warm weather will be extended well into September and we'll have many more trips to the beach in our future.

And here's a flashback from when they were younger.

We took the kids blueberry picking this weekend and they both absolutely loved it!  It was quite hot while we were there and I think Steve melted, but other than that it was a fantastic family activity.  When we got home the kids and I made a blueberry pie, unfortunately neither of them really like eating pie, so they only ate a little, but they really had fun making it.

One of both kids favorite things to do is go to Grandpa's pond.  They love to spend time feeding the fish, watching the fish, and sometimes if they are lucky they get to catch the fish.  Grandpa always gives them a ride in the tractor, and it's become something they very much look forward to doing in the summer.  Grandpa has a cow named Honey, she's about 17 years old and the kids love to look at her, but she's a really big, so they have no desire to get close to her.  They both love the snacks in his screen house, Juliana even discovered apricot cookies are her favorite this year.  I don't say much about the snacks they get, because after all, some of my best memories of my grandparents were the special snacks and treats we would get when we went to visit.

We've been going every summer, ever since they were little.

One of my kids favorite things to do is art.  They both love to draw, color, paint, glue, and tape anything and everything.  I bought them a bunch of new crayons and markers the other day and before I knew it they were all spread out on the living room floor.  They decided to draw webkinz and were both really into in and concentrating.   They didn't even notice I was taking pictures at first.  Now the only problem is, they still have to clean up the mess!

The weather hasn't been so great this spring and summer and now that we are finally having some decent days, we've been trying to spend as much time outside as we can.  This past weekend we spent most of Sunday at the beach and the kids got to play on their new boogie boards.  They had a blast swimming and digging in the sand.  Later in the day we were invited to our neighbors so the kids could join in a water balloon fight.  We headed home after that and the kids played in the kiddie pool.  The kids have so much fun with it and love jumping in over and over, yelling "cannonball"!  

Juliana was asking a lot of questions about being arrested and what jail was like the other day.  One thing you have to understand about both of my children is that they pay attention to everything!  You can't have any type of conversation in their presence and not expect to have them listening and asking questions.  I once heard that it's a sign of intelligence when a kid asks a lot of questions, if that is true, then I've got a couple of Einstein's living with me.  Back to jail, we were driving down the highway and the questions start, I don't know what wheels were turning in her head to begin the 40 minutes of questioning, but she wanted to know everything.  Most important was, what can you be put in jail for.  So we went over a bunch of laws and what prison is like, and why people go there.  The conversation ended and I am sure we moved onto something else with just as many questions.  Later that night Juliana came into my room and started again asking about what all the laws were.  She asked if when she turns 8 if I could tell her ALL of them. 

The one that stuck out most to her was about drinking and driving.  I had to explain what the effects of alcohol were and why you couldn't drive after drinking.  I saw the wheels turning again and the questions then proceeded.  My favorite one was, "What if you are driving and all you have in the car is beer and alcohol, and you are so thirsty, then what happens?".  To which I replied that you would have to find somewhere to get something else to drink because you can't drink and drive.  Her next question was, "What if you are driving in the dessert and there's no place to buy anything else to drink and all you have is beer and alcohol and your so, so, so dehydrated, then what?".  Well that one stumped me!

Then she say's, "Mom, I'm really worried, I am not even 8 yet and I have a lot of years to go, I hope I don't have to go to jail".  Poor kid, at 7 years old she's worried she'll forget a law and have to go to jail.  While other kids are worried they won't get to watch their favorite tv show, or they can't find a toy they lost, my daughter is worried about the judicial system!

We had a visit last week from Steve's grandmother and her husband Lenny last week.  Juliana and Tyler love their Great Grandmother, they call her Gigi and enjoy every minute with her.  Juliana and Tyler actually have three living Great Grandmother's.  Both of my Grandmothers and Gigi.  They are all turning 84 this year, isn't that fabulous.  Unfortunately Steve and I  lost our other Grandparent's over the last 9 years.  When we got married we had all 8 of them present.  We knew it was amazing and had them all stand up during our ceremony and to be part of it.  I get so sad every time I watch that part of our wedding video, but so happy to, since I had so much time with them all.  I have so many happy memories of them all and couldn't of asked for any better grandparents.  I got to spend so much time with them as a child, as did Steve with his, and now I forever have those memories.  I am so happy that our kids are 5 and 7 and will have such amazing memories of their Great Grandmother's that will last a lifetime.  I don't know many other children that have so many living great grandparent's and I know both Juliana and Tyler know how lucky they are.  When they are grown ups themselves they will have so many stories and pictures of them to share with their own children.

Here is  picture of Gigi and the kitten (who also took quite a liking to her):

Last week we took a little journey up to North Conway New Hampshire.  It's so beautiful up there, although with the rain and traffic it took us about 6 hours to do a 4.5 hour drive. The kids were great in the car, they had movies to watch and did great... well until the last 45 minutes or so, but hey they are kids and they got bored, and loud.  But once we checked into the hotel they were super happy, they love hotels.  We spent hours in the hotel pools, and since they have both started swim class, they just love the water.  Juliana was  jumping off the edge of the pool and going right under, it really warmed my heart, because she's been so afraid of the water for so long.  On the next day we headed to Storyland, it's a theme park for the kids with a bunch of little rides and shows for the kids.  We met up with my sister and her family, the kids were so happy to see there cousins on vacation.  It was a fun little trip, but a lot of driving for two nights.  Luckily on the way home we went to our old neighborhood for a bbq with delicious food and great company, and that made the drive home much more enjoyable.

There's something magical about rainbows, when you look at them you can't help but smile.  They remind you of all the beautiful things in our world, and you momentarily forget about all the bad.  We were fortunate enough to see not one the other night, but two at the same time.  And one of those was a complete rainbow, it was magnificent. We had the kids run outside to see them, because I've never seen a rainbow so big in my entire life.  And then the next night, there was another one in the exact same place!