A Good Way To Beat The Heat

After a cold Fourth of July weekend, the mercury soared for the four days after. The days were beautiful--warm and sunny--Northwest summer days. But so hot, and much more humid than we are used to in dry Colorado. It was the sleep with no blanket, dressed in only a diaper, body splayed out so almost no part of your skin is touching another part of your skin, and still be nice and sweaty kind of hot: Because the temperatures just don't get all that high very often in Western Washington, there are very few homes that have air conditioning, so you have to find another way to keep cool. Fortunately we have the cabin, and if you were looking for us, three out of the four hot days you would have found us there! Adam even took an extra day off from work so we could all go up together.

The first hot day, July 6th, was our last day with all the Conlin family up at the cabin. Adam's dad and many of the sibs had to get back to jobs and real life on Tuesday, and Adam and I were on our way to Jen and Dave's to take care of Hannah and Max while their parents were away at the hospital. But we had one more day together to enjoy the sunshine and each others company. We started the day with a birthday breakfast in bed for Ryan, whose birthday was the following day. The rest of the day was spent playing in the water and the sun.
Our friend Ian came up to visit with the boys for the day too, his family lived across the street from us before we moved to The Springs. He and his brother Evan (who we missed visiting with because he was away at camp) who are five and seven years older than our kids, were our boys mentors and favorite people for the two years we lived in that house. Ben still talks about Ian as one of his best friends and is the one who taught Ben all his favorite tricks like climbing trees, breaking rocks to find the shiny parts inside and looking for all the best bugs.

The kids munched on watermelon brought to the cabin by Ian and spent nearly all day in the water or playing games on the lawn. After being desperate to try out the lake all weekend, Cami finally got to take a dip. She was so happy! Tommy liked the water for a bit too, but I think he got cold pretty fast. Luke decided his true love was being paddled around in the kayak by Uncle Ryan. Uncle Ryan didn't mind a bit. It was a great day!
On the 7th we had planned on staying at Jen and Dave's all day, giving Ryan a nice quiet birthday to himself at the cabin, but it was so hot, so we called him up and asked if it was OK to crash his party. He was up for it, so we packed up our boys and our plus two in two mini vans. My close friend Beth and her family live just across the street from the Shevitz, so Adam and I asked if their two older kids, Madison (my Zach's age--not to mention his childhood crush) and Zach (about 5 months older than Josh), could come along with us too. Of course it was a go! With such a great way to break up the hot day and so much fun to be had, my friend Beth ended up bringing their littlest, Carson (2), up too. And the kids kept coming! Ryan's friend Teagan brought her two girls, who are 5 and 2, over too, so there were knee-highs playing in the sun and water everywhere. I don't think Ryan had had so many kids at his birthday party since he was a kid himself! He was such a good sport to share his birthday with all the kiddies. He seemed genuinely happy to have us there, even if inside he was wishing it had rained all day. :)On the 9th we didn't go to the cabin. Adam had to work and I was at home with too many kids and not enough car seats, so Beth put the sprinklers on in her front yard and the kids spent a few hours cooling off in them. They'd run through the cold sprinklers then lay on the hot pavement to warm up. I loved the way the day felt like the days of our summers past, when we lived here. The Brown kids, Shevitz kids and Conlin kids just laughing and being together while Beth and I chatted the hot day away. All we were missing was Jen and the day would have been complete!But day four, the 10th, we were back at it! Adam decided an extra day off was in order, it was too nice of a Washington day to waste in the office, so off to the lake we went! Josh got bold and gave jumping off the boat house a try. He loved it! He even did a front flip off of it once...once. Hannah was determined to jump off of it as well. The first time she decided to do it we got the camera out, ready to take a photo, told her to jump when we said, "three," and began our count...off she went on "one!" All we got was her splashing down into the water. It was too funny. She jumped two more times, so we did get a photo. I could tell she was really proud of herself for doing it, as she should be! Neither of the biggest boys would do it!

The bottom picture in this set is of me in heaven. The two babies, Max and Tommy, were sound asleep in the house, the big kids were all playing safely in life jackets with Adam, so I got to sit in the warm sunshine, reading a fabulous book, at my favorite place in the world. When I die, I hope that exact scenario is one I get to be a part of again and again in heaven.