Squeezing the last little bit out of Summer 2012

It's the end of August - how did that happen?  Our nights are getting cooler and there's a crispness to the morning so I know Fall is around the corner.  For all my complaining about the hot weather this summer, I still can't believe that it's almost over. 

We spent the day at Water World last weekend.  It's became a summer tradition.  We meet the rest of the Hansen/Fry gang and spend the day cooling off and not getting sunburned.  This year was no different except some of us failed miserably at the not-getting-sunburned part. My back has entered that lovely itching-like-crazy stage that follows a stupid sunburn.  Glenn was stung by a yellow jacket .... in the mouth.  His lips had a lovely collagen/Angelina Jolie look for the rest of the day and apparently it hurt like a you-know-what but he was a trooper.  Will has graduated to the slightly scarier water rides so he and Glenn spent most of the day in search of adrenaline rushes.  Reina and I stayed closer to the wave pool and the kiddie areas.  We did take her on a few of the family rides, including one called the River of the Pharaohs or something like that.  You take a giant innertube through an underground river with mummies that move and make noises.  Not too scary but enough to sufficiently freak out a 3-yr old.  Afterwards she kept insisting that she wasn't afraid of those "muma's" and she wanted to do it again and oh by the way what's a muma?  I found myself saying "Well when someone died, they wrapped them up in cloth and ...."  Yeah, great answer lady.  That's definitely not going to give anyone nightmares.  Grandma H pointed out that I could've just said "Mummies are from Egypt" and left it at that.  Next year. 

It was 57 degrees when we were standing in line for Water World.  Brrrr!  It warmed up before I had to break out the sweat pants. 

Last weekend, we also made a trip up to the State Fair. I had to attend a work function but I dragged the whole gang along and we walked around the fairgrounds afterwards.  It was hot and the kids were all hopped up on cotton candy.  We spent some time at the petting zoo where Reina was captivated by this little black pig. 

 And then so was Will....

 And Glenn too!  We snuck the cute little pig home in my purse.  Okay we didn't, but wouldn't the dogs have loved that? 

 Nothing like posing with a goat. 

This past week, the kids' school was closed on Thursday and Friday so I stayed home to multi-task.  One afternoon, Reina was not tired (clearly) but fell asleep for her nap on the sofa with Trigger.  I looked downstairs at one point and noticed this.  Clearly Trigger is unwilling to sacrifice his spot on the couch, even with a foot on his jugular.  Reina started to wake up when the camera clicked but she settled back down and slept like this for another 30 minutes or so. 

Later that night, I came downstairs to find this.  Let's just call this picture "3-yr olds are interesting." 

It's a cowgirl/diver/3-yr old. 

We finished off the week with a trip to Will's new school and a chance to meet his teacher.  He's so excited for the first day of kindergarten on Tuesday.  I'm more ready than I was a few weeks ago.  It's hard to feel so bittersweet about all of it when he's so very ready to be reading and writing and learning.  Reina's ready for kindergarten, too.  She came with us to the new school on Thursday and she was very upset that Will had a bunch of new school supplies, even though she has some new paper and a lunchbox.  When I tried pointing out that she had neat stuff at her school too, she told me "I don't want to talk about it."  If readiness for Kindergarten was based solely on attitude, she'd be there in a heartbeat.  Soon enough, kiddo, soon enough.