(Interestingly, all of the pools and parks seemed to think the end-of-summer memo came the day after school started because that's when they shut down the water park and City pools for the season. Seriously?!)
This summer hasn't been all sunshine and roses, but we managed to fit in some sweet times in between all of the thorny ones.
Some random pictures of our fun times in as close to chronological order as my mommy-brain could muster:
On Father's Day, celebrating what fathers are: jungle gyms.
Summer Vogue, 2029.
Dad spent quite a bit of time in Oklahoma this summer working for FEMA to help clean up from the tornadoes. These are some pictures he took during his very few days off.
This summer was exceptionally hot and luckily I made a new friend who has a boy about Zoey's age and she introduced me to parks with water play areas, in particular, Terry Park. I have no idea what this type of play-area is called. I heard someone say splash-pad somewhere but I don't know if that's right. In any case, it had water so Zoey....LOVED it.
Her new friend (my new friend's son), Eli, has been here many times. Watching him play, he was so intense; like he had some serious fun to get to and wasn't to be disturbed.
Zoey loved this sprinkler-type thing. Other kids or no other kids, she did her thing and loved every minute of it.
Hmm..what's in there?
Oh!
She had it mastered shortly thereafter.
The weekend before my parents and I went to Boston, they came to town a few days early and we had a "beach day" at Lake Elmo. Seriously; that's what it's called. We pulled in and I said, "Zoey, it's Lake Elmo!" And she said, "Where is he?"
Uh oh; Grandpa Monster coming for you again!!
Now give me the thoughtfully-gazing-off-into-the-distance pose. Fantastic.
Our beach-ish type thing.
Our water-baby.
She was fascinated by being able to see her legs, feet, and hands under the water.
No, I am not my mother's child at all...
Things only changed more and picked up more speed once I returned from Boston. We both had our camping-with-friends weekends, then my mom came to stay with us for a week. It worked out well because we wound up facing a few opportunities for date-nights.
First, Mer invited us to dinner at her place. An amazing meal of things that belong in the most exclusive of restaurants and a kegerator left us feeling pretty old and worthless come the next morning. But later that afternoon, we dressed nicely and headed out in the name of celebrating my friend, Pam's, happy union.
They got married about a month beforehand but threw a reception in early August.
In true Montana fashion, she wouldn't have it any other way. :-)
The extremely happy (and color-coordinated) couple, Pam and Kirk.
The ridiculously awesome band that, interestingly enough, plays around the city.
I got him to dance! Then, of course, needed proof.
My friend, Ashley, and her son Eli (of the Terry Park Eli). Besides play in the water, this kid loves to dance. Ashley and I both worked with Pam but Ashley and I didn't meet until she started working with Meredith.
Oh yeah, he loves to eat cake, too. I agree, Dude; it was pretty freakin' good.
My dad arrived in town about a week after my mom, they spent a couple of days, headed back to Wyoming, then we adjusted to a different kind of normal. Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. (You're welcome)
It must have been 9:00am Glasses Time. Oh, and that's her Alma Mater, FYI.
They did a lot of morning snuggling.
Zoey's first official picture with a non-toy camera. I like the thumb because I know it's a cute, little, goobery thumb, trying its hardest with all of her other cute, little, goobery, fingers on her very first attempt at picture-taking. And I'm honored that she wanted to take her first picture of us.
(Mom took this one. I'll show this to her when she's 13 and say, "See, there was a day you once loved me.")
Swim lesson with Grandpa.
Zoey and I decided to be outdoorsy at the scene of the infamous Louis Deer-Killing, Two Moon Park (without the deer-killer this time).
And made it a beach(ish) morning on the Yellowstone River.
No, it's not the greatest "beach" in the world, but it had water and that's all that matters to Zo.
The next river explorer.
"Ta da!"
Just sittin' on top of the world.
Outta her way, world!
Mountain Man Durbin.
Mountain Man Louis.
Nature girl.
Stylish nature girl.
Our walk/hike-ish-type thing wore everyone out.
Zoey and I decided to be outdoorsy at the scene of the infamous Louis Deer-Killing, Two Moon Park (without the deer-killer this time).
Thanks to having the internet at our fingertips every waking and sleeping moment, I learned August 26th was National Dog Day, so Zoey and I took our fur-babies to do something fun: Zimmerman Park.
Follow me!
Wait for me!
He doesn't know about you, but Durbin found this summer pretty exhausting. It was his ninth one, after all. (That is the famous Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit so generously donated to him for his 12th nap of the morning.)
