Still Going

I've got a lot to say and no time to say it. 
Starting up our own dental practice is kind of a nightmare and incredibly time consuming.  Randy could easily quit his job and spend all this time getting his practice going but we can't afford that luxury.  The stress level is through the roof for both Randy and me, but mostly Randy.  Throw in an already busy life and a newborn baby and we are in survival mode for sure.  Here's proof:  I bought Parker and Landon their own Wii remotes so all four boys could play Minecraft {their favorite video game} simultaneously.  I'm embarrassed to admit how many hours they've logged in front of the TV but they're happy and so I've accepted it.
Now here are some random pictures of all the things documenting our summer activities...

Randy took 17 boys and a few dads on a 3-day backpacking trip on the Olympic Peninsula.  Randy also had shingles, which he diagnosed right away so it didn't get too bad.  {Shingles is stress induced and because Henry doesn't have all his immunizations Randy wasn't allowed near Henry for 2 weeks.  That's a long time in the life of a newborn!}

Ethan played flag football with all his best buddies this summer.  I only made it to his first and his last game.  Flag football is seriously the best.  Every boy feels like a super star. 

 While Randy and Marcus were camping I let the other 3 boys sleep in the tent in the backyard.  They stayed out their the whole night which is pretty miraculous.  I think it was all the food they smuggled out there which they thought I didn't know about.

 I took all 5 boys school shopping.   #icandohardthings

Here's Marcus having Henry try on the new shoes.

The Smith's {our best friends from RI} came to town!  This had to be one of the highlights of my summer.   Alysa was my running buddy in RI.  We ran almost every Saturday morning together, ran 2 Ragnars together, and solved all our problems as we talked the miles away.  I didn't know how much I missed her until she came.  Of course we had to go for a run.  Let's just say my still-healing uterus will never be the same but we had to run together so I took one for the team.

 We were happy to show them Pine Lake and now they know why we moved here

 After the lake it was time to warm up in the hot tub.  And then we made Alysa go on the rope swing.  She was nervous so naturally we spent an hour prior to her mandatory swing watching epic rope swing fails on YouTube because that's the kind of friends we are.

Here is Matt, holding down the fort while we went running and admiring his beautiful fruit bowl

I signed Marcus, Ethan, and Landon up for a kids mud run/obstacle course.  Landon was so excited he actually trained by going running so he could rock the 2-mile course.  He did awesome!

 Here's Marcus flying through the course.  I told him it wasn't a race but that didn't stop him. 

 Landon finishing strong

So glad they did this so they can have some good memories of this very lame summer

Even with all the stress we still managed to go to 7-11 on "Bring your own cup day".  These huge slurpees cost $1.50

I spend all my spare time shopping for office furniture

 

 Here are the boys enjoying donuts on the hammock that I gave to Randy for his birthday.  He's never sat in it once.

 My Aunt Barbara and Uncle John came to visit.  We had a great time showing them around and they treated us to lunch which was extra nice since taking my boys to eat in public ranks in my top things to avoid at all costs. They brought their dogs and Landon said, "Now we have dogs like every other family in the neighborhood!" Poor kid.  He can have a dog when he gets married.

And now Ethan is back to playing tackle football which means fall is here.  I'm really looking forward to spending my Saturdays sitting in the rain with a newborn while I watch him play.  It's going to be great fun.

And now I'm off to feed Henry.....