The kids have been begging to go to Phoenix recently, so we thought Labor Day weekend would be the perfect time to go drive out there. Then I realized that I had already committed to doing a devotion for a bridal shower at our church that Saturday. Andy decided he would just take the kids to see his parents for the weekend and I could just stay home. 

What?! 

Yes, please! 

Andy and the kids had a wonderful time in Phoenix, as usual. Andy was sweet to share pictures with me all weekend.

 Fancy dinner!

 Fanta in wine glasses!

 What-what!!

It's good to be at Grandma and Papa J's!

 Yum!

 They even went to McDonald's after church on Sunday and got Happy Meals! No wonder they love Phoenix. Somehow this was the first Happy Meal Hannah had ever had. I guess she has mean parents!

After three days, it was time to head home with a mid-way stop at Taco Bell. Joey is hiding under the red blanket.

Meanwhile, I had a glorious, GLORIOUS time at home!

After the bridal shower on Saturday morning, I ran some errands and then got a pedicure!

This was what most of my meals looked like for the weekend. This and frozen grapes. Yum!

I had a few projects I wanted to get done with my time. On Saturday I spent about eight hours straight reorganizing my recipe books, including (nerd alert!) wiping down dozens and dozens of page protectors. It was so nice to get that big project done!

Sunday afternoon I went to my parents' house. We went to the beach together, and then went out for dinner.

We shared a few delicious tapas.

And this was our Nutelle creme brulee!

Monday I worked up a sweat getting some more projects done around the house, so I headed down to our pool for a quick dip and some shallow reading.

I ended the weekend by going to the movie theater and watching War Room. It was so, SO good! I highly recommend it!

I also recommend getting your husband to take all the kids away for a three day weekend! It was the perfect amount of time and it felt absolutely amazing! And I was even happy to see them again! ;-)

Now that the kids are back in school, I should probably do a final camera dump of our summer.

 Date night! Joey and I picked up Dominoes Pizza and watched cartoons together (his pick)...

while the girls went to Red Robin with Andy. They wanted to go to McDonald's but Andy bribed them with the promise of root beer floats!

 Joey wanted us all to dress in our wedding clothes for church a couple of Sundays after we got back from Chicago. We were a big hit at church!

 Beach time!

 The kids rediscovered their love of the beach!

Hannah and her best friend from school, Kahren.

Do you see Ellie?

There she is!

Goodness, I love this girl!

Hannah and I enjoying the waves.

 Cameron and Ellie love to play games and puzzles together. This is their version of Dominoes. At one point, Cameron drew an orange color and Ellie said, "Oh bummer, you got orange." Cameron said, "Oh bummer. No wait, that means I win!" To which Ellie said, "Oh! I lost!" and then they moved on to the next game. It cracked me up!

 Hannah went to a fancy birthday party at a salon and got her hair done, so then she treated Ellie to some pampering.

 Ta-da!

 We are so blessed that both of our girls live next door to their best friends!

Someone was really excited about her new skill!

 My mom borrowed Joey for a couple of days at the end of summer to help organize all of my brothers' old Legos. Joey really enjoyed this "chore!"

 The day before school started, I put up a new "After School" list for Joey and Hannah. Ellie saw it and said, "Awww, that's so cute." I think she appreciated my font choice!