As always, the summer went by way too quickly and we are back in another school year. Everyone started at different days and times so it was individual photo shoots this time.

Hannah, who is a sophomore this year, was the first to head to school. She has a zero period which is sad for both her and her mom, the driver, but it makes her school and sports schedule work the best so it is what it is.

Joey, my senior (cue the literal tears), has water polo practice every morning from 5:30-7:30, then he comes home, grabs Ellie and drives them both to school. Apparently, it's a trend around the country for high school seniors to wear little kid backpacks, so he got this Spiderman one. I really was not expecting to get emotional, but I got all teary taking these pictures. I think there are going to be a lot of random tears this year knowing that it's the last year he's home with us. (In related news, he's going to turn in his application to Grove City College any day now!)

While the high schoolers were at school, Ellie had a homeschool day to start off her year. Since we transferred to Classical, she's only gone to school on Wednesdays and Fridays. Now that she's at the middle school, she'll go to school in person Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. We're both happy to have her have one more day in person, but home days are still awesome.

The next Tuesday it was finally time for Ellie to have her first day of school in person.

I think she likes having her big brother drive her to school!

 Another summer, another Camp Nana!

I love that the kids are getting so old, and yet they still look forward to Camp Nana every year.

The beach is always a highlight, especially since Ellie finally decided that she loves the beach this summer. And don't let the picture deceive you...

The girls haven't outgrown Joey!

Cream sodas in the hot tub after the beach. What could be better?

Actually the thing my kids most look forward to at Camp Nana might be dinner on the reclette! Isn't it a beautiful feast?

Badminton is another must-do.

As are puzzles.

Another Camp Nana tradition is to go see a movie. They did NOT watch Deadpool & Wolverine. They actually watched Twisters.

They went out for dinner a couple of times. Once they went to Tip Top Meats, which is a European-style meat market, deli and restaurant. Tip Top has a big Haribo section, so after dinner the kids got to pick out their favorite gummies.

My mom always has some crafts planned for the week. 

This time the girls painted gift tags and bookmarks. 

My mom also had the girls crochet me two pot holders for my birthday, and they used Mod Podge to make fancy soaps.

They also played a bunch of games together: Spoons, 2's and 10's, Flinch, and Cactus.

Camp Nana is always such a special time for all five of them!

 

One of our favorite family activities is going to the Google summer party every year. Sadly they haven't had one since Covid. We were all SO excited that they finally brought it back this year, and it was one of our favorite parties, the fair! 

The last time we had the Google carnival was in 2018. It's crazy to think about how much younger the kids were back then. I was a little worried that they would have outgrown the fun of the fair, but we all had a great time! 

After we pounded a lot of amazing fair food, we got the kids' caricatures done right away because the lines were pretty short.

We've gotten caricatures of the kids at every Google summer party, and unfortunately we've never gotten ones as good as the first ones we got in 2016. We still have those in canvases on our wall.

It was still fun to see how they turned out.

Although I have no patience for mini-golf, Andy and the kids stuck with it for a while and had fun.

It helps that they are a goofy bunch!

It's funny, I noticed in my blog post that the last time we were at the fair, Joey was the only one who did the climbing wall. This time, just Ellie tried it.

They had a new axe throwing game that was really fun.

The kids all felt very proud of themselves.

Bullseye! 

The Zipline was back!

The line for the balloons was long and slow, but Ellie was determined to get something fun. Hannah was a sweet sister and stayed with her in line so that she could get two things.

One new area was this "Water Wars" set up.

We played a couple of rounds.

The Ferris Wheel is always a must.

We stayed until the very end, full of yummy fair food, drinks, and some airbrushed tattoos.

The next morning we were back in Seattle. We had breakfast on the ship, and then our cruise was officially over. It was such a wonderful week!

I had been to Seattle about five years ago, so I was excited to show the kids around. Our first stop was Pike's Place Market.

While we were there, we just happened to run into Ellie's good friend from school. I knew that Emily and her parents were in Seattle that day. Her mom and I had already discovered that we were both going to be at the Mariner's game that afternoon. I was going to surprise Ellie at the game, but then we were both surprised by running into them first thing that morning at the market.

After we saw Emily and made plans to reconnect at the baseball game, we walked around the VERY crowded market. There were some fun free samples to try.

One highlight was that we got to see the guys throw the huge fish around at the Pike Place Fish Market.

The girls and I loved looking at all of the gorgeous flowers, and we couldn't get over how inexpensive they were. We decided that Seattle would be a great place to plan your wedding if you wanted to get amazing flowers for cheap.

Papa J also treated everyone to freshly made doughnuts, which were delicious!

The girls went across the street to see the first Starbucks, but they decided it wasn't worth the huge line to actually get something. 

After the market, we walked to the baseball stadium.

It's funny that we went to two baseball games this summer, one in Denver and one in Seattle. The game was great. It was nice and sunny and just a relaxing day at the ball park.

And these two got to hang out for a while. So funny that we happened to both be in Seattle at the same time. After the game, we walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner and then headed to the airport for our flight. In another funny coincidence, Emily and her parents were on our flight home. 

I think our cruise to Alaska will always be one of our all-time favorite family memories. We all had the best time!