As the summer came winding down to an end, we felt the need to squeeze in as much time together as possible.
The Young Women had a farewell party for a family moving away.
We spent an afternoon on a little hike we had never been on before up on the Monticello Trail.
I can't remember what this picture was from. I think it was another farewell party for a friend in Aliza's class.
Grandpa Bean and Emmy came for a visit all the way from Thailand. We had a big weekend planned - starting with a trip to JUMP. It was all fun and games until.........
......we ended up here in the ER because Charlotte had broken her ankle. It was all pretty traumatic. But she got a lot of extra attention and love from everyone.
We had already made plans to head up to DC and visit the Smithsonian the next day. We debated a long time about still going with Charlotte's broken ankle. But we borrowed a wheelchair and made it happen! We loved all the extra perks of having someone in a wheelchair, like skipping all the lines.
First stop was the Air and Space Museum. I think only the boys were interested in this place...I was able to convince them to go over to the American History Museum, but by this time it was about to close. We rushed through and saw the most exciting things.
We couldn't pass up the chance to go one Emmy's first carousal ride with her.
David and Charlotte looked like this often during the weekend.
And here we sat waiting for David to go get the car so we didn't have to walk so far. Injuries aside, it was a fun weekend with Grandpa and Emmy.
And unfortunately, the rest of the summer pretty much looked like this. She couldn't swim...so we didn't swim. She couldn't do a lot of things, so we didn't do a lot of things.
As a side note, I think this kid survived off of Popsicles this summer!
And luckily Oma brought over from crafts for Charlotte to work on. She spent an entire afternoon crafting with Oma.
Our adorable Koda Bear is just or irresistible sometimes. I can hardly stand how cute he is.
My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in August. So my sister and I decided to take some nice pictures of the grand kids. It had been a long time since I had done a photo session, but I'm really pleased with how these turned out. I even strategically posed Charlotte every time so that you couldn't tell she had a broken ankle!
(except this picture, where we just slipped her walking boot off)
One more activity on our summer bucket list was Timberlake milkshakes that we get every summer. We headed to the Downtown Mall with Koda in tow. I didn't realize we would be walking right trough the memorials from the Charlottesville riots that had occurred just days before. I wasn't quite ready to talk to my kids about it all, but it all came to light for them as we walked past the flowers on the street and the statues that still continue to cause so much contention. We had a conversation about choosing kindness always and loving everyone despite their race, background, culture or whatever it is that makes someone different from you.
And just the day before school started I got to meet up with two college roommates and their beautiful families at Sherando Lake. It was so fun to see both Kari and Holly and meet their adorable kids.
