The Cotton is High

Bria starts school on Tuesday, so I'm just gonna call it: summer is over. Here's a recap of some of the fun we had. We didn't get out as much as in year's past mostly because we moved and I'm getting rather pregnant. Excuses, excuses.

Early in the summer our niece Amanda graduated from high school, so we got to help her celebrate with graduation, senior dance recitals, and a graduation party. We also got to hang out with some more of the extended Mangum crew, including making them meet us in DC for Truckeroo and taking them to our rec center spray park.

This coincided with my sensitive skin deciding that pregnancy hormones should initiate an allergic reaction to my makeup. I wore sunglasses everywhere (even indoors) for several days, and my eyes itched so bad I wanted to claw them out even after day four, so I've been completely makeup-free since the initial incident. This doesn't help me not look like a teen mom, but at least my bedtime routine has fewer steps.

We went to a lavender farm to snip lavender stems with friends. Bria mostly hated all the bees, so the highlight was stopping at Red Truck Bakery on our way to the farm and then playing in the playhouse on the farm. Basically everything except picking lavender. (This picture was staged well away from the lavender bushes.)

We moved! To a house!

We went to a Nats game. This was during one of the very few unbearably hot weeks we had this summer. Bria almost threw up she was so hot, but after a bathroom break and guzzling some extra water, she was back to her perky self. Seriously, this summer has been so mild I'm starting to wonder how we're going to have to pay for it . . .

Bria took swimming lessons! This was both disastrous and amazing. It was like two steps forward, eight thousand steps back. She did two back-to-back sessions of swimming every single day for two weeks, and at the end of the month, we needed a break. THEN, a couple weeks later, we went to the pool with friends and it all clicked. Suddenly my girl was swimming! HURRAH!

 We went to Rehoboth Beach. I can't believe we only made it to the beach once this summer (Bria won't stop reminding me how disappointed she is), but at least we tried a new one. The sand and water quality is the same as our regular standby, Ocean City, but the surrounding town is definitely classier.

Bria was dying to have a lemonade stand. I had no idea how it would fare, but she made $7 and was thrilled.

We went to a friend's birthday party at the new National Harbor carousel. That place is awesome! And such a great idea for a party-- unlimited rides, a playground, and snacks. What more could kids want?

Sam and I sneaked away for a babymoon to Virginia Beach. Bria stayed with her cousins while we lounged on the beach, slept in, got massages, and refilled our energy reserves-- just in time for them to be depleted come this November ;)

Sam ran a 5k obstacle race with Jenn, Amanda, and Myles. They rocked it.

We returned to Great Waves with our friends where Bria conquered her fear of water slides. I kept reminding her that two years ago she went down both water slides on her own and she didn't believe me. Last summer she wouldn't do them at all, and this year, she decided only the straight slide was safe. My cautious little girl sure does make my life easier.

We've been watching my friend's little girl twice a week since last November, but once I started school, I had to stop. We'll miss our little buddy!

We have done some exploring of our new neck of the woods. Ok, very minimal exploring. That might be my winter task once the baby is here, Bria is in school, and I am feeling itchy for adventure.

Bria's new school had a couple Welcome Activities throughout the summer, including this where they gathered bugs from the school garden and inspected them with a microscope. Then all the kindergarteners got to ride the school bus around the block. I'm really excited about her school-- it seems like it's a really great one.