Backyard campout

Backyard campouts with friends are the best!

It's an annual end of the summer tradition now between our 3 families.

Each year the kids want to stay up later and later!

Family fun night

What's better on a Saturday night than bowling? 

How about laser tag, the arcade, and mini golf, too!

What a fun, and exhausting night!

Take me out to the ballgame.....

I took the boys to the Indianapolis Indians ballgame on a sunny Sunday afternoon!

The boys love going to the Indians games and enjoy the action of the game and also love the hotdogs, crackerjacks, lemonade... and the games that we play in between innings!  

A picture perfect kind of day for baseball!  

1st day of school!

We now have a son in 3rd, 2nd, and 1st grades!  

Summer came to an end way too quickly but the boys sure were excited to begin school again, at least on the first day!

Eric took the day off from work and we enjoyed spending the quiet day together at the Indianapolis Art Museum.

End of the summer fun!

State Fair fun,

a trip to the water park with our friends,

Nick learned to ride on 2 wheels, 

and a beautiful rainbow capped off our summer!

Aloha, Hawaii

A look back at 5 years ago when...

Nick was 3, Sam was 2, and Ben was just 1. 

Alina, our cousin and Anna's big sister was our helper on this trip, and is in her last year of college, now!

With the boys now 8, 7, and 6 this was a much different trip!  

It's hard to imagine what 5 years from now will bring, but we are already looking forward to it!

Pearl Harbor

This was our final day in Hawaii.  

After checking out at the resort we headed to Pearl Harbor.  

We toured the USS Bowfin submarine and museum.
We learned that The USS Bowfin was essential in WWII sinking over 40 enemy ships.

A view of Pearl Harbor from the shore near the submarine.  The memorial for the US Arizona is in the background.  The next time we return we will plan to tour the US Arizona.

Before we crawled through the submarine we toured the museum.  

Ben was tired of standing and preferred to just sit down!

We all wore headphones and followed along with the tour which included real life accounts from the soldiers, that was very interesting to hear their viewpoints and to learn about life on a submarine.

Our last stop before the airport was at Hilo Hattie.  This is a shop that Eric and I have been to each time we have been to Hawaii.  It's the best place to stock up on our Hawaiian attire!

The biggest Hawaiian shirt. Ever!

One last breakfast

Nick requested another breakfast date with Mickey and Minnie.  Eric and I easily agreed, we loved it too!  Ben, not so much.  He wasn't at all interested in seeing the characters and definitely didn't want a picture with them.  When Minnie and Goofy came around to our table while we were eating, Ben actually got under the table to hide.  Little stinker!

Minnie did mange to sneak up on him, though!