Last Day of Summer Vacation!

I can't believe Koen's summer vacation is at its end.  We've had a blast.  We had our tough weeks in the beginning easing back into being around each other all the time and we've had our ups and downs all along with sibling issues, but all in all it's been a blast.  So many great memories, fun activities, playdates with friends, lovely trips and time with family too.  What a tremendous summer!!  I felt we had to spend our final day of summer break (which was fittingly gorgeously sunny and warm) soaking up the summer fun yet again.  We started with our final Tuesday playdate with Deborah and her kids.  As I had hoped, we returned to Fall Run Park in Glenshaw, just up Rt. 8 from the East End.  This time we dressed appropriately and did the creek walk all the way to the waterfall.  The kids (and us moms) loved it!  What's more summery than tromping with friends through fresh, cool water in the woods with sunshine filtering down through the trees?  Here are the pictures I got on our "hike."  Look hard and you'll see a Koen down there.

Tav was so proud because he climbed up this rock face to continue walking through the creek above.  

The water was quite cool and so Penn was enjoying walking along the trail beside and above the creek much of the way (shallow water seems a lot deeper when you are only a few feet tall!).  He thought it was funny to peek at me from the bridge!

Claire was also not a fan of walking through the creek part of the way, so she led Penn up the path.  He happily followed her.  It was precious.

Check out the crew enjoying the creek.  So much fun!

Here's the picturesque waterfall.  Goodness, take out a few maples and add in a few palm trees and you'd think we were in Hawaii!  It was beautiful and so fun to watch the kids play beneath.

The kids worked for about a half hour on building a dam.  It was a fun group project (although Koen was a little impatient and bossy).

There's also a steep walkway of stairs up to the top of the waterfall.  It was a little freaky looking over the edge.  See Miles way down there?

Penn walked all the way to the waterfall, so he was pretty tired after playing at its base.  He let me give him a break in the backpack for the top of the waterfall hike and the walk back to the van.  Can you tell he's tired?

We headed back to the vans and then drove them down to the little playground so that we could feed the kids lunch and let them dry off and warm up in the hot sun.  It's amazing how cool it was in the shade cover and with our feet in the creek and then it was HOT in the sun at the playground.  A great morning to bid farewell to our super fun summer full of lots of great morning adventures with the boys!  Thanks, Deborah!  Fall Run is one of my favorite new finds!

That's not all the summer fun we packed in today.  After a restful afternoon, I packed up a pasta salad dinner and we headed to the pool at 4:30pm.  It was almost 90 degrees at this point, so the pool was a perfect way to spend the evening.  The boys had a blast and I just loved being with them in the water and watching them have so much fun.  It's tough to capture pictures in our water play moments, but here they are enjoying their sunny picnic.  They had some good appetites after our fun day!

After dinner the boys got to play in the pool for another 20 minutes.  Penn and I hung out in the toddler sprinkler area where he entertains himself in hilarious ways (oohs, aahs, throwing balls, dumping water on my legs, you know, awesome stuff like that).  I found myself reflecting on this summer season and just being so thankful for how amazing it was.  One of my favorite summers I believe.  I don't mean to be dramatic about Koen going back to school tomorrow and I'm so happy for him, but this summer is seriously hard to bid goodbye to!  Thanks for such a special summer, boys.  I love your energy, your love for the outdoors and adventure, that you are fantastic travelers and such troopers to roll with the punches.  Summer days with you are a dream come true for me.  XOXO