Coop Park & Fall Coming

{I spy with my little eye, my nephew Ferris. Can you find him???}

{My sister Roxanne and her youngest, Milo}

We've spent many afternoons this summer at Coop Park.  Sometimes with friends (mainly my sister and her boys) and sometimes on our own.  Yesterday we went, just the four of us.  While the boys rode their bikes around the big loop and climbed trees, I walked and walked and walked.  It felt good.  Energizing.

It looks like fall there now.  The grass is brown.  There are leaves falling off the trees, and in the shade I got a little hint of the crispness fall will bring in a few weeks.

I'm ready.  It has been full-on SUMMER since we arrived in May, with only one day of rain.  One day!  We've had amazing temperatures, countless trips to the river, and so many memories made.  I'm ready to settle back into a routine and find our new normal with homeschooling, baseball and other "city living" things, like grocery shopping and trips to the library.

Josh, too, is working on settling in.  He arrived home (in Marshall) to a sink full of dishes and a fridge full of old food.  He said doing the dishes was a bit like a science experiment.  When he told me there were dishes in the sink, I didn't believe him.  I never (ever!) leave the house for vacation with dishes in the sink.  Then he said there were medicine cups in there and I remembered- Logan had had the flu the two days before we left.  (He miraculously recovered the day we were scheduled to leave!) And it all come rushing back to me.

He'd been throwing up as I was packing, and we'd been up all night for two nights prior to our departure.  And on top of that "excitement" (ha!) I found out I was pregnant the day before we left.  Suffice to say, my mind was elsewhere!

In the fridge there was a pitcher of milk that Josh said had turned green and yellow, as well as some old salami and  moldy cheese (not the good kind!).  Bless his heart, he cleaned it all and was able to laugh about it.  He has also begun packing up some of the boys' toys and homeschool stuff to ship to us here in Washington, which the boys and I are ecstatic about.  We can't wait to get our hands on their big legos, our chapter books and their Imaginext toys.  Wyatt, especially, misses his toys and can't wait to be reunited with them.

This weekend the boys and I have big plans-- swimming this afternoon, family movie night tomorrow and dinner with my parents on Sunday.  Hoping our first whole weekend without Josh is full of smiles despite his absence.