running out of steam

The boys have not gotten to bed before 11pm since Saturday night.  We have been on the go and busy with lots of fun things this week- all of which seem to happen in the evening.  At dusk.

Sunday night we went to the lake, just down the road, to watch fireworks.  My grandma's brother lives on the lake (so... my great uncle) and we grilled out, the kids swam (or... Hudson sat on Oma's lap and Porter THOUGHT about swimming) and we watched the fireworks.  It was a nice, relaxing night and fun to catch up with extended family I don't see that often.

Monday we went to Dave's to have steak- YUM!  The boys all rode the quads out on the trails, Porter and I took a spin around the block on bikes, we had dinner and dessert and the boys had a squirt gun fight.  Hudson and I wandered down the road to search for my cousin's house (hmm... 3rd cousin? Not sure exactly how we're related... I think her dad is my mom's uncle? Amber...?).  We found her house and spent quite some time chatting in the yard about kids, parenting, summer, teaching etc..  It was really nice to finally chat with her in person as we haven't seen each other since we were kids, aside from my great great grandma's funeral (her great grandma) 5 years ago.  We read each other's blogs (Hi!) and "keep in touch" via FB but it was nice to do some face-to-face catching up. We ended up leaving Dave's house close to 10pm.

Last night Ryan had class and the boys and I went to Cascades Falls.  We got there a little early so we played on the playground for a little bit.  Even then, we still hung out for an hour waiting for my sister to get there.  Once my kids had a little entertainment/distraction (aka... cousins), we walked around the falls again, checked out the museum and marveled at the old pictures of Cascades/Sparks Park and then sat to watch the waterfall light show.  I am not sure I have ever paid attention to the music-synchronized lights HAHA!  We didn't get home until 11.

Today we all slept in until 9.  Ok, the boys and I.  Ryan was up and out of the house by 6:45.  (ick!)  We threw ourselves together and went to storytime at 10am but I knew, in that short hour of being awake, that the boys were melting down quickly from our streak of late nights.  A nap was necessary to pull off our final late night tonight.  We had a somewhat early lunch (for us) at 11:30.  At noon we cleaned the playroom up and then headed to my room to read our new library books.  We were all exhausted.  I read about 5 or 6 books and am pretty sure the boys were thisclose to falling asleep while I read.  Even then, they didn't fall asleep until 1:30!  Porter kept worrying about Duncan (wanted him to sleep with him) and Hudson had to poop.  Of course.  Never fails... they go potty, lay down for nap and half an hour later have to drop a deuce.  Ugh.

My grandma and brother stopped by this afternoon and it was a nice surprise!  I haven't seen my brother in quite awhile.  I wish he would come around more often.

Dave came over for dinner- we grilled out burgers and sweet corn.  YUM.  Perfect summer meal.  And then at 9 we headed down to the lake for a movie in the park.  I didn't realize they've been doing this for the past 5 years or so, but it was so much fun!  We were there for a good 45 minutes before the movie started but there were snacks and the kids ran around and played and ate goodies and then we cuddled up to watch the movie (Gnomeo and Juliet).  My sister, Jonathan and the girls came, too.  

It has been a BUSY week.  I am looking forward to tomorrow... the only thing on the agenda is a hair appointment at 1pm (which of course is right in the middle of nap time... oh well, they'll have to take late naps).  I'm declaring tomorrow a "stay home and relax" day.  We need to recuperate from all the fun we've been having!