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- Happy Independence Day weekend (how in the world are we here already?!)
If you’ve been around for any length of time, you might know that I always take a very specific photo of Abby for the 4th of July – a nighttime photo that I Photoshop fireworks or sparklers into. (2016’s version will forever remain my favorite though!) This year though, I just wasn’t feeling it – and since this is my party and I can do whatever I want, I decided to go a different route.
And, I love it.
If you’d like to take a stroll down memory lane – here are the past 4th of July Abby’s Saturday posts: #410, #358, #306, #253, #154, #103, #51 - Since Braelynn learned how to ride her bike last week – you can imagine that this week has been filled with A LOT of biking. She and Leander have both been begging to go ride, pretty much from the moment their little eyes pop open every morning.
Sadly, we had a day of rain on Tuesday (so no biking that day), and then Wednesday was a day filled with smoke (from wildfires up in Canada, I guess?), so there was little biking that day. I had promised them that I would take them to the park so they could ride a little more freely than just up and down the sidewalks around our house – so we FINALLY made that happen on Thursday. I think Braelynn went around the circle (which is about 1/4 of a mile) 14 times! And Leander (on his bike) and I (just walking) went around 7 times. (I was quite impressed by their stamina!)
Derrick worked with Braelynn a few times this week to get her a bit more confident with turning, fine-tuning her steering capabilities, and working on remembering how to break. She was doing great, but then got going too fast at one point and crashed into our neighbor’s fence – which gave her some pretty nasty scrapes and bruises on the backs of her legs.
Leander was peddling right along with Braelynn at the time and right after she crashed, he got going too fast, forgot how to brake, and jerked his wheel – sending his flying over his handlebars. Yikes! He suffered much worse than Braelynn – he ended up with a really badly scraped knee, scrapes on his elbows, his toes, and his chin. Poor kid. It hasn’t stopped him from riding though! - Derrick was out of town at the beginning of this week, so we snatched up my sister Ruby and went to Kennywood on Monday! We knew there was rain threatening, but figured we’d take the risk and go. It started raining as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, but by the time we got into the park and through the tunnel, it had stopped. Thanks to the questionable weather, the park was pretty empty – so we were able to ride a ton of stuff!
What’s super fun and different about this year is: Braelynn is tall enough to ride every single ride (except Black Widow) at Kennywood. That means, she and Ruby could go ride anything they wanted. And Leander is now 42″+ tall, so he can ride so many things too – so we were able to ride a ton of stuff all together, and then Ruby and Braelynn were able to ride the bigger rides.
A thunderstorm did roll through about 45 minutes after we got into the park, but it passed after only about 30 minutes. We then had another long stretch of blue skies (and no lines) – until about 7pm when another storm rolled in, and then they closed the park early.
And thanks to Kennywood’s “rain guarantee” – that meant that Ruby got a free ticket to come back to the park again! SCORE! - My little “mini” garden is doing SO GOOD! I started tomato seeds, zucchini seeds, and pepper seeds from scratch on my windowsills a few months ago – and everything thrived (I was shocked!) Sadly, my pepper plants didn’t make it past us going on vacation in Florida (our house-watcher-person forgot about them and so they didn’t get watered for 10 days – oops!) But my tomatoes and zucchinis had already been transplanted outside and fast-forward to NOW – my little plants are filled with veggies!! I have so many little baby tomatoes and zucchini growing – I’m equal-parts shocked and thrilled! The last time I attempted a garden was when we were first married (and it went “okay” – not a failure, but not a massive success either) and I’ve just never had the desire to grow anything again, until this year! Give it another week or two and we should have our first harvest! I can’t wait!
- Braelynn got herself an “art desk” this week for her bedroom. My parents have been cleaning out their basement and garage and offered the desk to her (which she wholeheartedly accepted). They brought it over, and after some slight re-arranging, it fits perfectly in her bedroom.
She has been in heaven (and I’m happy, because the desk has drawers – in other words, she finally has a place to organize all of her stuff!) She’s been crafting, and drawing, and creating her little heart out all week – it’s so fun to watch! - Last weekend, I photographed such a beautiful wedding out at Lingrow Farm. It was so lovely and fun! I have this weekend off – and then I’m back at it with three weddings, three weekends in a row (so, if I disappear off the radar for the entire month of July – it’s just because I’m buried up to my eyeballs in editing!)
