June 2007

This summer began with a trip to Destin, Florida with my family. We stopped to visit Raquel, Ryan & Ella on the way and went to Seaside for the day. Mom & Dad rented a nice place on a golf course in San Destin; Rob & Kristen came from California. We had a great time at the beach, renting bikes, family and pool time. Collin was so excited to play miniature golf, and Mike and I were thrilled to play tennis each morning on clay courts, taking advantage of how much Collin loves to spend time with his Nana and Papa and their willingness to play with him. Click here to see some highlights from the first part of the summer and Collin's last day of school.

From Destin we all drove to Birmingham, Alabama for my cousin Russ' wedding to Christina. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding at a downtown hotel and the bride arrived on a horse-drawn carriage. Birmingham has a great children's museum with a temporary Bob the Builder exhibit, so Collin was in heaven (even though he kept talking about how he wanted to go back to the beach house for weeks after our Destin vacation).

We were lucky to have only a 2 1/2 hour drive home compared to the rest of the family that had to travel much farther. We told Collin that when we got home he would no longer be able to wear diapers, as we began potty training boot camp. It worked pretty well and I'm convinced it's the only way to do it for some kids. He cried for his diaper several times that week, but we made him run around the house with no pants and stayed home for a week. Within a few hours he achieved his first successful trip on the potty.

The next week Raquel & Ella came to visit. Since we were busy showing them around we did have a few mishaps/set backs with the potty training, but overall he did great. We went to lots of parks, a puppet show and saw the Sesame Street exhibit at the Atlanta Children's museum. Collin loved having a playmate for several days - take a look at this video of the two of them! At the end of the week we took Ella & Raquel to the airport to fly home and we flew to Dallas to visit my parents and meet up with Mike who was there for a business trip all week. It sure is great to have the freedom and flexibility to be able to take advantage of last minute opportunities!

We went from having activities each day in the Spring (Music class on Mondays, school Tue & Thurs, playgroup at church on Wed & Bible study on Fri) to only having two structured activities during the summer (swim lessons Monday afternoon & the playgroup that I coordinated at church on Wednesdays). Somehow I still wonder what we did each day. We joined the zoo and visited frequently since we could take friends for free. We enjoyed visiting the pool many afternoons and weekends, but it seemed like we were usually busy most weekday mornings.