Between Vacations

At the end of our vacation we finally decided that we would return to my uncle's place the following week for my Granny's 90th birthday.  Originally we thought we wouldn't because of the fact we had just been there and T had no more time off.  I decided I would drive alone with the kids and T would fly and join us if needed but it worked out that T was able to still get his scheduled Friday off even though his boss was away (which usually is a no go). So glad we were able to make that precious family time a reality.
During the week and a half home and between trips we had so much to do and pack in.  JA suffered from some insanely high anxiety during this week (thanks to his generalized anxiety disorder)which in hind sight could have been prevented by not piling on so much in such a short time,  but hind sight is 20/20 ;)  It did however give me the push to call the school and ensure that they let him meet his teacher early even though his teacher had brushed it off in June (Our therapist had also pushed me on this one back in July as well) so there was a silver lining to a rough two weeks.

We put the kids to work the day after we got home scrubbing the insane amount of bugs off our van!

 My Mom and I tackled 40 lbs of peaches

 We made dozens of jars of peach jam

 We ate a ton that week and we also canned a dozen quarts for the winter months.  I'm trying to control myself to save them for the cold winter days ahead (but when it feels like 4c in September I'm half tempted to break into them)

 We busted out the school supplies and labelled them and filled the back packs.  Last April I had the chance to preorder all the supplies for each kid online and they brought them home in june (best decision ever).  Hooray for not having to shop in the back to school chaos!  AL acted like it was Christmas morning, JA did not :)

 We got in a birthday celebration for my parents (Aug 14/15 bithdays)

 

We started daily early morning swim lessons.  JA has had a huge fear of the big pool and I kept him in a lower level in the warmer pool for way too long until I felt he was ready to tackle this fear.  We showed up at swim lessons (in a town south of us) and a tender mercy was waiting for us.  JA had a little buddy from preschool in his class which really helped his comfort level the first day.  AL also lucked out with her classmate and his sister in her class!

 We went to the dentist.  A first for WR!  Poor JA had a melt down and curled into a ball (very rare for him but just too much in a few days).  Break my heart.  I kicked myself for not lining this appt up when his Dad could come and give him the support he typically does but I am grateful for a very patient and understanding dentist that wasn't going to push anything.  We will try again.

 Part way through the first week of swimming we had some truly rough days.

 We visited our favorite eye doctor.  He is amazing with kids and especially JA and really had a magical way of getting him onboard and excited.

 In the midst of it all it dawned on T to send JA out with me on a date while I was running out the door to do some errands one evening on my own.  It was just what he needed and things steadily improved after it.

 There were also some hair cuts for these two! 

 

And 2 lost teeth in one morning for this girl.

 The kids made massive improvements in the pool.  I love summer lessons (daily for 2 weeks) for this exact reason!

 My brother arrived to enjoy a few days with us before we all headed out for my Granny's birthday.  I got to sneak away from my kids and paddle board just the two of us one afternoon.  Such the perfect way to catch up a bit and just have fun together.

 We also got in one last evening trip to the lake!

And then we packed up and hit the road again.