Everyone has said we jumped from mid-June to mid-September and my blog proves it!  We had a great Summer but as always it was nuts.  We made the most of it, spent a lot of time with our friends and family whenever we had the chance.

One great trip was to Wichita to spend time with my family to celebrate all of the July birthdays: Russell, Aunt T and Liam.  We had a ton of fun at the Wichita YMCA waterpark.

The Cousin Bunch--they have a great time together

Russell underwater--love my water camera!

I'm FIVE! I love the funky "Plastic Man" looking effect

After the waterpark we visited with the Browns.  Kyle left for Afghanistan (thank you baby brother for your service and bravery) so we spent as much time as we could squeeze in with him and the family.  Little Ethan had a great time with his cousins, aunts and uncles who don’t get to see him NEAR enough!

Brad showing Ethan a video of himself from Jessica's Easter Wedding weekend.

Big Carter snuggles with Ethan

Sweet Boys

The kids went on a trek with their grandparents for 10 whole days!  I have to say I was ABOUT to die by the 4th day!  OMG!  But, they had fun and Brad and I got some quiet alone time to regenerate and learn how to have a conversation without being interrupted.  That was tricky the first day but we got used to it.  We went to movies and dinner and nights out without paying a babysitter…it was a great way to kick off a 16 year anniversary celebration!

Cheers! Night out with friends and our traditional tequila shot

At the end of that trip we celebrated our 16th anniversary in St. Louis at a super cool boutique hotel called Moonrise.

Moonrise hotel in St. Louis--the fabulous lobby

And the amazing stairwell with super cool chandelier

And then our reunion with the kiddos!  We were watching the clock until we got to give those three monkeys a big squeeze!  We had fun hearing about all of their adventures and swam in the hotel pool.  We were all in bed early…mama didn’t sleep well because of all the kicks and wiggles but I didn’t mind, I missed my snuggle bunnies.

The Woods clan--Bye Bye Gg and Paps see you at Xmas

And home sweet home…the drive home was actually pretty relaxing…for me anyway since I got to sleep in the back with Whitney and Russell.  We laughed at the hotel when we were all color coordinated (unplanned) with splashes of orange.  When we got home Russell’s best buddies all had orange on too.  I guess we were all on the same vibe that day knowing we’d be HOME SWEET HOME!

Precious Ninjas: Russell, Blake and Parker--inseparable