week of adventures!!!

we got home from the beach and had 1 week left of summer before school started.

i decided we were going to have a week FULL of adventures. i was going to be fully engaged and not worry about to-do lists and email and all the things i usually let hang over my shoulders. i planned an adventure for each day...and we went for it!

{we also had all kinds of open houses and "meet the teacher" and back to school night and orientations at ALL the school EVERY day...but more on that later. it definitely cramped our style ;-)}

day 1 - monday
we went to georgetown in DC. it was the ONLY day we didn't have other things we had to do. so we enjoyed the WHOLE day down there! played in the fountains on the waterfront.

when pat and i spent the weekend here a few weeks ago, we saw so many people without homes on the streets. so this day i came prepared. we made a bunch of sandwiches and carried a cooler around with them. we passed almost all of them out.

the kids thought it was fun that there was a "Levi's" store (it's that brick building behind him...)

i LOVE this store, Dean and Deluca. if i was rich and lived in the city, i'd grocery shop here. we bought chocolate covered gummy bears and sparkling water. they were amazing!

walking and walking. i just loved doing something DIFFERENT with them and out of our usual spots!

 a little ice cream treat before we left.

 i love this crew of mine!

they love being silly...

day 2 - tuesday
we rode our bikes to zinga (frozen yogurt). i remember the weather was AMAZING. not too hot, not too humid. 

that night, pat and i went on our own adventure :-) to a Nats baseball game. it was a beautiful night. we had GREAT seats that included food! and we just enjoyed the time out together.

day 3 - wednesday

we started the day by going to a friends house and weeding their yard. they've had a crazy summer, and it was something she had mentioned was bothering her. i old the kids we couldn't be completely selfish this week, we needed to think about others, too! work hard, play hard, love hard.

then we headed to the farm. we picked peaches.

ate lunch (classic joshua face!)

 played putt-putt (i NEVER let them do it. but i said YES!)

 

and i fit in a handstand! :-)

day 4 - thursday
we have this reservoir that's like a MILE from our house! we just learned how to get to it. so we went exploring.

it was so pretty! we've already been back with bathing suits and fishing rods!

friday - day 5. i surrendered. we had a TON of school stuff going on. and i was DONE. needed to regroup. pat ended up having an awful week at work and was working super long hours and we just were HOME friday when we could be. i think we all enjoyed it.

saturday - day 6
this wasn't in the original plan. but pat ended up having to work saturday (boo!) and we weren't going to just be at home missing him. so we drove to the shenandoah river and went tubing! it was an AMAZING weather day. and the whole thing we just so fun!!!

i had such a FUN week with my kids. at the end, i asked them what their favorite adventure was and they all loved different ones! that made me smile. i think i touched each of their "loves" with at least 1 adventure. it's so fun to have no babies and be able to do things like this!

it was a good thing it was such a fun week...cause i had no idea what was coming...but these memories were a gift to think back on in the next few days!

summer 2015 went out with a SWEET bang and we all loved our week of adventures!