September

 

The highlight of September, and one of the best weekends of the year for the past three falls now, was our annual camping trip with the Bitters family.  This year we all brought kayaks which added extra fun and a feisty raccoon snuck into our camp to steal marshmallows while we were sleeping which added extra excitement.  I have said it many times on this here blog, but as the pandemic rages on longer than any of us ever expected, and the world feels full of worry... the times when we can escape into nature to reset and reconnect are more important and stress relieving than ever.  If camping is not your thing, get outside and do something else, or just enjoy these beautiful pictures from our weekend!  

August

We are back in school and praying for a healthy, safe, exciting year of first and third grade!  Masks are not mandatory at our school, but Kate and Luke understand how important they are and I'm proud of them for keeping their faces covered in the classroom.  Right now 20% of our school is out under quarantine and while it may be inevitable that we get the quarantine call at some point, I'm just desperately hoping that the kids don't get sick.  I'm very thankful that things have started off smoothly and the kids love their teachers and are making new friends.  Let's rock this school year no matter what crazy obstacles it might throw at us!    

That is a lot of blonde boys- one is my favorite

Luke- second from the left in the back row

July

 

Shortest summer ever!  Seriously, it was only 8 weeks and here we are getting ready for school to start again.  We squeezed so much fun into the summer though and have loved all the extra time with grandparents in lieu of camps.  At the beginning of the summer the kids did participate in Zoo Camp, Ninja Survivor Camp, Cheerleading Camp, and Field Day camp, but in August as COVID numbers soared... we canceled some plans and opted instead for days spent playing games and going to the library with Oma and Opa or floating in the private pool at Grammie and Grandaddy's on Spinnaker Pointe.

For the 4th of July weekend the whole local family gathered on the Wheeler's dock to watch the fireworks over the lake and enjoyed taking a dip in the water.

We ended the month with a week at Wild Dunes and now that our parents are all local it was easy for both sets of grandparents to squeeze in a night or two visiting us at the beach.  Kate was more interested in the pool than the ocean this trip, and even more keen to go on some historical outings.  Matt was more than happy to take her to the aircraft carrier and Fort Moultrie.  Luke meanwhile would probably still be splashing in the ocean and jumping over waves if we hadn't dragged him back to Columbia.

 

Date night!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Rainy day called for a puzzle project

We are definitely ready and very excited for first and third grade to start this week.  We are thrilled with our teacher assignments, ecstatic about best friends in our classes, eager for a fun filled fall and already planning camping trips with friends.  However, at the same time, unknowns about the Delta variant, fear of sickness and quarantines wrecking schedules, frustration over the maskless faces in schools, and just the general sense of "the world is going crazy" tends to creep in and take hold from time to time.  There are so many things we can't control, so I'm trying to focus on the things I can, starting with my attitude.  May our school year and my outlook be as happy and optimistic as if I was heading to a beach chair under a blue sky for an afternoon of reading and relaxing:

June

June brought the end of Kindergarten and Second Grade... a school year we will never forget.  It started out virtually and we had no idea what it would look like to have such an odd hybrid schedule, learning from our bedrooms, then wearing masks in class when they did go back, no playground use allowed, no cafeteria, no normal special areas like library or music... it was a weird year, and yet, it was wonderful.  The kids learned so much, made such sweet new friends, and their teachers pulled off making a pandemic seem like no big deal.  They were resilient, they adapted, and they crushed it.

Mrs. Parker- who called this year her "unicorn" class because they were so rare and magical

Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Chambers- the Kindergarten dream team

Luke has become an avid reader and is spending his summer devouring chapter books.  Kate made a new best friend, Sophie, and is spending her summer playing at the local pool with her.  I am so proud of them both and the people they are becoming thanks to the happy little community at Irmo Elementary.

School went extra late into June this year since they started back much later in the fall last year.  Summer is finally here though and we're in full swing of camps, lake, pool, and (soon) beach!

May

 

May brought some wonderful memories, like the Mack Cousin Trio being reunited in person for the first time in 17 months!  I have never gone that long without seeing Claudia in my whole life and we squeezed as much family time as we could into the weekend.

They were visiting on Mother's Day weekend so we had "Muffins for Mom" and my loves spoiled me by cleaning the house and giving me poetic keepsakes:

Matt celebrated a bit differently with his own mother, the two of them went tubing together!  

For Matt's birthday this year we went on a kid free camping/hiking weekend to Oconee State Park.  A raccoon tromping around our campsite woke us up in the middle of the night, but he ran off without stealing our breakfast.  The hike was stunning and as always escaping was a good way to spend a weekend.

May ended like it started, with more visitors that we had not seen in quite some time due to the pandemic!  Carol and Sydney were in town for Memorial Day and we spent as much of the holiday hanging out poolside with them as well.

This might be the first picture of the year with all 4 Wheelers in it