Staycay

Welp, this was a summer for a staycation!  We mourned the loss of our trip we had planned to Oregon and Washington (beaches, food, shopping, Seattle, Portland, bikes, beach combing, space needle, Ivar’s, Ye Old Curiosity Shop, Fireworks from our top floor rental over the ocean...sigh, tear drop...) and we planned a fun time at home instead.  Corey needed to take some time off, and had marked it off anyway, so we kept it going and tried to find things to do here.  It was a bit more challenging than we’d anticipated, but we ended up sleeping in later, hanging by the pool, playing games and watching movies til late many nights.  It definitely felt like vacation!  Plus, with how hot it’s been for the past week (100 plus degrees), staying cool was the goal, and we just kept feeling SO lucky to have that darn pool.  

One day, we drove around to the crest and hiked around the Sandia’s.  It was so beautiful up there.  I’d forgotten how pretty it can be here when you get up into the mountains.  The boys found some awesome fossils embedded in the rocks (including a tiny trilobite), checked out the spectacular views, found a million ladybugs, some new butterflies, ate lots of trail treats, and came home tired and happy. Nature did not disappoint.  

                  

             

              

    

Asher still had the soccer workouts going on most nights, so after we dropped him off, the rest of us went off to play some tennis.  Now, none of us really knows much, although Beckett has taken some lessons, but we had fun anyway.  Tennis lessons have actually been on our short list as a couple and we plan on playing some more....date night perhaps?  

Dawson wanted to sleep in a tent in his room one night so we ended up setting a bigger one up in the family room (waaaaaay too hot to sleep outside right now anyway), and let the boys swim, make cone s’mores on the grill, then watch a movie in their tent. Asher and Dawson sleep their for a couple of nights and probably would’ve done more if we’d let them.  We thought about actually going camping, but the state camp grounds have been bouncing between open and closed and have been pretty crowded to boot.  We did eat out a few times too.  Also, I made some jam and apple fritters.  Yummmm.  We loved hanging out and relaxing with these fun boys, even if they do beat us on most of the games we play lately.  Sheesh!  Overall, it was very vacation-y, despite not leaving the state.  Now we just need some family to come visit so we can have another round of stay-cay!  Waiting for takers!