Since we've been back ...

Since we've been back, we have been up to our usual fast-paced summer fun! Max has spent a good portion of the last several weeks going to a leadership camp and a science camp led by his friend Thomas' dad up at Carson-Newman College. Because Carson-Newman is a good hour's drive from us, Max went ahead and spent most of the camp nights at Thomas' house in Jefferson City. Staying for that length of time at a friends house results in all sorts of fun new discoveries! For example, after several lessons, Max discovered he liked showers! We've also learned that Max loves homemade bread (which I am now making at our house), meatball subs, & suicides (where you go to the cafeteria and mix all the drink flavors together and (in this case) also the soft serve flavors :). We already knew that Max and Thomas were like-minded little buddies, but it's been fun to see just how great they get along and just how much silliness they can cook up together. Only wish Thomas lived closer so they could have this much fun together all the time!

A few pics of Max and Thomas at our house the other night doing Manly things (that's Manly with a capital 'M' as in shirtless :):

NERF blasters game on the Wii

An odd start to a catapult building project ...

Good thing they just moved on to taking apart this old, rusty bike with Max's new set of tools!

They had a lot of fun with this one!

With Max at Thomas' house so much, Cate and I have had a lot of time to do fun summer stuff together. We've had some good times with our friends at the lake, done a few summer gymnastics classes and, lately, logged some serious hours at the (air-conditioned) mall. I also finally got a chance to hit the Market Square Farmer's Market on a Wednesday & decided to use the occasion to treat Cate to a super special day of fountains, flowers, fresh strawberries, and and ice cream! Needless to say, she was one happy girl!

Here are some pics from our Mommy and Cate days:

Cate's favorite fountains at Market Square

Just the right size for fun!

My one pic of the amazing Farmers Market ... too much eating to be done!

And this girl wouldn't leave the fountains

There's a lady at the mall asks you if she can curl your hair every time you pass by her kiosk. Every time. This day we said "Sure!"

Cate LOVED it!

Cate and her friend, Olivia, posing at the mall playground with their Shirley Temple hair :)

In her favorite store, the Disney Store, a.k.a. "Pwincess World". Cate could LIVE here!

All of us have also gone to some fun places together in the month of July. I guess you could say I kind of just felt like taking a break from photography this month. I didn't feel like taking my nice camera anywhere with me on account of the fact that it's just too dang hard to have fun with your kids while protecting / operating a fancy camera. I suppose it's kind of a shame, since some of the places we've been are incredibly picture-worthy ... but, then again, I guess I've just provided myself with a great reason to re-visit these places again soon! For now, the phone pics will have to do ...

One of my favorite places on a warm, summer evening - the Midtown Drive-in! This place is an authentic, 60's-style drive-in where you can park, eat, hang out and wait for dusk when they play a double feature (kids movie followed by an adult movie) all for $7! The kids have the best time playing on the hill in front of the big screen before the movie starts!

Cate and Orly ready to get this show started!

Another fun place that the kids and I visited with our friends, the Hills - the Minister's Treehouse out in Crossville. There really are no words to describe how incredible this place is! And it is all the result of a vision that one man said came to him from God. He started building and he is still building to this day (Seriously. We actually saw him working on it while we were there.)

That's some of our little group standing there at the bottom. Have to say I was totally blown away at the first sight of this thing. My friend had just told me we were going to see a "big tree house"

Lookin' pretty sketchy ...

Without a doubt, the coolest thing about the Minister's Treehouse is the total randomness of it all. It is full of little oddities - furniture tucked away in odd places, strange little secret rooms, church pews, ladders mixed in with stairs, stained glass windows ... and a lawn chair hanging from two giant ropes to make the world's coolest swing!

We're planning another visit for some time in the fall when it's not so hot and the crowds are down ... can't wait!

Still more summer updating to come!!!