August already?

Whew! What a summer! Or should I say, 'What was I thinking!?!'

Between having a baby in June and getting married in July, we've had quite the summer! Unfortunately, all of the fun things I had great intentions of doing with Ayshia didn't quite happen like I'd hoped. We had great plans to go on lots of hikes with picnics, read lots of books and practice math, go swimming, and visit lots of museums and parks. A scrapbook was even in the plans to record this oh-so-fun summer. The reality of it was that I was just too busy and too drained of energy to be much fun. The poor girl heard more of 'go find something to do with yourself' than was probably fair to her, considering this has been the only summer I've 'had off' since she was born. However, having the summer 'off' hasn't been exactly that. Any parent knows that having a newborn, while incredibly fulfilling, it can, at the same time, be incredibly draining as well. And even with the best laid out plans, you just don't ever seem to get everything 'done'. (Especially if you, like me, happen to forget that baby's aren't supposed to go out in public for the first six weeks!) And, every parent carries the guilt of not spending enough 'quality time' with thier kids, (mainly due to the gianormous laundry list of things to do because you have kids).

But while I could beat myself up for not winning the 'Mom of the Year Award', or for us not having the Best Summer Ever, I'm going to instead look back on the fun stuff we were able to do, in spite of it being the Craziest Summer Ever. I can honestly say that for the most part, we did, in fact, have some fun times, and just to convince my guilty self of it, here's some pictures to prove it...

After waiting "forever", she became a big sister on June 9th...

Got to hang out at the oh-so-cool BMX track...

Sang in a concert...

Dressed like a princess...

And we did eventually get some fun hikes in, too!

Red Rocks

We also had fun in our garden, going on 'Moonlight Rides', riding the Trail 70, playing with the horses...

So after it's all said and done, Yes, I should have left the house cleaning for another day. Yes, we should have eaten more ice cream. I can go with all of the 'I should haves'. But, it's over now, and as long as I can convince Ayshia, and myself too, that we did, in fact have a great summer, that's all that matters, right?