Afternoon Activities and Summer Storms

This is what it looked like out our back door last night.  Isn't God amazing!!  The summer storms here in NC are one thing that I love about NC summers.  As I hear the rolling thunder and watch the dark clouds come in I am reminded of our great God.   Sitting out on the porch and watching the rain and storms roll in is a favorite pass time for us.

While summer is upon us and the heat and humidity are ramping up into full force we are trying to be creative and find fun things to occupy our time.  Besides going to the pool, our favorite summer activity, we are often looking for things to do that don't require us to run around outside in the heat. The last few weeks we have found a few activities that have been a big hit at our house.  Thanks to both ideas from friends and a fun activity book I have this is what we have been doing...

Bubble Painting

We filled a tray with dish soap and paint and then made paint bubbles by blowing into the paint with a straw.  We popped the bubbles with the paper and it made really fun looking pictures.  Neal has already asked when we can do this again.  

Family Ballon Toss

This activity was an idea from a friend of mine.  Neal either drew the faces or told me what to draw on the faces and he wrote most of our names. We made a ballon for each person in our family.  Then we had fun tossing the balloons on a blanket and trying to keep the family from falling on the ground.  

Sprinkler Trampoline Jump 

Pool Time

As always the best way to beat the heat is to go to the pool and enjoy time with family and friends. 

When you have a cutie like this at the pool to keep you company it's always a good day.

So, how do y'all enjoy the summer?  We're always looking for activities to fill our days and would love to hear about some of your favorite summer time activities.  One of Gwen's new favorite activity would be this....mmmmmm, watermelon

Disneyland!

We had the great privilege of getting to go to "The Happiest Place on Earth" while we were in California.  That's right we went to Disneyland!

I, Laura, have so many fun memories from Disneyland growing up from my trips there while in college.  In fact Tyler and I first hung out together at Disneyland (in a group of 20+ people from school), though we don't really remember each other from that day.  It was another 2 years after that trip that we started hanging out.  But that's an old story and this post is all about our recent trip to Disney and Neal's first Disneyland experience.  

We were able to go for 2 days and got to see both Disneyland and California Adventure.  Neal LOVED every part of those 2 days.  He was the perfect age to take and was tall enough to ride every ride he wanted.  His favorite rides were Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain.  Thunder Mountain was his first roller coaster and after that there wasn't anything he wouldn't try.

I was impressed how brave he was riding everything.  I am not a fan of roller coasters but there was nothing that intimidated Neal.   We got to go the first day with Tyler's whole family and all the cousins.

The kids had a great time all together.  I spend most of the day relaxing in the shade keeping company with those who didn't want to do every ride while I watched Gwendolyn.  Most of the time you would find Gwendolyn sleeping....She did however really enjoy the parade.

She was such a great sport hanging out all day in the stroller and the heat.  It was 104 and 106 degrees the two days we were there, so it was HOT!   My favorite day however was our second day.  We were able to leave Gwendolyn with Gigi and Grandfather and got to spend the whole day with just Neal. Getting to ride everything with Neal was extremely fun and loved his expressions and comments while both waiting in lines and after the rides.  My favorite was after all the roller coasters when he would say, "that was so awesome!"  

We still get to hear stories from him as he remembers all the fun we had and all the "awesome" rides.  Now if you ask about his favorite ride he will pretty much list off every single ride at Disneyland.  It is hard to pick a favorite when they are all so fun, right?  I have always loved Disneyland but going with your own kids is even more fun.  I hope we can go back again one time 'cause it really was "so awesome!"