Pictures ... finally!

With summer winding down, here are a few pictures of some of our recent summer activities.  In comparison to last summer, this one has been much better.  We still have unique challenges, but we have figured out how to make things work, for the most part.

The kids and I went to Olbrich Gardens a few weeks ago for the Blooming Butterflies exhibit.  We liked the butterflies in the conservatory, but lost interest and energy while walking through the gardens.

The ramp on the Rose Tower was a highlight again.  Anna thoroughly enjoys going down ramps these days; she loves the feeling of going fast and, surprisingly, has good control of her wheels on ramps.

One evening in early August, we met Matt at a local county park where he enjoys mountain biking.  The kids played on the playground before we had a picnic dinner at the top of the big hill.

Kate and Ethan ran down (and slowly climbed up) the hill a handful of times.

Although Anna couldn't run up and down the hill this time (she was the leader of this activity in years past), she liked going down the slides and goofing off with us.

It turns out that Kate can read Bill Peet books by herself now.  She entertained both siblings one evening by reading The Caboose Who Got Loose to them.

Food pictures ...

Here's one of the peach trees after picking about a third of the peaches.

The first third of the peaches ... yum!

One of the peach cobblers ... yum! yum!

I think we have a picture of Kate eating sweet corn just about every year of her life.  This girl loves her veggies!

This past week was eventful in our yard because it was our turn to have our driveway redone and even out some of the random landscaping out there.  Now Anna will have a much easier time going from place to place in the driveway.

The equipment and work was, of course, very interesting and entertaining for the kids.

The afternoons this past week were not warm enough for playing in the pool, so we skipped Ethan's nap on Wednesday and headed in to the zoo.  Then the next day we went to a local park together.  These outings are a bit trickier for our family than they might be for another, but we make them fun in our own way.

However, I have made note of the fact this summer that in all of the "public" places we have visited, not once have we run into another child who uses a wheelchair (or walker, or other mobility device).  When I mentioned this to Matt, he reminded me that we don't actually go out very often so the chances of running into someone else using a wheelchair (besides at therapy, of course) are pretty slim.

The week culminated with a field trip day over to Milwaukee to the Milwaukee Public Museum.  Anna, Kate, and I visited this museum once a year or so before Ethan was born and they both have fond memories of the trips.  They were excited to go again, see some of the exhibits they remember, but also learn something new at other exhibits.  The kids and I had a wonderful day together, even though the experience brought back memories for me of the last time we did this in January of 2014.

This time around, poor Kate's brain was on overload after about an hour and a half.  She was so interested in every little detail she could find; this kid is soaking up so much from the world around her these days.

After our lunch break, everyone was ready to enjoy the museum for another hour so.

Ethan was our family's "alarm" clock.  Around 1:30, he let us know that he was d-o-n-e.  We packed up and headed home.  Ethan was so tired that he fell asleep on the way out of Milwaukee, while there were still plenty of construction trucks to watch!

Now we have one more week before school begins.  We have a few hopes for what we can still do before life transitions into school mode, but I think I will be most conscious of giving Anna and Kate as much open space as possible because they won't have nearly as much free time once September 1 arrives.