Goodbye Summer

Today was my official first day back at work, which means summer has officially come to an end.  While it's sad to say goodbye to summer, remembering all the fun we had (and all we did from our Summer Bucket List) makes me ready for Fall and Football Season!

Ben, Elizabeth, and I did so much this summer and had so much fun I just wanted to take a minute to remember everything.


Once school was out, Elizabeth and I headed south to Columbia.  We spent four days visiting lots of my friends from college and graduate school. 

We had dinner with Dana.

 

We went to a water park.

 We had dinner with Teri and Libby.

 We went to the zoo with Emmie and Ellie.

The girls loved feeding the giraffes.

We made several trips to The Woodlands play area at Landmark on rainy days.  Elizabeth loved running, climbing, sliding, dancing, and crawling.

 

For the 4th of July, we celebrated at home with the neighbors.  We went to the pool in the morning and then had a neighbor cookout in the evening.

 Family photo!

 Don't you love our setup?

On the 5th of July we headed to Pennsylvania to Jared and Kelly's annual pool party.  We grill out and swim all day.  It is fabulous and always a fun and relaxing day.

 Elizabeth spent all day in the pool

After dinner, she enjoyed running around Jared and Kelly's backyard.

During the summer we went to Old Town to feed the ducks.  We ended up feeding more birds and fish then ducks.

(I just like the picture of Elizabeth)

In the middle of July, my college roommates Simone and Jessica came to visit.  We toured the mall and enjoyed some grilled food by Ben.

 Elizabeth was not enjoying the sun in her face.

Me, Simone, and Jess

We also just goofed off around the house and enjoyed summer.

   

At the beginning of August we celebrated Ben's birthday.  Elizabeth and I really enjoyed pampering Ben all day and showering him with goodies.

 Surprise party!

 Goodies!

 Birthday dinner!

Later in the week, "Atlanta Ben" came to visit and we took a trip downtown to a few museums and then hung around the house and grilled out.

During our last week of vacation, Elizabeth visited her Nana and Pap Pap while Ben and I painted the main floor and our bedroom.  After the hard work was done we enjoyed some golf, baseball, nice dinners, and going to the movies.  I already blogged about it here and here.

I love summer!  It is absolutely my favorite time of year.  And this year, I had a great day every. single. day.  Thank you to my wonderful family for a great summer!