Summer has officially started!

We are excited to get out and really enjoy this summer! Tuesday We started out at story time and then headed to the park for lunch. They offer free lunches for the kids during the summer here and it really helps me take advantage of the whole day. I  can get up and leave the house early without worrying about what I am going to do for Nathan at lunch time. After Lunch we had a blast at the splash park. I love that place! Nathan did great until while he was hanging around the big slide and one of the older girls decided she would help him go on the slide. The first time he looked very nervous but was smiling coming out of the tube, so she grabbed him again and he was crying by the time I got him out. It was sure nice of her to help him out, but it was way too close to nap time. So I wrapped him up in his towel and offered to let him ride one of the horses(Carousel) and of course he was all into that. Then he crashed in the car on the way home and didn't even wake up when I transferred him from the car seat to his crib.  He sleeps so great when we are active, which is awesome for me!
Today I set up his swimming pool and invited a few friends over. We had lots of fun! For some reason Nathan wouldn't get into the pool until I actually forced him to get in and he loved it, silly boy!
 It took a few shots with my camera and decided I needed to stop using the auto settings, since I did get a nice digital SLR for a reason. After reading a few post on a friends blog I decided it was time I started really using my camera. So today I played around with the settings. I had to delete a bunch but I thought a few turned out ok.
                                This first picture the camera was still on auto.

Trying to take a photo of him eating his otter pop and he saw the camera so he drooped everything turned to me and said cheese!

                          Enjoying a our favorite summertime treat!

   Trying the camera out on these pretty flowers! Not sure what they are called? any ideas?

                      Time for playtime!

                                    Chief relaxing in the shade.

A few things I love about summer!

I am sure we will have a few for cold days before the first official day of summer, but I have been enjoying the sunshine for the past few days. I just love summer, especially after months of trying to keep a toddler happy while stuck indoors. I love the sunshine, water activities, and the long days. Lucky us for most of the summer it will be light until 10:00pm, I am so excited to really enjoy the perfect summer weather that we get here. Hot but not too hot! I always laugh when I here people complain about how hot the summer gets here because the average temp stays between the 80's and low 90's, which is just wonderful and  perfect for everything water! I have been spending so much time outdoors that even applying sunscreen I am still getting sunburned. Nathan is one happy little boy outdoors and so we stay out all day except for when it is time for a nap.
The other thing I love about the warmer weather are all the beautiful flowering plants. I have a few that still need to bloom, but I snapped a few shots yesterday.

Book Review

I don't usually do these, mostly because I never feel like I have the time to really write out what I think about a book. But also because I think my sister has already done a good job writing about the books I like on her site kerri's book blog. I have actually been using her site to find new books to read and it had been great to actually find them at our little public library. I Just recently finished two really great books.

If I Stay

I really found the storyline behind this book very interesting and I picked up from the library just as soon as I could find it. It is the story of a young girl who finds herself separated from her body after her family is in a terrible car accident only to discover that she must decide whether she wants to stay or die. I couldn't put this book down  because I wanted to find out what her choice would be. It was interesting to read has she reviewed her life and how hard the decision was for her to make. I could really understand why someone would want to just go instead of dealing with all the pain or why it would be hard to leave loved ones behind.

The Only Alien on the Planet

  This book is definitely a must read for everyone. I was captivated through out the whole novel, especially with Smitty. I really couldn't what to discover what was behind his silent life. But really this novel was about growth and facing change in our lives. We all have faced moments in our lives when we had to accept change and do something we really didn't want to. I know in my own life there has been moments/places i have been where I feel like an alien/outsider who just doesn't belong.