On my mind

I wish we were camping. I'm grumpy that we aren't. 

I love being able to stay home with my kids- but, it makes me go crazy sometimes. I have this deep need for solitude sometimes.. and it never happens. Alone. Totally alone.

Solo. Just me. And maybe Cheeba. He's like an appendage. 24 hours. 12 hours. Heck, give me a solid 8 with a good book, a pretty location and NO ONE within 100 miles. 

Here's the kicker- I also have this itch to go go go all the time.

I get stir crazy. The needed structure of mom life doesn't jive so well with my natural instincts of "just go with whatever happens and never make plans and organization is dumb and let's just do whatever we feel like" It's a huge internal battle! I'm not even kidding. 

My days are very much the same. Cook, drive, clean, drive, cook, clean. Of course there is lots of playing and activities and good stuff in there- but for the most part/ that's the frame of my day. Honestly- at this very moment if I knew how to haul the trailer, I would be in the woods with a great book (or 4) totally alone. I'm fairly social except when I'm not and then I'm really really anti social. 

Problem.

Dev works all day, all week. So he LIKES to be home and do nothing and hang out with us all because he hasn't been all week. Could we be on more opposites? He has no desire to go go go or to be alone. Because he kind of has been alone. Apparently work people don't count? Who knows. 

Someone solve my problem please. :) 

We are a week into school and I'm going nutso.  

July..

This is one of my fave pics :) 

Fourth of July! We had a heard of people over and loved it!! 

I whipped some patriotic decor. 

Per tradition, made our tye dye ts 

At the parade.. 

Went out the ponds..

Set off some fireworks and watched everyone else's. Evanston never disappoints on the 4th of July. 

Rodeo..

Waiting for the chicken chase..

Summer is flying by! 

Reunited!!

I have 5 suitcases and numerous duffles laid out on my bed, all full. On the floor I have 3 suitcases, empty. I'm trying to unpack and repack at the same time. It's making me nervous. It's also a good sign of an awesome summer! 

Canada was great. It's hard to really explain that it still feels like HOME. It smells like home and is just always so familiar and comforting. 

We took the camper! And our MPG was pitiful. 

I love Alberta in the summer, the mountains and all the fields of bright yellow canola. Dreamy.

Most food is pretty similar. This is authentic Canadian. 

Perogies amd French fries, gravy overt top and then cheese curds and bacon. 

Playing in the fountains at Galt Gardens. 

I tried out jam berry nails. Wasn't a total fan, and they didn't last nearly as log as I was told! 

Oldman River high level bridge. And Dev brushing off Mosquitos. They were so bad!!! 

Lots of water parks. (FREE!) 

This guy being BORED. 

Yay!!!! 

BFFs at age 2 and now our girlies are getting to know each other 

Bubbles in Grandma Honey's tub!

We had a HUGE fam reunion that the "miller family" was in charge of. A ton if prep to get all the food and activities ready for 3 days for 120 people. This was pancake making. Funny night. 

Glenwood!!!! 

Byron and Roberta Smith Reunion!! Spring Glen park 

First night after din, we had a Dutch oven cook off 

Day 2 was a service project at Grandma and Grandpas, then we headed to the beach!! 

Lots of canoes and kayaks and swimming and visiting. 

That night we played an intense game of Name that Tune and then had a karaoke party! We would have gone all night I think, but the DJ people who were running the equipment wanted to be home before midnight. Preslie is all about the karaoke. She kept hijacking everyone's performance. I didn't get any pics! :( so fam, if any of you have video or pics from karaoke send them my way!! 

My favorite :) Grandpa Smith 

The adults went on "an amazing race" that was pretty amazing. We kept the kids and did our own amazing race. Fun times! We also had family trivia, great food and lots of visiting. And we didn't see any bears so that was a plus.

So SO good to see everyone and have my kids get to know their second cousins. 

We played a lot of pinochle...

Lots of cousin time...

Waterton

Me and Pres taking selfies...

Aaron and Shauna had baby girl # 6!!! Lucy Laura. It was pretty great to be there and snuggle my newest neice 

We went four wheeling up at crowd nest pass and FROZE! 

On the voyage home we stopped at the world museum of mining in Butte MT (thanks to tripsdvisor push alerts- I had no idea the place even existed!) 

We toured a real mine, heard some awesome stories about people who struck gold and making millions, panned for our own gold and climbed a ton of stairs. If your heading thru, you really should stop!! Really really cool. 

We also stopped in Spencer Idaho at the Opal place and dug around for those. 

Great trip!!