Summer's Almost Over?

How are we in August already?

I feel like we wait all year for the summer months and once they are here, they are GONE in a flash.

We normally vacation earlier in the summer, for July 4th, but this year that didn't pan out. So we're going in the middle of August instead.

It's fun because we have something to look forward to all summer and our big fun thing is towards the end. But, I feel like as soon as we get home, it'll be time for school!

Holy shit.

We're trying to make the most out of summer.

Take the girls places.

Water park.

Amusement park.

Grandparents' houses.

Friends' houses (the girls got invited to a sleepover birthday party next weekend!)

Boat days.

Pool day is every single day. 

We finally had friends over. 

Everyone's actually looking at the same time! I love all of these kids so much! 

Lilypad for the win. AGAIN. Best $350 we ever spent. This size is now $600 online! 

Our other friends had a wedding over the weekend and came up from South Carolina to attend it. This is Steve's BFF from childhood and our Best Man at our wedding. He and his family are family to us also and we can go months without talking but the second we see each other, it's as if no time had passed. 

And when I say childhood, I mean, childhood. Like younger than our kids are now. Crazy. 

I thought this pic was super cute. The little boys were hanging with the big boys. 

Realizing that I love boating during this hour. The sunset was unbelievable on the water. 

Lilypad for the win, AGAIN!

We are having such a fun summer. 

I cannot wait for vacation, but then it means summer is almost over!

Next year, because we're crazy and already booked it will be incredible. Not only are we staying for a FULL WEEK, but we're staying in a fucking mansion. With all my favorite people.

Anyway, I'll do a separate post on that later. 

First Time In The Pool

We opened the pool last weekend.

We filled it almost all the way up.

Then we let the massive rain storm take over.

Steve shocked it, added chlorine and then we let it sit for a few days.

The water was pretty clear, but all the gross stuff settled to the bottom, so it was time to vacuum. 

We had nice weather this weekend but the temp was supposed to drop pretty dramatically. We told the girls - who had been BEGGING to get in the pool for DAYS now - they should probably go in while it was nice out.

The water was way, way, WAY too cold for us adults. 

The air temperature was like 83 by like noon. 

I got most of the gunk out of the bottom of the pool but it could use another pass. 

So exciting! It definitely feels like summer when the pool gets opened.

And I'm glad we got it opened before Memorial Day. 

Pool's Open!

We did it!

I'm surprised we did it, actually.

I thought it'd be closer to Memorial Day before we had time to get this sucker opened.

BUT, the weather has been nice, like no rain for DAYSSSS. So we thought it'd be smart to do what we could while we had the weather and time.

So Sunday morning Steve and I got up and he just was like "hey, let's do it" - ok then!

We got the cover off without much trouble. We also didn't syphon all the water out like we (Steve) did last year. LOL. He pumped out so much pool water it took forever to fill it last year. 

We get water down in Cheshire. $.25 cents for 75 gallons

This trailer has proven to be incredibly useful. We did only like 2 trips before we took a break and ran other errands. 

Now we need to shock the water, put chemicals in and then we'll be done!

We should be able to get that done in the next day or so.

It's supposed to hit 87 degrees on Friday. Wut. 

Closed

Welp. 

Summer is officially over when the pool gets closed, right?

The wide view lens is legit

We closed it last weekend (October 3) and it was so hot out, we were both sweating. Iron, isn't it?

We pulled the stairs out, put all the furniture away and took the umbrella down.

Added the chemicals to the water and put the winter cover on. It didn't take more an maybe an hour total.

We will be getting new cushions for our outdoor furniture and I'll do a better job of bringing it all in when we're not using it all. They got gross really fast. Plus they were white and I probably won't choose that color again. 

We opened it like the 3rd week in May.

We used this pool SO much this summer! 

Till next time. 

New Water Toy

Ever since we got a pool, we spend money each season on new pool toys. Mainly just the stuff that isn't really meant to last more than a season, like pool noodles or cheap floaties. Plus, where we live, a lot of our stuff has blown around and has gotten kinda gross. 

We have to find a better system for keeping the toys secured to the deck. 

Anyway.

Last year when we went on vacation, I saw a ton of these floating "pads" that were huge and could hold several people.

Some were being towed behind boats, some were just floating with people on them. 

I really, really, really wanted one for this year.

I thought we'd have a boat this year too...but that didn't happen.

When I brought it up to Steve that I wanted one of these Aqua Lily Pads.

He was pretty much appalled at the price and said this to me:

"So after vacation what are we gonna do with it. Seems like overkill. We won't use it a lot. I don't think we need it."

Mind you this is after I already confirmed with my friends that we'd be getting one. LOL.

I tried to find a cheaper one.

I was also anxious because of the timing. We're getting close and I'm afraid of things not arriving in time. 

WELL.

We went to dinner one night and he pulled up the thing on another website that was about $70 cheaper. 

And he pulled the trigger!

We got the 15' x 6' one.

And it arrived this week.

This thing is massive. LOL

They LOVE IT. 

Hands down the best investment this summer. Steve agrees that he didn't know much about it when I asked about it and now that we have it - it makes total sense. It works great in the pool, obviously and will be amazing on vacation. 

I was texting with my friend Rich and we were just saying that over the course of the next couple of years we'll have a ton of fun toys for vacation.

Rich has the boat and tube. Andy has the Jet Ski.

We have this giant thing (we will have to strap it to the roof of the truck because we won't be able to fit all our stuff in the truck WITH this thing in there). And hopefully we'll have a boat next year. At least we can rent one. 

18 days! 

Weekend Recap

Steve and I celebrated 11 years of wedded bliss last weekend. 

We were busy though and Mila had a playdate so we decided to keep it low key and do something for us this weekend.

The girls spent the night at my mom's Saturday and she also wanted to bring them to a local fair, so we got to her house right around lunchtime. I enjoyed lunch with Mom before heading out to do my thang while Steve was at work.

These breaks are so necessary for my mental health. It's not like my girls are difficult kids or anything, but constant arguing or "can I have a snack" for the BILLIONTH time right as soon as I sat down...IKYK.

Besides, my mother LIVES for that. The second the kids are with her, it's "What do you want to eat, drink, here's some candy and new toys and clothes...." and usually I try to keep her in control a little, but this time?

Have at it! Wanna TV? Go for it. Eat ice cream? I don't care!

LOL. 

I love that they all love this situation. Seriously. Win. Win. Win. 

I spent a lovely day alone Saturday afternoon by the pool. The stairs weren't in yet and we hadn't vacuumed it either so I didn't get in. I did put my feet in and lay out though and that was glorious. 

Steve and I planned to go out to dinner, so I went and picked him up around 7:30. 

We had a LOVELY dinner at Cheesecake Factory and really enjoyed some nice conversation. What's nice is that we're at a part of our lives where conversation isn't ALWAYS about the kids. Yes, they are the topic for like 75% of our talks, but now we're able to weave in more "real life" things like what we'll do when they graduate, what truck Steve wants next, what barn or boat we want. Work stuff and dealing with people. We talked about our friends and what it was like growing up in the 90's. 

ANYWAY.

We had a lovely dinner and went home.

Since we didn't have the girls Sunday morning, we opted to take the dogs for a nice walk at the lake - early. We obviously could do this with the girls, but you know, sometimes it's more effort than it's worth sometimes to get everyone fed, out of the house, etc. at a normal time. 

This time we got to the lake at like 8:30. It was nice. There were already a lot of people there, so I'm glad we got there when we did. Plus, it was supposed to be 90 degrees later that day - it was 77 at 9am. 

Then we hit up Wegmans for our weekly grocery haul.

Steve wanted to get some chores done before grabbing the kids, so I used that time to lay out by the pool and get more leaves out.

Haha isn't this shirt hilarious? It's perfect for me! 

After picking up the kids, we stopped at Target to get some new pool toys. They never last more than a season...right? I mean...ours don't. They get blown all over the damn place and kids put holes in them, etc.

So we picked up a few new toys for them. 

I spent a good 2 hours out there with them, then decided to come in and do my workout and then get dinner ready. 

He was PASSED OUT. Thankfully in the shade. 

I got our solar cover out from the basement and Steve finished vacuuming the pool.

We are ready for summer! 

Pool's Open - It's Officially Summer!

We've been having some super nice weather the last few days and while it's still too early to get excited about anything consistent, we are using this time to get our pool open and ready for the season. 

As you know, we live in Western NY and that means that we have full-on seasons. If it's not summertime, it's not going to be hot enough to go swimming. Winter starts in November and ends sometime in April if we're lucky. 

Then we have wet, rainy, sopping rain weather for a few weeks that is so gross. Chilly, wet weather.

And then sometimes I feel like it just becomes Summer quickly after that. 

Friday was 88 degrees out. 

Although this week we expect Friday to only be in the 50's. 

Seriously.

But, we used the semi-nice day yesterday to get started on the pool opening process.

Pumping water out of the cover AND washing the quad at the same time. #redneckcarwash

I'm still SO grateful we built our deck at this size. I'm hoping to get our patio furniture out today (Monday). It started to rain so we had to go in. 

Mila started looking real old lately...not sure how I feel about it.

It started to rain a bit, but we got the cover off without any major issues.

He made one trip so far to fill the pool back up. We think it'll be maybe 8-10 trips. I took the time to skim all the shit off the top of the pool. There's still a lot more to do, but I got a good amount of crap off the top. Still a bunch of leaves at the bottom, but we'll get it. 

There's actually a chlorine shortage right now! I guess like with everything else...toilet paper, gas...people are hoarding. Not sure. But, there's a freaking shortage. Thankfully Steve had gotten enough last year (we normally buy in bulk) so we should have enough for a couple of months. 

Here we go, Summer!

I'm very excited to get this season going.