Everything I forgot to tell you this summer...

Warning.....do not read this post unless you have some serious time to waste.

Yesterday I was looking through our photos of summer, ordering some for albums, uploading others from our cameras to our computer when I realized that there is A LOT that I never got around to posting about this summer.  Looking through these photos I can ever remember specific post topics that I was going to write about, but then never found the time.  So here is a shortened, photographic, condensed version of all of the things I forgot to tell you about this summer...and other photos that are just too great to leave out.

Bear is multi-functional and sweet.

An entire dinner of Ramen, courtesy of Boys Over Flowers :)

This picture and the next were meant for their very own blog post.  To make a REALLY long story short, Dustin and I used to be closet One Tree Hill fans.  Collin, my brother (the other dapper dude in the picture) is from N. Carolina and informed Dustin and I that the show is filmed in WIlmington - where we were visiting for the day on vacation.  We were a little excited.  ANYWAYS, here is the storefront for Clothes Over Bros - Brookes' clothing boutique....any OTH fans out there?  Okay, just us.

This is the basketball court that they always go to to "deal with life" if you know what I mean.  I'm not kidding when I say that Dustin spotted this all the way across the river.  We of course had to drive over there for a photo-op.  The city took the hoops down, but you can get the idea in this very realistic reenactment...Dustin is playing Lucas and Collin is playing Mouth.  Do any OTH fans want to come forward now?  No? 

I just included this one because it was one of my favorite dinners on our vacation and I forgot to include it....my parents and brother, Collin.

We stopped here because they have the world's largest frying pan.....why else?

When I went out to visit my parents with the boys we just happened to get there on the very last Cruise Night of the season, a.k.a. Super Cruise.  My dad and I took Miles, who of course loved it.  He spent the first 10 minutes pointing to cars and saying "No No" because we told him that he couldn't touch them.  (See photo below)  In this photo (above) I had my dad and Miles stand next to the exact same car that my dad drove when he met my mom.  It was much cooler than I expected considering all I had ever heard about it was that it was black with gold lace painted on as "trim".  Later that evening my dad admitted to me that he actually had it custom painted.  All these years I thought he had been forced to drive a car with lace. 

This Cruise Night thing has always been a mystery to me.  EVERY SINGLE STREET was filled with old cars.  And the crazy thing is that ANYONE can show up.  You just pull up to Main Street in your car and someone directs you where to go.  No registration, no rules, and no paperwork.  In a world where everything is overplanned, that just seems crazy.

A Popsicle snack with Grandpa.

This picture and the two below are from The Taste of Peoria.  This is Miles' good friend Caleb.  We kept our sons out way too late, but made up for it with free reign in the fountain. :)

At one point I decided we needed to buy a pool for the boys.  Did I mention that we have a Prius?  I sort of forgot until we got to the parking lot.  :)  But we got it to where we needed to go.

Liam peeking out.

Miles' first Tat....at a Children's Museum in Michigan up by where Dustin's parent's lake house is.  We had a lot of fun there with the boys.

Liam loved this.

Okay, we mostly just had fun taking funny pictures of the boys.

This totally cracked me up. :)

One hot day this summer my friends, Steph and Brett and I decided to go on an adventure.  We're all teachers so we were able to take the day to do some exciting Peoria things.  This started out with lunch at the carts downtown, renting Segways downtown, then ice cream, and a movie to wrap it all up.  It was quite an adventure. :)  And we made total fools of ourselves.

Lunch after a hike at the Nature Center.

A loaded down stroller with big plans.

And my favorite picture.  As one last adventure before heading back to school, my husband took me on a date that included wine a cheese at an outdoor restaurant with live music, followed by an enormous amount of popcorn and sour patch kids at the movie theater.  A perfect night.