Our very own splash-pad...from the sky :)

This isn't us - just a picture I found on the web - but it is what we were doing today! 

(minus the coats and shoes and umbrellas...)

(I wish I had a picture of us - but it was raining too hard! It would have been the death of my phone!) 

It has been quite hot the past few days (like upper 90's plus humidity - whew!) and we were going to go to a swimming pool or splash pad this afternoon to cool off, but the skies just opened up and brought the water to us! It was great! Warm rain poured down as fast and hard as you can imagine, filled our grass and cement patio with warm water to our ankles, and out we went! Braden decided he should don a jacket and pants for the outing - shoes were not necessary to any of us, and Cam and I were happy in our shorts and t-shirts as we stomped, tromped, splashed and played in the hard rain! It was our very own little splash pad and intense sprinkler, fun rivers flowing out of the gutters, and we were all soaked through and having a great time! It was even accompanied by an amazing lightning show and booming thunder! 

(after a good half an hour the more responsible mother in me kicked in and I figured we had had our fun and I had probably better take my kids in before I chance that one of us is going to get struck by (or traumatized by) the lightning - there was tons and tons of it! Even as I'm writing it is still raining hard, lightning making an amazing show in the sky and the thunder is shaking the wall behind me.)

Cam wailed when I had to bring him in - he was so anxious to go out in the first place - he loves water in any form and there is nothing about rain that doesn't make him think he ought to be out playing in it and enjoying it! Haha!  :)

So today, I'm grateful. So glad for that sweet gift of the heavens pouring down rain on us and bringing us our very own little splash pad to play in, right in the comfort of our yard! Such a sweet little gift. After a nice warm bath we went on to have yummy breakfast for dinner, with a delicious smoothie, watched Ice Age and played around on the disassembled couch cushions lining the floor, and viola! 

A perfect Friday afternoon/evening with my boys! 

Days like this just make me happy to be alive - and the feeling like Heavenly Father just goes to such great, but simple, measures to show us that He cares and to make us feel watched over and loved. Though He can't change everything we might wish in our lives, 

He does so much to show us that He's there.

Beauty

This was going to be such a great picture, but then Braden's nose itched...haha! Now it just looks like it smells bad - but in truth it smells divine! (It's a southern magnolia, has a sweet, citrusy smell)

 We went to the beautiful Botanical Gardens for an evening and had a picnic dinner by the pond. Braden found some giant flashy fish and Cam was just so excited to be there! We go there a lot, but usually don't wander around this side of the park much. It a fun change and the three of us all enjoyed it!

 He is really loving this orange slice to the very end!

 I love this one of Brado!

 Playing by the fountain

 Little one trying to follow in the big one's footsteps :)

I decided to get some shots of my beautiful flowers from our yard. It is a lot of weeding...A LOT of weeding, but beautiful things like this come out and make it all worth it to me. I LOVE flowers so much!!! I think all of life should be filled with flowers - inside and outside. 

One of my dream jobs someday is to be a flower deliverer. I don't really want to arrange them or anything, I just want to deliver them. There is nothing like giving someone a surprise like that. Have you ever gotten a chance to do it? It is simply one of the best things there ever was. In college I worked at the USU Bookstore, and on 2 days a year (valentines and administrative assistant's day) we would take orders and deliver flowers or balloons or chocolates....those were some of my favorite days of working there. I looked forward to it all year so I could walk around from place to place and brighten someone's day. One of the sweetest joys in life is the look on that person's face when you give them their surprise. Makes you so happy. :)

I get so happy and excited to see the blossoms blooming...I just want to keep them around forever. They are one of God's little gifts to me.

(and everyone else too...don't mean to leave you all out of that! haha!) 

Braden was nice enough to "cut" some flowers (3 big stalks!) (of the kind below, but bright purple)...at first I was really upset, but then I brought them inside and put them in a vase and ended up cherishing them for the next week...sweet boy... a bit mischievous boy, but sweet boy. They ended up being a wonderful thing to brighten my birthday. I'm so glad he did it. :)

 yay for Gladiolas :)

 One of my white Easter Lilies grew 5 1/2 ft tall this year! It was really tall last year, but amazed me by getting even bigger! It was almost as tall as I am! The others were about 3 ft, but this one is a giant and I'm starting to wonder if by next year it will be as taller than me! Their big beautiful white and pink blossoms are so beautiful!

Happy Birthday to Me :)

 A Jessica, Laurel and I went to the Cape Charles for my birthday! It was relaxing, fun and just the break I needed. Cape Charles is a tiny little town on the Eastern Shore. You cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (17miles of bridge and tunnel (the road tunnels down under the water a few times and then comes back up) with Chesapeake Bay on the one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other - so amazing!) Our charming little bed and breakfast had a piano - and we all sing and play - so we sat singing songs from musicals and classics for an hour. It couldn't have been more perfect!
Part of my desire to go centered around being away to a new place, and sleeping in and relaxing in the morning...sadly our room was very bright, and no matter how hard I tried to sleep, I was up at 6:30am...Braden has me trained well...sigh. But, I did get to go for a morning run, barefoot on the beach, so that helped make up for it! :) We lounged on the porch, enjoyed our cute little 70-yr-old couple that ran the B&B, shopped in little gift shops, watched kite-boarders wow us with cool moves at the beach, and just relaxed, talked, and had a great time!

Last few months

 Boys enjoying the beach at sunset

 Soccer ended. So much fun!

 Cameron has an obsession with vacuums...real or toy...so much so that one night when he was upset and I couldn't seem to cheer him up, I set him down, got out the vacuum and suddenly all was right with the world. He happily followed me around and was just fine! Haha! Do you think that will keep throughout his teenage years so I can just have him do all the vacuuming??? :)

 Random cute statue I saw when out running...it almost made me cry. (soldier returning home)

 Maymont Mansion Park in Richmond. Beautiful. Cheap. Fun. Amazing...loved it!

Boys had fun playing with each other in a random gazebo. They are such cute brothers!

 Primary song - Saturday Is a Special Day - "...we shine our shoes..."

B (on a Sunday while listening to primary songs (we had cleaned the day before to "get ready for Sunday)): Mommy! We forgot to shine our SHOES!!!

B (on a following Sunday driving over to someone's house - listening to the song again in the car): Mommy, we just keep forgettin to shine our shoes, don't we. Yeah, we just keep forgettin...

So, a couple of weeks later Justin sat down with him to "shine their shoes" - Braden was so happy!