The End of Summer 2026

We had such a good summer and I was not ready for the end of pool season, especially because it happened abruptly when the temperature took a huge dip and we got bombarded with rain. While we missed out on the last week, we were able to attend the Puppy Pool Pawty, so we got one last good day in the water, at least. 

I usually look forward to fall and see it as a pseudo new year, a time when I get my life back together. It's when I start meal planning and get re-motivated to focus on my health after having a lazy summer. This year is different because I've already been doing that. I've been working out consistently since December and I have some pretty good looking muscles, if I do say so myself 🤪. Instead of revamping my mission to health, my focus shifts this year to figuring out what it is I'm gonna be when I grow up, and that's overwhelming. Ash starting school means I have the freedom to go back to work, so this school year is bringing about big changes in our household.

Aside from feeling overwhelmed about the future, I was looking forward to school starting a little bit so that these boys could spend some time apart and stop bickering so damn much. It's been an emotional rollercoaster, though (just ask my husband 🙃), one minute I couldn't wait to get some peace, and the next I was crying because that part of my life, and theirs, is over. They say the postpartum phase lasts up to 6 months, and then you're supposed to be back to your pre-pregnancy self, and while that may be true physically, I believe it lasts much longer mentally and emotionally. My last pregnancy ended 4.5 years ago, but I hadn't been my old self until about 9 months ago. Whether that happened as my brain synapses reconfigured after stopping my antidepressant in May 2025, or my hormones shifted (although not completely, which is why I started Hormone Replacement Therapy earlier this year, which was a huge game changer in the rage department!), I'm not sure what had the most effect. I just know it took a very long time for me to feel like a normal person again, and now I have to do even more figuring 🫠. 2026 has been quite the year for self exploration.

We tried to do some clothes shopping before the start of the school year. I (wrongly) assumed when I had two boys that school clothes shopping would be easy, and nothing like the horror stories you hear from girl parents. However, Quinn is the pickiest 7 year old I've ever known, about pretty much everything, but especially about clothes. I love shopping and I try to find things I think he would like, but then he never does and I don't understand why. It's an ongoing battle. We tried shopping in person, and we tried shopping online, but the clothes that fit his standard the most were the ones we pulled out of our hand-me-down stash in the attic. Thanks to my and Philip's brothers for having older boys, Quinn has about 5 shirts that he cycles through weekly, while a whole closet full goes untouched 🙄. I'm tired of wasting money buying clothes he'll say he likes, remove the tag from, and then reject. Between the 3 older cousins and Quinn, Ash is going to have the biggest wardrobe ever as soon as he fits a size 6 😂. Quinn and Asher are night and day in personality and Ash couldn't care less if his clothes are too big, he'd wear them right now if I'd let him. I don't because I don't want to constantly try to remember whose clothes are whose, and he has plenty available in the size he currently wears. However, Quinn wants his waistband tight enough to squeeze his guts out, which I tell him all of the time. His shoes have to be tied tight, too. We have figured this much out through an expensive trial and error 🤦🏻‍♀️. 

August was a pretty slow month activity wise, we didn't have a lot on our calendar. We went to Town and Country Days one night and schlepped around in the mud. I took a picture of our shoes the next day and sent it to my friend, Alexis, and told her she should be glad she couldn't smell it 🤢.

The later it got, the stickier it got 🫠

The boys loved feeding the animals,

while Philip got sampled by a horse 😅. That horse was licking him all up and I couldn't stop laughing.

The four of us rode the Ferris Wheel together, but then Ash and I went on again with Mollie and Iris, while Quinn rode with Lincoln. 

They had a great time, despite the mud.

We were busy the weekend before school started, spending one day at Nathan and Carly's, and the next at Quinn's friend's birthday party. I can tell my kids are getting older because we've attended several events in the last couple of months where I didn't take a single photo 🥺. I was recently talking to Philip about how this may be the beginning of the end of my blog. As the boys spend most of their days at school, and away from me, I have less to report on. I don't think I'll stop writing it all together, there's always a new struggle to talk about 🙃, but my posts may become more like a quarterly check-in vs. the completely unpredictable (even to me!) schedule I've had in the past. So, maybe it won't be all that different after all 😂.

I did take some photos when we went over to North Bend for a day. Philip and I walked down to the tunnel, while the boys rode, Quinn on his dirt bike, and Ash on his balance bike. He got the hang of his pedal bike, but he hasn't practiced enough to be able to go as fast as he can on his balance bike, so he prefers it.

Ash insisted on showing up his brother's lack of bravery by standing in the creepy dark spaces inside the tunnel walls 😂. 

On top of the tunnel

It was the perfect day for a stroll

We found cool trees for some photos

Quinn couldn't wait to lay in this hammock for some reason 😂

I found some interesting insects: a lo moth caterpillar and an oddly named Red-spotted Purple butterfly with a chunk missing from it's wing.

Quinn started school the week before Ash, and the progression of his school photos starts up that roller coaster again 😭. He looks giant with his long legs and big boy face.

2023: Little Red Schoolhouse

2024: Pre-K

2025: Kindergarten

2026: 1st grade

The Puppy Pool Pawty, hosted by Parks and Rec, was rescheduled because of the rain, but I was glad we were still able to go! This was our first time going. 

The boys were so excited

Sophie was not 😂

I tried to coax her into the water. She got her front feet in and then immediately noped out. She was not having it. 

She did walk around and sniff some people and tolerated some petting, but before long, she was over that, too.

We didn't come in that gate, but she determined that was how she was going to get out 😂. 

She popped back in the water for hot second right at the end, but that was the extent of her partying.

It was alright because other people's dogs were fun, especially Pepper- Mollie, John, and Iris's dog. She played fetch forever!

Quinn had already started school, but Ash had a staggered schedule for the first three weeks, due to half the class going for 2 days on the first two weeks, and then an extra long weekend for Labor Day. Iris hung out with us for our last scheduled time, so the three of us made cookies to celebrate them starting school the next day.

I let them share the leftovers on the mixer beater and no one got salmonella. Yay! 😝

Ash couldn't be convinced to wear any of this new school clothes 🙄, so he wore Quinn's hand-me-down pants and jacket set. These kids and their clothes 🤦🏻‍♀️.

Asher and Iris are in the same class and their teacher sent Mollie and me this photo of the two of them together at recess 🥹. Ash came home and told me he didn’t cry, but Iris did. But later, when we were in the car, he told me that he had a little bit of water come out of his eye at nap time 😂.

I let them choose a place to eat dinner on their first day of school.  Quinn had chosen Wendy's when he started, and Ash chose Chinese. We went on a walk after dinner, and we don't usually take the wagon anymore because they're getting too big for it, but we knew Ash was tired from his big day.   

He ended up passing out about half-way through 😂. I was worried about that catnap affecting bedtime, but it didn't. He went right to sleep on schedule. 

His second day of school was on Farmers Market day, so we headed down to the park after they got home. 

We had a reunion of market managers, past and present--Megan, me, and Holly

and got caught in a downpour that the kids enjoyed--everyone else's more than mine 😂. I just love all of our market kiddos! The Clegg crew is about to add one more, and I got to go to the baby shower to celebrate his impending arrival 💙🍼.

I got to see my Book Club pals, which is always a good time. We had a beautiful backdrop for our group photo 😍

We're so cute. We were having a pool party at Lindsay's aunt's house

We celebrated Iris's birthday with her and the boys were most excited to see her house. We've been to their farm lots of time, but we always hang out outside because we're taking photos. The three of them had a blast together and the boys didn't want to leave.

5!

We rode out to the pasture to find the cows..

and discovered a new one was among them that John hadn't seen yet!

They followed us to get the cow nip that John brought, so I tried to get a pic of the baby

 

Idk if Momma Cow was mad at me or the other cow that kept sniffing her baby, but she let out the loudest mooooo!!, and took baby away

That's her, with the menacing face, centered behind baby cow 😬

They have another dog-like cow named Posey, and she'll eat treats right out of your hand 

  

The 3 goobers

We met up again at the Waggin' Tails Festival and had a great time on the inflatables

We all took a turn on the Velcro one, and that stupid wall gave me carpet burn on my knees when I stuck too good and slid down and partially out of the suit!

After we got home, I finally agreed to give Quinn the perm he had been asking for for like a year 🤦🏻‍♀️. He had been growing out his hair and it was finally long enough. It turned out decent, but I will never do that again 😂. I will gladly pay someone else so that I never have to mess with those rods again. He did fantastic waiting for me to get them in, take them out because they were too loose, and then put them in again...and again. It was frustrating and I hated it 😂. 

He agrees it was terrible, but still thinks it was worth it

He loves it and that's all that matters 🥰

I finished out the last weekend of summer by going Homecoming dress shopping with Kate, Lori, and Haleigh, and then attending a wedding for my friend, Kim's, son. It was a great day! 

I didn't take any pics of Kate's dress because I'll wait for her to reveal it on dance day, but I did take a photo of this impressive pile of guacamole that I ate at Chipotle when we finished 😂. It was a amazing!

🥹

While I was at the wedding, Quinn lost his second tooth--like, literally, he lost it and we never did find it 😂. He said he was on his top bunk in his room when it came out and then he dropped it. It's here somewhere 🤷🏻‍♀️. Lucky for him, the tooth fairy is a pretty generous gal and gave him money without receiving the goods. 

He got $5 because that's all the cash I had 🫠