The Tent

Our amazing summer is coming to a close. We enjoyed a trip of a lifetime to Disney beginning at the Boardwalk resort, spending 5 glorious nights on the Disney Dream and then ended with concierge level at Animal Kingdom Lodge. We came home and it seemed like in a matter of days we were packed up  and back in the car headed to Grand Haven where we stayed a fun filled week enjoying quality family time together. The day after we returned from Grand Haven some friends from New Jersey stayed with us a week- it was nice showing them around the Cincinnati area and taking in a REDS game as a tourist.
Tragedy struck right by us last week with a local teenager being shot and killed by her ex boyfriend. This occurred two streets over  from us where we take our dog Mickey to doggy day care. The ex boyfriend ended up going home and commiting suicide as the police surrounded his home. This is such a tragedy and our hearts go out to both famlies during this difficult time. The poor girl was gunned down on her 17th birthday. Another tragedy occured that same day, a 3rd year old girl from my school died from cancer - so the reality that life is fragile was quite apparant to us.
It  made Tim and I realize once again how precious life is and that we need to cherish every minute with our babies. Now we only have a few dwindling days of summer left and we are trying to enjoy some family time. The kids had been bickering back and forth, typical sibling stuff and it was driving Tim and I crazy. We decided some family time was in order. We went to Kings Island water park just the four of us, the kids werestled with Tim and I played board games with them, and then we built a "tent" in the living room:

We had built tents like these in the past, but this time we put the air mattress inside and layered it with blankets and pillows inside and told the kids they could sleep in it. They were over the moon excited. They slept soundly inside of there the first night and Tim and I were shocked they wanted to sleep in it again on night #2. Well, then night #3 they STILL wanted to sleep inside of it, I couldn't believe it. So, we let them crawl inside for night #3:

They enjoyed eating snacks and watching a movie in there before falling asleep. I even crawled in there with them to read them a bedtime story together. We had a thunder storm on night #3 and Luke came upstairs a little scared and said he wanted to sleep in his own bed upstairs by us. I said "o.k., but I worry about Lauren down there by herself, she might wake up a little scared wondering where you went". He said "I know, me too." Then he retreated to his bedroom and I rolled back over and continued my slumber. I awoke around 8:30 a.m. and went to Luke's room and saw he was no longer in there. I went downstairs and he was back inside the tent with Lauren, he said he woke up early and snuck back inside of the tent to make sure she wouldn't be frightened in the morning. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww. The tent brought my kids together and showed me once again that deep inside they care for one another and enjoy spending time together. This is the first school year that the kids will be in different schools. Luke is headed to the Intermediate School for 5th grade and Lauren will be a 2nd grader, the time keeps slipping away. I know it's the beginning of the end and Luke will start being too cool for me soon enough, but for now, I will cherish these times and lock them away in my mind because they mean the world to me!