A Summer in a Minute

Ok, I'm not a great blogger. I'm about 6 weeks behind. I know this. So I've decided that I have to do a blog blast of our summer, otherwise I will never feel like I can catch up. Here's a synopsis of the Cupak Summer:

June 25-30: Mike and Crissi went to St. Lucia for their 5th wedding anniversary. They scuba-ed, snorkeled, kayaked, tubed, lost a wedding ring, found it, ate a lot of food and got a lot spa treatments. Addie stayed home with Papa and Gigi and ate marshmallows.


July 4th weekend: The Cupaks met the Brookses in Sedona, AZ for a slightly cooler Independence Day.


July 22-31: The whole fam drove up to Orem, UT and spent the week pretending we'd never left. We lived with the Wann's and ate out as much as possible (Cafe Rio, Pizzeria 712, The Chocolate... how we miss you).


August 2-8: We drove over to Los Angeles on a combo work-personal trip. Crissi worked in the Beverly Hills office of her employer for a couple of days, then we spent the rest of the time oohing and aahing over our new niece / cousin, Drea Clausen. Then Addie got her first taste of the beach.

Now we are speeding toward the end of summer (August 29th, in this house). All we have left to do is a large pile of laundry.

That's not a slide. THIS is a slide!

Community Church of Joy had a leetle carnival last Friday, so the Cupaks and the Brookses traipsed off to see what fun could be had for our children. While the older Brooks boys were enraptured by rides and cotton candy, our little one was more about the {your adjective here} music:

After a little walking, a little dancing, more walking (away from mom and dad) and dancing, we cojoled her into going on the largest slide she's ever seen. Twice.

The best $12 we've spent in a long time.

Oh Soot!

Our little one has really taken to 2 word phrases. "Mommy Shoes", "Shoe On", "No School" and "My Cheese" have been recent additions. But we're starting to realize just how much she hears, only to internalize and repeat at a later time and place.

I have this habit of saying "Oh Shoot" - pretty sure my mom did too - when something slightly negative happens. Dropping something or missing my turn or braking hard enough where my purse falls on the floor are common uses. As these are typical occurrences while in the car, it should be no surprise that Addie has started mimicking me when she drops something while strapped in. Fortunately, it now comes out as 'oh soot', but when she first said it, it was much closer to the more secular version. Expletives have never been cuter!

Easter-pocalypse

This was Addie's first REAL Easter, where she semi-cared about egg hunts and Easter baskets and sugar cookies. (She may have cared about sugar cookies last year, but we didn't ask.) So like dutiful parents, we filmed the full Easter morning experience. This is almost 10 minutes long, so if you're inclined, please enjoy:

The final winners are the spinning light-up toy, the Discovery Toys marble-works castle and the Beanie Babies bunny, which she keeps calling a puppy. Whatever. She'll figure it out one day.

Next, we prepped for church. Mike talked me out of making Addie dress up in the slightest, claiming that her nursery teachers would be the only ones to see her. It was true, but I was robbed of any hope of Easter pictures as an appropriately-attired Christian family. I didn't even take photos of us as an inappropriately dressed family. Poop.

Easter lunch was with the Brookses, plus several other families from Mike's school. The kids were rambunctious, the lunch was delicious and the company was capricious. (Not really... just ran out of alliterative adjectives.) But just as is any event with children (and sangria), it's a blur. Don't ask for details.

Mike and Matt

L to R: Shira, Ali, Bekah, Crissi, Emily

Photo credit goes to Rebekah Brooks. I hope you don't mind that I stole these.