Boooo 🙁 The “end of summer” came for us when James had to go back to school for his first day. I get so spoiled having the summer days free to spend doing whatever we want, together as a family. Having James almost all to ourselves everyday ALL DAY and then sending him off to work for a full workweek is no fun. He is also coaching soccer this year, so most days he gets home at 6. Brayden is in bed by eight, so that doesn’t leave much quality family time during the week 🙁 We tried to make the most out of the last few weeks of our freedom by doing some fun family activities. We drove a few miles north toward the lake and went to a big town park where they have a lot of nature trails. It was Brayden’s first time “hiking” and he seemed to enjoy it a lot. He did really well walking by himself for about 20 minutes and then he just got too darn tired! Not too bad for a little guy 🙂 We also had some fun playing in the rain–how could you resist the adorable Old Navy Raincoat? And then we bought Brayden a new truck (from a garage sale of course) and he and James spent some time doing a carwash to get off the old owners cooties. You can see in the background all of the other big huge clunky outdoor toys, a reminder of the fact that the truck probably was unneccessary. . . but c’mon. . . how much cuter can you get?!