The first few days of this week are filled with back-to-school ice cream socials, meet-the-teacher days and parent-teacher conferences before the school year officially begins for the big kids. (Rhett doesn’t begin until after Labor Day.) It’s truly wild to me how fast our summer break flew by. Despite not having any camps organized for the kids, we had a full summer with a revolving door of visitors and fun travel. It was a good one with a great balance of chill time during the week, full weekends and some travel adventures.
When the school year begins, I always like to take stock of how we handled our summer as a family (it’s always a learning experience) and really liked the flow of this summer. This blog and my work certainly fell on the back-burner all summer long as it’s very challenging to work from home with 3 boys running around. I fully understand this is a season and I do not regret opting for time with the boys over everything else. Time away from this blog always gives me the itch to dive back in when I have more time to dedicate to my work and I’m looking forward to more structure and dedicated work time once all three boys are back in school.
Saturday
The boys and I arrived home from Florida Thursday evening and Ryan arrived home from India Friday night. It was wonderful to all wake up under the same roof on Saturday!
My workouts have fallen on the backburner over the past couple of weeks due to travel (and all summer long, really), so it felt especially nice to make it to the gym for a leg workout to kick off the day.
I went through the workout detailed above while streaming Love Island on my phone. I mentioned in a past blog post how I started watching Bachelor in Paradise after several years off and I abandoned it fairly quickly because it just didn’t hold my interest. I decided to give Love Island a shot after hearing so many people talk about it and danggg that show is m-e-s-s-y. So, naturally, I cannot stop watching.
After my workout, I headed home and began organizing the big kids’ school supplies just to double check I have everything they need before meet-the-teacher on Monday evening. Anyone else remember feeling oddly giddy over new school supplies as a kid? Nothing beat a fresh binder or a new pack of pens and highlighters.
Ryan joined in the back-to-school prep with back-to-school haircuts for the boys.
(Ryan began cutting the boys’ hair during Covid and never looked back! He also cuts his own hair and I detailed all of the supplies he uses with notes about each item here in case you’re interested: Boys’ Haircut Supplies)
Chase was ready to say goodbye to his summer mop and got the most dramatic fresh cut of the three.
His long surfer dude hair was fun for the summer but he wasn’t a fan of brushing it… ever. His friend Lilly told him she liked his haircut better yesterday and he said, “Now I’m low maintenance.” Ha!
Eventually the sunshine was calling to us so we made our way to some local trails for some bike riding for the big kids, dirt biking for Rhett and a walk for me and Ryan.
We walked behind the boys as they zoomed ahead and waited for us to catch up on repeat and covered just over three miles in about an hour.
Before heading home home, we ate the lunches we packed and then stopped by Whit’s for some frozen custard.
A free sample of their flavor of the day quickly swayed me into ordering black raspberry custard. It’s not a flavor I’d normally gravitate toward but it was excellent and incredibly creamy.
By the time we made it back to our house, we were ready for some chill time. Ryan, Chase and Ryder fished while Rhett and I did a little baking (a batch of whole wheat pumpkin muffins) followed by some Legos.
We rounded out our evening with pizza and family movie night! We’re re-watching Alaska Animal Rescue and it’s been so fun to see places we visited during our Alaska family vacation pop up in each episode!
Sunday
Sunday was a fun one from start to finish! The boys are planning to do a the Strong Kids Triathlon over Labor Day weekend in September and the first official dad-led triathlon training session happened on Sunday morning.
Chase and Ryder did this triathlon last year and we were so impressed with the organization of a 300+ kid event that could easily feel incredibly chaotic. The big kids loved the event and wanted to do it again and this year Rhett said he wants in on the action, too! (Whether or not Rhett participates on race day is TBD so we’re registering him with the understanding he may feel overwhelmed and opt out at the last minute.) I paired up with Rhett for our mini training session while Ryan took off with Chase and Ryder!
Rhett and Ryder will be doing the kinder-tri (25-yard swim, 1 mile bike, .25 mile run) while Chase is registered for the Junior tri (100-yard swim, 4 mile bike, 1 mile run). We convinced some of our friends to head to Greenville with their kids and to the event with us so it will be an extra fun weekend!
Rhett and I biked one mile together on Sunday morning and then ran/walked a quarter of a mile before waiting for Ryan and the big kids to finish their slightly longer distances. (Ryder is training with Chase and Ryan because his speed aligns more with them than his 4-year-old brother.) Ryan switched up the order of events for their mini training session just to make things easier, so after their bike and run, the boys hopped in the lake with Ryan and swam from the little beach in our backyard to our dock.
Chase cracked me up when he requested a “warm bath with the salts” after their training session. Clearly he remembered me and Ryan raving about the muscle recovery bath salts we love when we’re super sore (especially helpful when Ryan was training for his Ironman races) or just really want a super-relaxing bath.
We spent the rest of the morning relaxing at home, organizing, fishing off the dock, playing with Brain Flakes and reading The Land of Stories.
(For any fans of the show Glee, it’s written by the actor who played Kurt!)
I began reading The Land of Stories with Chase and Ryder early last week and we are about halfway through the chapter book. I saw this book recommended everywhere and I can see why! It’s immensely creative and completely captivating for our big kids. I also genuinely love reading it as an adult and, after sharing this book and reading my DMs from you guys on Instagram yesterday, I have a feeling this whole series is going to be the biggest hit.
After lunch, our main plans for the day took us to my friend Carrie’s parents’ house on the lake where we had the best time rounding out our summer break and celebrating one of the boys’ best friend’s 8th birthday.
The boys had the absolute best time jumping off their double-decker 18-foot dock, even our fearless 4-year-old!
Chase and Ryder we also completely captivated by a little dinghy they were able to take around the cove near the dock and it officially surpassed a parrot as the number one thing on Chase’s Christmas list. He caught two bass aboard the dinghy yesterday and I think that’s what sealed the deal.
Eventually we made it home and poor Ryan was fading fast. Alaska travel followed immediately by his 7-day work trip to India was taking its toll on him and he was fast asleep by 7:30 p.m. I got the boys to bed a little on the later side (theme of the summer aaand we were really into Land of Stories) and eventually crawled into bed myself to read The Roomies until my eyes could no longer stay open.
Plans for the day include heading to the big kids’ school twice — once this morning for a parent-teacher conference and once later this evening for a back-to-school ice cream social with both big kids. Back to school week is officially in full swing! Enjoy your Monday, my friends!
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Super random question! Your Alaska trip looked amazing! Where did you get the fishing bibs? Did you buy them or did the charter supply them? Alaska has bumped up on my travel list!