blessed beyond measure

With just over an hour to spare in this week, guilt helps me stick to the plan. Long live the project. One photo of each boy, every week, doing their thing. Not that these haphazard pics aren't precious, but deeper content is coming. Promise.

As we cower in our shades-drawn, well-insulated home whispering sweet nothings to our AC amid triple-digit swelter outside, these boys are sticking it to boredom and basking in creative glow. This boy is a geographer. If he's on his computer, he's on Google earth street view, traveling up and down the east coast and studying how the interstate system is designed. If he's not on his computer, well, enter cartographer. And there's Virginia. And that's my Trey. This boy is a pilot. Sometimes a police officer, but more often a pilot. Any horizontal surface in our home is a potential runway and parking lot for any of his dozens of planes. In a show of maturity, the planes rarely crash anymore. Instead, commander Aden guides his fleet along highly complex and always-successful missions. With perfect sound effects, by the way. One photo of each boy, every week, doing their thing.

Trey's birthday was a bit of a marathon. On his actual birthday, we were on our second day of travel home from vacation. And just with summer schedules the way they have been, we decided to break his festivities up into smaller parties. First up, the spaghetti dinner and triple-cupcake celebration with Giga and Poppop in Florida. Later, back home, a friend party. Ethan and Isaiah came over for lunch and cake, then a trip to the pool for the afternoon. Finally, our little home party. Complete with three-quarters of a cake (what was left from the friend bash) and the pitching machine this sweet boy has been begging for. Hope you had a great birthday, Trey!

To sunny Florida we went. Beyond excited, and desperately needing some time to chill, smack in the middle of a non-stop summer. I've taken beach-foot pictures before, but this one has a different story. I sprained my ankle in the ocean on our first full day, and spent the next almost-three sitting on the couch. Which was a bummer. But I did end up getting more chill time than anyone else! Now on to the fun. On the way home, we took a winding detour that brought us to Mount Airy, North Carolina. All four of us loooove the Andy Griffith show, and a visit to Mayberry was just right up our alley. It was low key, but very cool to see all the originals. And now when we watch, we can say we've been there. Sort of. Thanks so much to Giga and Poppop for having us and taking such good care of us, as always. It was a super-fun, relaxing, memorable vacation!