Wow, guys. School is officially starting this week which means that summer … is over. In some ways it felt like the never-ending summer – we were home together almost constantly. But in other ways, it was honestly one of the most idyllic and relaxing summers I can remember having in a long time. Either way, good or bad, it’ll be a summer we remember forever because of how COVID-19 impacted everything from our jobs to summer vacation plans.

In honor of this most memorable of summers, I thought I’d put together a post with pictures of how we spent our time these past few months. Warning, it’s very picture heavy so if that’s not your thing .. sorry 😉

Summer kicked off with what was our only trip … a quick road trip down to Socal to visit the grandparents! We had to drive because I don’t know about you but we won’t be going to an airport anytime soon (ew, germs?) and because Kylo was only a few months old at the time, we had to bring him along too.

Masking at socially distanced rest-stops.

We learned on this trip that Kylo gets carsick… like, vomiting and nauseous puppy type of carsick. Not fun.

Finally made it to Socal and we were able to spend a few days with the kids’ grandparents and cousins. These maknae cousins are the cutest!

We came back home after a few days and A tried to cut her own hair for the first time… then got sad because she got in trouble for doing it.

There was a lot of reading…

and napping while reading …

and we started what was one of my FAVORITE traditions this summer – family movie night every Friday night with lots of snacks and a movie that all 5 of us would watch together. No exceptions!

I also had the big kids start their annual summer reading chart. I had them choose what their prizes would be if they successfully completed their charts before school starting again and they both wanted a sleepover/movie night.

E got to do some distance learning summer school. It was much different than the rushed and haphazard style distance learning the kids did in the spring and I was super impressed (spoiler alert, it turns out they’re using this format for the regular 2020-2021 school year, too, so I have high hopes)!

Slowly, certain things re-opened for in-person service like D’s taekwondo class (with a mask on, though).

And I finally managed to get an in-person appt to get a long overdue highlight and haircut. Yay!

We learned that Kylo has a major underbite, which is totally weird and not typical for his breed. He looks SO weird LOL!

There was lots of swimming at home both just with our 3 kids…

and with some select friends. I tried really hard to maintain some kind of a social bubble this summer so we only saw pretty much the same people over and over. I ain’t mad about it though, it made my introvert heart VERY happy.

There was lots of piano practice,

and some Pen & Page Gals podcast recording accomplished over the summer, too. If you haven’t heard my 4-hour long episode from June discussing the entire Throne of Glass series … you’re missing out!

Masking became the norm. I still think it’s slightly hilarious that so many Americans seem to be anti-mask. In Korea, masking has been normal for a LONG time, even pre-COVID. It was generally understood in Asia, even before the pandemic, that if you have some kind of cold or virus, you mask yourself to prevent from your germs spreading around everywhere. It’s not something that needs to be that controversial in my opinion…

My kids slowly turned brown from all the sun & swim they had.

• 

• 

• 

Kylo got neutered aka he turned into a man. I’m happy to say that he seems to have calmed down a lot since his surgery so that deserves a bunch of praise hands from me.

We had a ninja party at home (thrown together by one creative 6-year old boy).

We learned how big of a daddy’s girl A was (and how big a 딸바보 daddy was). I mean, I always knew she loved her daddy but having him home and available 24/7 has heightened this to new levels. She instantly notices when he’s not home (say, if he’s gone to the store or something) and cries for him to return.

We got some new front porch furniture finally. I’ve been enjoying my QTs sitting out there and now I don’t have to sit on the crazy looking Tommy Bahama chairs anymore!

We made it to the dentist to get all the kids’ dental check ups… their appointments were originally scheduled for March or April right as everyone was panicking and everything was closing so I’m glad we were able to get them seen eventually.

J & I also celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary! We didn’t want to get a sitter (because again, I’m trying to maintain that social bubble) so we spent the day with our kids…

then brought home take-out Japanese food from our FAVORITE restaurant and ate it in our backyard after the kids went to bed.

My in-laws sent us this amazing new patio set as an anniversary gift. It has a fire pit in the middle of it!

D discovered Dragonball and Street Fighter and now Hubby has a mini gaming partner for life.

Kylo got his first shave and had a MAJOR glow up. I can’t get over how much cuter he looks now that he doesn’t look like a homeless dog (hah)!

As summer drew to its close, the best sale of the entire year arrived .. Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale.

And as a final, last hurrah to summer .. my kids finally finished their whole summer reading chart (each sticker for the day meant they did a few pages of workbook, read a book, and practiced piano) so they earned their reward for a movie night sleepover. I kept it close with kids we’ve already been seeing all summer. I didn’t include any pictures but they’re also the kids we did our church’s virtual Day Camp (VBS) together with. We did it co-op style, where my kids went to someone else’s house for a few days and then other kids came to ours for a few days. It was crazy but fun and I know that my kids had the BEST week/weekend of their lives.

• 

• 

• 

A also officially became a big girl when we transitioned her to a big girl bed at the end of summer. She was SO PROUD of her new bed and kept telling me how much she loved it.

And last but certainly not least, we closed out the last weekend of summer with a puppy play date for little Kylo. The pooch that we had over is actually Kylo’s half brother (same dad, different mom)!

I’m a little sad to be saying goodbye to summer 2020. I keep telling Hubby, this is the first time I’ve had so much of his attention undivided for so long. It’s been fun 🙂