A few summer getaways

Well, despite being ridiculous busy with the selling of our house and the re-doing of our new house, we did manage to sneak away and have some fun this summer. We took two "mini-vacations", the first one being up to our old stomping grounds, Flagstaff.

And, yes, this almost happened. But it didn't. We decided a few months ago that the boys were getting to a good age to start thinking about getting another puppy. We got our first dog at the pound in Flagstaff and have always wanted to go back there when we adopted again. We decided if we found the perfect pup we would bring it home. This one came close, but in the end we decided we just had too much on our plate right now, but we promised the kids we would keep looking to add a furry family member. (At this point we are thinking it might end up coming from Santa this year!)

After our pound trip we hit up one of favorite restaurants/breweries, and enjoyed the beautiful weather and being able to actually sit outside on a summer day!

(The kids had a blast playing in the old phone booth downtown!)

And you can't take a vacation with kids and stay in a hotel without letting them have some good pool time. It's funny though, because they usually end up cold since we are use to swimming in 80 degree pools in 100+ degree temperatures!

Baby snuggles in a hotel

We had to hit our favorite dog-inspired bagel shop in the morning, and then spent the rest of the day hanging out at the gorgeous lake just outside of town!

It was a perfect little weekend getaway, especially getting away from the heat. And I have to include this last picture which is the very reason why I love this little town so much. These signs were on practically every single business. So much love.

And our second getaway was, of course, off to California. The boys love going to papas house, and we always get some much needed adult time while grandma and grandpa help out with the kids!

(So sweet, I could die. He loves when papa lays down with him at night!)

We also got to sneak away and have a beach day with a couple of my best high school girlfriends. I love how we can always pick up right where we left off, not matter how long it has been since the last time we hung out. I love these girls, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture until the very end and only Kati and I were left!

We spent a majority of this trip just relaxing at the beach. The weather was perfect and all of our kids are finally old enough that the love it! Plus, it's pretty much the most relaxing and peaceful thing ever.

And of course you can never have a vacation with three kids without some sort of injury! Poor L got into a fight with the gate on his grandma's house trailer... needless to say the trailer won. Luckily it was just a bad bump/scrape and he bounced back pretty quickly!

So, we didn't get to sneak away as much as we usually like to during the summer, but these two small trips definitely helped break up the summer!