Oh yeah, I was in Hilton Head. I still have many more HH adventures and photos that I want to share on the blog, but I am feeling the need to catch up to present day a little bit. Maybe I’ll trot Hilton Head stuff out mixed in with current stuff. I don’t know. It’s a lot of photos to plow through, but so many good ones! This one of my nephew Cody might be my favorite:

A few days after we got back from Hilton Head we celebrated Cal’s 10th birthday, which I did manage to at least mention on the blog.

Cal kicked off his birthday by opening presents, including an awesome card from his cousins Hope and Grace:

I asked Cal what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said he wanted to go to Fossil Park pool, so we did.

This would be our last trip to Fossil Park pool for the summer. See you next summer high dive!

For Cal’s birthday dinner he requested Chinese buffet, so we went to Lee Garden.

After dinner it was time for cake. Here’s a video for the grandparents (it’s just a minute and a half):

and here’s the photo you see me taking in the video:

Cal’s birthday also included a visit from the tooth fairy for Mack:

Cal’s birthday present from Mom & Dad (and in lieu of a party) was a trip to Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure a couple of days later with his best bud Joey Z.…

Of course our main reason for going there was to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I hope to write a separate blog post about this if I can manage to sift through all of the photos. But here are a couple more…

Butterbeer mustaches:

We had a blast. Many thanks to my friend MomJovi for her awesome blog post about TWWOHP…lots of great tips. Also, thanks to my friend Kathy for her tips too!

The day after we got back from Orlando, we saw a random rainbow that Chad photographed from our back porch:

There was actually a faint double rainbow…it was really beautiful IRL (that’s “in real life”, Mom).

The next day was the first day of school!

Somebody was really excited about going back to school…

and somebody is too cool for school…

New teachers…Mrs. W (5th grade) and Mrs. F (2nd grade):

Right after the first day of school was over we went to give all our money to Office Depot for school supplies.

On the second day of school we resumed our morning walks…

The sun wasn’t even really up yet. School starts an hour earlier this year…yikes. We are definitely still not used to the new schedule. We have to leave our house at 6:30!

On the third day of school Cal became a safety patrol.

We survived week one barely. This week there is an Open House (Mack’s is on Wednesday, Cal’s is on Thursday) to meet the teachers and see their classrooms. I walked them to class the first day, but after that I had Chewie with me for the walks, so I haven’t been back on campus. We already know Mrs. F because she was also Cal’s second grade teacher. I will start volunteering in their classrooms soon. Joy.

Saturday I went to a big scrapbooking event in Tampa. This is me and my friend Andrea…

There were over 500 scrapbookers at this event.

Apparently scrapbooking is not completely dead. I got both of the boys’ school albums up to date, then headed home before the event was over because I had a meeting of the Secret Society to attend. (click on the “Secret Society” tag in the “Stuff I Blog About” section in the side bar on the right to read about other meetings of the Secret Society)

The theme for this meeting was “Sexy Cowgirls”.

Apparently I was the only person in the society who does not own a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. Luckily, they did not censure me. I borrowed a friend’s hat for a photo, at least.

I was not allowed to enter the bareback riding contest, however.

Okay, so I think that is pretty much everything fascinating that has happened since Hilton Head.

I am struggling to get out of the summer time/vacation mode and get back in the day to day routine. Just like last summer, all the parties and friends and vacations and amusement parks caught up with me and got the best of me by August. I ran twice while in Hilton Head (3 miles and 4 miles, respectively) and we did a lot of biking there, but since then…nothing. Well, just walking. I haven’t been running since and I haven’t gone to the gym. I’m thinking it’s back to Bodypump tomorrow. It’s daunting, because I know I’ll feel weak and then sore. And I MUST RUN SOON! There is the little matter of a half marathon coming up in November. Help!