I would say that the Deans made the most of Summer 2015!
And we sent Summer off in style with a trip up to Kingland, TX to stay at this awesome lake house with my parents, sisters and their husbands, kids/dogs. The lake house was such a perfect house for Olivia - there was a huge basement with two beds in it that had its own separate door to the outside. So, Matt, Olivia and I could all sleep in the same room (a fact which Olivia repeatedly claimed to be the "best part of the trip") and we could take her outside in the mornings when she woke up at the crack of dawn! It also had a huge back yard that backed up right onto Lake LBJ which was perfect for both kids in the family - Olivia and Crosby.
For Matt and I, one of our favorite parts of the trip were the mornings. We would sit outside with our coffee, watch the sun come up over the lake, and visit with my parents (who Olivia wakes up as soon as she does) and Aunt Yazzie (who was up bc of Crosby) while Olivia played in this huge, open backyard. Pretty perfect.
This picture I caught of Olivia and Yazzie hugging. I mean. I can't even.
Since this was vacation, I loosened up on the rules - Olivia ate tons of junk food, stayed up way too late, and wore either this outfit or her bathing suit the entire weekend. And just a little story for the memory book - I ordered this dress off Zulily a few weeks ago. She's obsessed with tutus and dark purple, so I thought maybe we could create some sort of fairy princess ballerina type thing for Halloween. Well, as soon as I took it out of the package, it has pretty much been on her body. She wears it as soon as she gets home from school and sleeps in it most nights. Then she yells at me in the morning about why she can't wear it to school. But, on vacation, she can wear the same thing as much as she wants!
The backyard had this little angel statute that Olivia was obsessed with. She carried it around like a babydoll, played school with it, played doctor with it, and made us take pictures of her with the angel.
As soon as Aunt Naz woke up in the morning, Olivia was ready to play her new favorite game "Pull the girls" where she pulls Yasmin and Nazreen around and laughs hysterically. This game originated night before (about an hour past bedtime when she was in the delirious stage - that one is right before mega meltdown!) and could barely breathe she was laughing so hard.
The yard also had this great climbing structure
She was anxious to explore the lake. First was Grandpa's turn to take her.
And then Aunt Yazzie
And, once the sun came out a bit more, we all headed down for some lake fun.
Another perk that we enjoyed was no schedule and no plans. We filled the days with...
Puzzles
Got our hair braided
Cuddled with Crosby
Played some ping pong (pretty sure this was Matt's favorite part of the weekend, and was so glad my dad played with him!)
Took some selfies (I'm guessing this was one of Naz's favorite parts of the weekend)
And made homemade whipped cream
For the past 2 years, we have also included an early birthday celebration for Matt at this annual Mehta vacation. At Casa Dean, September is a crazy month between the annual Mehta vacation, Olivia's birthday and Matt's birthday, so being able to enjoy Matt's birthday celebration while on vacation is a great luxury for us and helps me by leaving a little bit of free time in September - a precious commodity! We love these "Mehta" birthday celebrations that my mom has instituted and being able to celebrate with the whole family together (even if it is a few weeks early) is a great treat for us!
And when we got back home on Monday, we said good-bye to summer with a trip to our neighborhood pool for a few more dives off the board.
On Monday evening back at home in Houston, we sat down together and ate a healthy dinner (with no dessert), took a bath, put on a real nightgown, and did our normal bedtime routine before we got in bed for our normal bedtime. As I was cuddling with her, she asked me "Mommy, why is everything regular?" When I inquired deeper she said "Well, like why did we have healthy dinner? And why am I going to bed at 'eight zero zero'?" Hard to explain vacation rules to a 3 year old! ;) But I assured her that we have plenty of fun weekends coming up when we can break the rules a little! This was such a fun summer, but I think we are all ready for some cooler weather and Fall activities!
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