this summer has been unique for our family, because ian hasn’t been working! we feel so incredibly grateful that he has 2.5 months (paid) time off between jobs – what a huge luxury! it has been so, so wonderful to have this time all together as a family. we’ve tried to schedule a mix of chill, two-parents-on-deck time in london with travel-adventure time. in some ways this really big change of routine has been tricky and we have been stretched and refined in our marriage and parenting. but mostly it has been just so dang awesome!

here’s some photos from this summer, in between trips and visits and big events.

one of my all-time favourite things about london: flower boxes!! 
playground family fun:
 
the end of joy school (wipe a tear!) and lazy mornings hanging out in pjs:
 
this tiny blue car we spotted one morning just made moses’s day!
 
mo and gabe started playing together when they wake up in the mornings:

moses found this car at battersea park when we visited the children’s zoo there when my parents were in town. he probably spent a full thirty minutes in there before i was able to drag him away!
 
gabriel got to go on his first daddy date trip. he and ian went to dublin! ian has been there lots for work trips but has never been able to actually see the city. they had a blast together.
 
while ian and gabriel were in dublin, i took moses to legoland (just outside the city, near windsor)!
 
seeing “pharaoh” (moses is obsessed with the biblical story of moses and pharaoh) and a giraffe (one of his three favourite animals!) made of legos was a total thrill.
 
as was riding his first roller coaster, and playing at the lego splash pad!
 
our happy faces and our “scared faces.” while on the dragon roller coaster i looked over at moses and he had the most hilarious scared face on – it was the cutest thing ever. as soon as the ride stopped he asked if we could go again, so i guess he enjoyed it!!
 
we took our yearly picture down by westminster bridge. we had some maternity photos taken in this spot when i was pregnant with moses in early summer 2016, and then decided it would be fun to take a family picture in the same spot each year we live in london. too bad big ben has been covered in scaffolding the past two years! here’s some outtakes from this year’s photo snapping:
 
and here’s all four of our westminster bridge family photos… i kind of like how the picture gets less and less perfect with each year 😉
 
 
some play dates and sunshine enjoying in the garden:
 
and summer beauty in our neighborhood:
 
 

this summer, in between our travels and outings, gabriel started walking and moses turned three! ian and i settled on some new resolutions for this fall and ate too much ice cream (both of our all-time favourite treat). we tag-teamed with the kids to get lots of random things done, and we just so enjoyed being all together so much.