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Well.  It’s the end of summer.

I’m not quite sure how this sneaked up on me so quietly and quickly, but here we are.  I like the beginning of the school year only because of the establishment of a routine again.  By this time, we’re all needing one.  Mostly me.  I like routines.  They please my OCD soul.

This end-of-summer brought all sorts of excitement.  Here it is, in pictures:

The end started with a little trip out to see the Fahrnbruch’s in Aurora at their new place.

And continued with a little back-to-school shopping with Tara.

And then Dad had heart surgery, and Mom and I slept like little Chinese women on 3-foot long hard vinyl couches.

His surgery went very well, and he’s recovering well.  Just last night he made his first venture out to Concordia’s opening service.

And then a trip to the Seward County Fair for some much needed fun.

And then school started for Tara.

And today school starts for me.  Good-bye summer!

The kids begged to set up a lemonade stand on Friday.  Begged.  And I caved, despite the fact that we did not, in fact, have any lemonade.  But we had cherry limeade and that would suffice.  They had 9 customers total.  And a blast.

And then right as they were getting bored with their new business, it downpoured.  With no thunder or lightning and weird sunny skies.  Which led to this frolicking:

What a great day for childhood memory formation.

This past week we did our two-day “vacation” to Lincoln.  The kids have dubbed it the “Embassy Suites Vacation”, because that’s where we stay, and now that this is year three of staying there for this end-of-summer get-away, I think the name has stuck.  And I think a family tradition has been established.  YAY!

We drove to Lincoln on Tuesday, ate McDonald’s and went to Lost in Fun before checking into the hotel.  I didn’t take a single picture while we were there, because I left my camera in the car and was lazy.

Checked into the hotel and went to the pool!

We took a break for the free drinks and snacks, and ordered a pizza to round out dinner, went back to the pool, then headed up to the room.  The kids crashed in their bed with movies before sleeping.

On Wednesday after breakfast, we caught a $2 showing of “Mr. Popper’s Penguins”, lunch at Noodles, and then the Children’s Museum.

After the museum, it was more of the pool, snacks for dinner, and movies before bed.

On Thursday we got up, had breakfast, went to the pool one last time before checking out, and headed to Applebee’s for lunch.  After lunch we went to the Lincoln Children’s Zoo.

And then returned to Seward for Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes with Gravy and Sweet corn for dinner with Grandpa and Grandma Royuk.

Awesome.