Looking at all of our photos, it's clear that despite the pandemic, we managed to eke out a summer! We got in several trips, lots of swimming, and quite a bit of gardening. Things looked a little different this year, but it was still a good summer.
As mentioned in previous posts, we put a small pool on the back porch and it was well-used. R2, in particular, enjoyed jumping and splashing in a shaded, mosquito-free environment!
We made a trip to Beech Mountain, North Carolina in June and spent a while driving and hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains. We canoed Price Lake and enjoyed it so much we came back the next day.
We got to see Poppy several times, and he (as usual) humored the girls with their wishes.
We took a neighbor with us on a trip to Pickett State Park (one of our favorite nearby state parks!) for the weekend. The girls got to hike the Twin Arches Trail Loop in Big South Fork, which is a beautiful trail. It does involve a lot of stairs, but the girls didn't complain much. We also canoed the lake in the park (the girls used a paddle-board) and swam until well after dark. I'm glad we went early in the summer because trying to book a trip to state park cabins in the fall got exceedingly difficult!
In October, we took a trip to Gulf Shores. This was, by far, the riskiest thing we did all summer and had we known how bad mask compliance was in Alabama we probably would have skipped the trip. Regardless, I'm glad we were able to go and we all definitely enjoyed seeing the beach for a while.
As usual, we hit up the local gator reserve and the girls got to see some monster alligators. They even had a two year old gator that we were able to hold.
We also went on a dolphin boat tour. We didn't see many dolphins up close, but it was neat to learn more about dolphins in Wolf Bay and, honestly, it was just fun to be on a boat. 😆 Captain Jack let all of the girls steer for a bit and they really enjoyed that.
Over the summer I installed a fire pit in the backyard, and as the weather got cooler we enjoyed it more frequently. The girls (J, in particular) have gotten pretty good at starting fires; I consider that a good thing, with reservations. They have also learned when it's safe to build fires and when it's not (e.g., not on dry and windy days).
It stayed pretty warm all the way through late October here. Even Halloween was so warm that R1 ran around barefoot! Below you can see our Red Riding Hood, Harry Potter character, and vampire.
