Pseudo Staycation.

During the summer Sean's schedule changes; he works longs days Monday through Thursday, and gets a three day weekend (though there is often school work and consulting mixed in). With the Fourth of July falling on a Wednesday this year he was able to take some vacation time on Thursday, and turn it into a five day weekend. 

Our Fourth was pretty laid back. I spent the morning working on the new Constellation Owl line (launching today!), and then we went up to my parent's house later in the day to grill up some yummy food. Grilling has turned into Sean's job, and, boy, does he do it well. Yum.

Thursday we ventured up to Spruce Lake Retreat in the Poconos for the day. We generally go for a day trip every August with my whole family, but now that our youngest is getting older we'll be doing day trips ourselves a lot more often. We spent a couple hours in the pool, and then headed over to the playground. It wasn't too long before our tummies were begging to go to the snack shop for SLR's famous milkshakes.

When our tummies were full, the girls meandered around while the boys played mini golf, and then we met up again to take a short hike. I miss taking some of the longer, tougher trails that I hiked when I was younger, but I'm sure the littles will be ready for them soon enough!

We spent Friday around the house, with a quick stop at the library. The kids had new butterfly nets they wanted to test out, so we went outside in the morning while there was still some shade.

It's all fun and games until someone falls and gets a boo-boo.

We decided to stay close to home on Saturday as well. It was 100 degrees outside, and we were expecting storms. What does one do inside all day? Why, play with Legos of course! Taking inspiration from a couple of fun library books, we all set out to create our own Lego robots.

Sunday found us at our local zoo. We opted to stay local on account of the weather (again), and we knew it would be a less tiring trip for the whole crew. We hadn't been to this particular zoo in a while, so there were some fun new things to check out, and of course the old favorites.

This zoo sits on a game preserve, so there is some stunning scenery on the drive out. You can't see it here, but the zoo is actually nestled down in the valley below. Part of the parking lot is barely visible to the right of the bench underneath the railing.

I hope your holiday and the weekend was spectacular too! And in honor of Independence Day, take some time to read the Declaration of Independence!