Summer {Blog Nesting Day 4}

 Alright, Day 4! I'm really pushing it tonight (yet again) to get this done before midnight... But I WILL publish this post before midnight! Here goes... Summer for the Davis' looked a lot like this:

 Brandon climbing in and out of church vans for weeks at a time. We were without the Daddy person for 5 1/2 weeks of the summer this year. There were days (if I'm honest) I wasn't sure we were going to survive the day. But God's grace was (as it always is) sufficient for me and my crazy little crew.

 The fact that Brandon was leading trips like camps and mission trips and seeing lives changed for God's glory made it worth the time. It was tough but I know God was glorified in it!

Because of all the time he spent away, when he was home and able to just hang out with us, we made the time count! Here are a few of the things we got to do together as a family:

 Spending the day at the pool was a favorite for all of us...

 How cute are these little swimmers?!?

 Sun screen, floaties, pool toys, goggles, volleyballs (okay, not sure how the volleyball actually fits in the pool scene. Except that it's there. moving on...)

 We had lots of fun in the sun together!

And yes... The pictures above are of our oldest child jumping into the deep end, off the dive rock and swimming back to the side of the pool... without a floatie on! Can you say, CREEPY?!? How is it that my child is able and old enough to swim??

We worked on him learning how to swim at the beginning of the summer without his floatie just around the steps for the last 30 minutes or so before we got out of the pool. I would have him swim to me and then back to the steps. By the middle of the summer he had turned into a fish and was swimming all over the pool! I developed a new level of trust in the Lord over this matter and it took me a few weeks before I stopped feeling physically ill watching him swim. Seriously, I felt like I could throw up any minute watching him... But I had to give it up! And trust the Lord. Even with my little fish boy.

 Some truly precious moments and memories made right here...

 See what I mean?? Priceless.

 This is one of Tristan's favorite things about Daddy coming to the pool with us. He loves to be thrown high into the air by his Daddy!

Another activity that got us through the summer was gymnastics! Both Tristan and Peyton started taking gymnastics one day a week... They are loving it! And they are really good at it too!

 Showing me their back bends...

 Lifts on the wall

 Climbing and sliding wall. They do a lot more than I have pictures of. This is just what they had worked on that day. They really love getting to do gymnastics and of course getting 

taught by Mrs. Hilary!

If you spent any time around my boys this summer, chances are you heard about their fascination with a certain bug. Now, all boys have fascinations with bugs at some point or another simply because they are boys and boys love bugs. But we had an overwhelming population of a certain bug around our house that caused us (as a family) to do research and find out more about our little friends. The bug is the Cicada. In the evening you could sit in our house and listen to the very loud hums of the Cicadas who perched in our trees. So loud, the boys kept asking what the noise was so we did our research! And spent time learning about the little loud bugs.

 Doing a little Cicada research... Here are a few fun Cicada facts we learned:

• These cicadas have been 1-9 feet underground for 17 years, waiting for this summer to crawl to the surface. 
• The noise you hear from cicadas is the male singing to attract females. He makes the sound by vibrating membranes on the side of his body, underneath his wings. 
• The song of just one periodical cicada can be as loud as nearly 90 decibels. If you're standing right next to him, it would sound as loud as a power lawn mower!
• Cicadas are NOT locusts. Locusts are migratory insects related to grasshoppers.
• The brown casings you'll find are the cuticles (called 'exuviae') cicada nymphs shed after they emerge from the ground and molt into adults.
• Females cut a small slit in young branches with their ovipositor, then drop the eggs into the space.
• Female cicadas will lay eggs about a week after they emerge. After 6 weeks, the eggs will hatch, and the babies, called nymphs, will drop to the ground, where they will burrow into the soil for another 17 years.
• Developing cicada nymphs feed underground on plant roots while adult cicadas feed on above-ground plant parts of trees and shrubs. 
• Cicadas are edible. You can look for recipes online.

(And no, if you're wondering, we did not try to eat any Cicadas. Although the boys would probably have thought that was cool.)

 We actually found a Cicada nymph still in it's shell, trying to find a place to perch and shed. We marked him on his back with a marker so we could search for his casing (or "shell" as we call them) the next day.

Here's our little friend before he shed his shell

 Here's his shell the boys found the next morning! It was very exciting!

 One morning we spent 2 hours walking around the house picking up shells. Each of the boys had a little bucket and by the end of our hunt they had picked up... Brace yourself... 335 Cicada shells!! I am not even kidding you. AND we are still finding more to this day. We had a lot of fun learning about our Cicadas!

And last but not least, that I want to cover tonight before I publish my post is, by far, my favorite... Not just of our summer activities but one we make a habit in our weekly routine and that is our Family Worship time. Here is Brandon reading to the boys out of the Jesus Story Book Bible. We have loved going through it as a family and seeing how Jesus (the Rescuer, as the book calls Him) was the plan from the very beginning to reconcile God's children back to himself. And not only the people but the earth that is broken in sin.

Beautiful conversations about the Lord and times of prayer continue to happen in our home on a daily basis. I love love LOVE these moments and cannot wait until the day we get to see the little hearts of our boys open and ready to take their first steps in their walk with our Savior. What a day that will be! Lord, may it be soon!