Goodbye Summer

 The last full day of summer just happened to coincide with Brigitta's birthday. I wasn't sure if she would want to do all our goodbye to summer traditions on her special day but she was all for it! We did throw in a little twist by trying out Beacon Doughnuts. Reagan brought this to my attention and I wanted to try it out. This place is located in an alleyway. Literally. Like there's a line of dumpsters before you reach the door.

Of course Gita wanted the birthday cake flavored doughnut and we happened to get the very last one!

I have to say, this place definitely lived up to the hype, the doughnuts were really good.

I'd heard raves about the blueberry pancake and it was so yummy!

Gita was pretty please with that birthday cake doughnut too.

This alleyway is painted with some incredible murals. I snapped this first one but for the rest I just handed my phone to the girls while I paid for the doughnuts. 

I love this last one. They look so happy. Hmmm, no individuals of Sydney so either she didn't want her picture taken or she got lost in the shuffle, poor thing!

This one was closer to the street. Ireland is doing her Iron Man pose.

I was able to capture a great Black Widow pose with Gita's hair mid-flip.

From there we headed to Buckingham Fountain.

Such posers- haha!

There's always the initial toss and then the sneaking under the fence for the real toss.

I honestly thought the girls wouldn't want to spend much time at Maggie Daley Park. We'd been there earlier this summer not to mention Liesel and Ireland are growing out of parks but we discovered this little corner we hadn't been to before. 

Honestly no one was really playing in this area but seeing the girls sway wildly from side to side created a bit of inspiration because it was packed by the time we left.

Interestingly, Sydney preferred to be on her own boat and to stay in the middle (I had to ask her to pose for this picture and you can see a little trepidation on her face). Even though that was a soft landing if she fell, she didn't want to tumble out of the boat.

Because we'd been to the Bean with Vanessa and Elizabeth, the girls were happy to skip photos and just snap this one. They were eager to move on to Crowne Fountain!

I'd seen this trick with water where you turn your phone upside down and get the reflection. The only problem is that with my phone upside down and the bright sun, I really had no idea how the photo was looking. I just snapped away hoping they'd turn out. Lots of them did!

Some of them weren't so good, like this one. The water I was snapping on had to be perfectly still and well, at the end of the day this is really a splash pad.

I'm so sad this shot of Ireland ended up a little blurry because she did a beautiful kick there!

Liesel recreated it and hers is clearer.

I think the water just wasn't deep enough in this one- it's not as smooth there at the bottom.

I really want to figure out this technique because when it works it's pretty cool!

It's like Sydney found her mirror friend.

Let's see that a little closer.

I think they like each other!

Gita was running around having so much fun, it was hard to pin her down for a photo at all let alone one with a tricky set up.

Liesel is so patient, she let me take as many as I wanted.

Love this one- Ireland looks like such a boss!

A couple more of Gita that turned out OK.

They were making water angels when their hands touched at the same time.

This one was originally in slow-motion and it looked so cool!

Sydney looked like a little summer Superman running back to the car with her towel flying.

In so many ways, this was a banner summer. It was busy, fun, progressive, hard, heartbreaking, and a growing experience. Liesel will be old enough to get a job next summer and do FSY. We are also looking at some other opportunities like Cougarette Camp at BYU and maybe doing the Nauvoo Pageant. I feel the closing of a chapter in our family as this is the last summer we will have like this. It just won't ever be the same again!