When The Weekend Is Your Friday Favorite

You know that feeling you get when it's the weekend? 

This girl is expressing what my heart is feeling on this very sunny Friday!

Summer is so good! Yet, with all the plans and fun, things can take on a life of their own in a hurry. Life has been crazy the past two weeks with our visitor and my second summer class starting. 

This blog has been dark but we've been so busy. I have so much to share about our DC trip and our recent adventures. But I'm behind because my second summer class has been BRUTAL! Physics...online. I feel like that speaks volumes. 

We are planning on slowing things way down for the next two days! Hope you have some plans (or non-plans) you are excited about this weekend!

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Linking up with these gals

Friday Favorites

I'm not quite ready for a recap of our DC trip but I wanted to join in on Friday Favorites. Yes, my favorites this week were most definitely our DC highlights. I'm so very glad we did the quick road trip up north to see the nation's capital. I believe everyone needs to see DC once in their life. The boys had never been, so we really wanted to give them the chance to see it. We walked 12 miles the day we fully committed to DC sightseeing. It was tiring but worth it! 

Standing outside the White House wasn't necessarily my favorite but seeing all the sights combined was. Nothing compares to standing on the Mall and seeing a 360 degree view of everything. It was my favorite this week! 

A very close second was visiting the National Museum of The Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia. 

What Marine could resist this visit? I'm pretty confident this is what hooked him for agreeing to this quick trip ;) Best tip for family trip planning...make sure there is something for everyone.

Everyone did (surprisingly) enjoy this museum. It was well done.

 Something for everyone means an amusement park with older kids. 

Always so thankful for SeaWorld parks free admission to military families 
every year. 

We picked the hottest day to go. 
Nothing like walking 9 miles in what feels like 107 degree heat. 

We were hydrating like it was our job! And riding all the roller coasters. 

Fourth favorite...I finally finished The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

All the reader comments were spot on. I did enjoy it. I thought it was a consistently good book from start to finish. I have never read a book set in Occupied France during WW2. I learned a lot. Yes, it's fiction, but it is sprinkled in truths. I love that kind of story. But, I finished it and I'm glad I read it and I would recommend it to others. I can see why you all sung its praises! 

It seems like there should be a fifth favorite but I don't have one. Friday is always a favorite. Today I'm taking some gals on a One Tree Hill tour of Wilmington. I've never seen this show and I'm going to be the designated photographer, so you can tell this will be a "favorite". Haha. 

Hope you all have a great week! What were your favorites from this week?

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Fishing. Swimming. And All The Summer Stuff.

I do believe July is right smack in the middle of summer. Hard. To. Be. Leave! I just finished a 5 week college course this week. My first indication of all the summer days we aren't getting back :(

If summering was an Olympic sport, this Semper Fi Fam would be making the USA proud! We have done all the summer things and continue to keep that pace :) 

We have been swimming...

and fishing.... 

and beaching....

and bike riding...

and fire working... 

and ice creaming and grilling. Am I getting good at making up nonsense words or what?!? We have been doing all the summer things! 

And just yesterday, we welcomed our very favorite honorary child (AKA Kyli's BFF from California) for a week visit. Which means we are going to do even more summer stuff and even more North Carolina sightseeing. I have been informed there is a mandatory One Tree Hill tour of Wilmington in the plans ;) Oh Netflix, you know how to revive every show ever made!

Happy Friday everyone!

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The Flippin Weekend

For the record, I have nothing against Monday through Friday. I'm on a school year work schedule so every summer day is the weekend ;) I'm always reaching for those clever blog post titles though.

We went to Camp Lejeune yesterday so the boys could have a pool day. D has been begging since school let out to swim. He could live in the water. I blame that Pisces sign :) I caught some great action shots off the diving board. The Flippin Weekend seemed a fitting blog title with all their stunts. I earned some major mom points for thinking to take those pictures :) Boys are awesome!

Of course, I sat pool side with my book. Finally getting to the raved about book, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I'm 40 pages in and, so far, I'm liking it. I'm not quite sure why I put it off so long. I think I hesitate with historical fiction for some reason. Don't get me wrong, I like every historical fiction book I read. Maybe I feel it's a big investment to digest all the information or it might be boring. I can't quite put my finger on it. But, I trust all the readers who commented that this was a very good book. I will let you know my opinion in a week :)

Hope you all have a Happy 4th! I'm a little confused on when this holiday starts. Do we start now or wait until Tuesday to celebrate?? Based on our island traffic, I think people are starting this weekend. Be safe and make good choices!

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June's Beach Reads

June's Beach Reads is the most fitting title for this post. Literally, I read every book this month at the beach. It's that time of year. Beach weather, plus, it's super convenient to just whip on over to the island for an hour or two. Anytime of the day is beach weather here so whenever we get a whim, we go. Book in tow!

Last month, I was a little embarrassed to devote an entire post to what I read in May. Only three books for the month. (One a very short middle grade that took me about 2 hours to read.) I probably should have just tagged those books on to the end of some weekly wrap up post :)  But, it's my chance to talk books, so I want a whole post! :) I really did love The Arrangment by Sarah Dunn. I think it is one of my top books of 2017. All your forever married readers will appreciate what the author was trying to say with her story. You might even apply those takeaways to your own relationships. When a book does that, I love it even more! I haven't read many books that really blew me away this year. Good books just not much with the "wow" factor.

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman is a good book. No 'wow' factor :) MGAMTTYSS uses some fantastical elements to tell a little girl's story of grief. She delivers several letters to unsuspecting people from her grandmother. Each character is both represented in fairytale and real life. It can get confusing at times. The overall story is still a good one! I am convinced Backman is an excellent writer and anything he writes will be good. I loved A Man Called Ove. And I think I will be picking up some more of his books in the near future.

Have A New Teenager By Friday by Dr. Kevin Lehman was another May start and June finish. This is a non-fiction parenting book.  I have to thank my first born for always making parenting books required reading! LOL. My take away from this books is give your teen consequences, responsibility, and don't save their ass when they get in a bind. Pretty much we are doing it all wrong over here! Partially kidding but I did learn a thing or two :)

Shall we move on to June books now?

  

Can I have a little cheer for sticking to my reading list this month?? I never do that! But... I have these books from the spring library sale and I really need to read them. I also had two library checkouts that needed to be returned. 

The Dry by Jane Harper was a highly anticipated mystery/suspense read for June. The basis of the story is two unsolved murders in a small town with the detective having a personal connection to the victims. The story resolves both murder mysteries. I had been reading and hearing all good things about The Dry. Modern Mrs. Darcy was dropping words like "favorite" and "top of 2017". Other reviewers were "blown away" and in "awe", so I thought I should get right on that! Let me say, I wasn't as "blown away" as others. It is a good book. Well written. The story flows nice and smooth. Not too boring but not too exciting. You get to know the characters. You like them. You feel the setting come to life. However, I didn't feel compelled to read this book. There were no late nights with this one. I think mystery genre readers will like this and feel all those super exciting feelings about The Dry. The rest of us are probably no better or worse off reading it or not reading it. 

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. This is definitely going to make my favorite books list in 2017. The premise of this book is an unsolved death in a family. The focus is all the inner feelings, connections, and relationships of the family members experiencing the loss. Every character reflects back as they wonder why and how this could have happened. I thought Celeste Ng captured those things very well. For me this book hit on a personal level. The relationship between the brother and sister in this family dynamic reminded me of my own sibling relationship. My own dependency on my brother in our crazy childhood and his increasing desire to distance himself (as a way of coping). It made me sad but it also made me understand too. This is why I love reading. It makes me consider other perspectives. I think if you love family dynamics and family drama, you will love this book. If reading this review makes you want to read this book right now, I will personally send you my copy. Just let me know in the comments :)

The Refugees by Viet Than Nyugen. This book was a collection of fictional short stories about Southeast Asian refugees' experiences. It was interesting and a quick read. I liked the short story format versus a novel by this author. If you like reading about the immigrant or refugee experience (one of my favorite things to read), then this book will be perfect. 

This month was a good reading month. I'm so happy about that. I have three books left from my Summer TBR: The Nightingale, The Lightning Thief, and Behind Her Eyes. Then I'm going to make another TBR with only light and fluffy books :)

Linking up with Jana and Steph for all the book recommendations you could want to read :)

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