July

Gramps is doing great at the memory care facility where he's lived for about a year now. They get to go on outings and he's recently visited a drive-thru zoo!

Chris and I visited a new peach orchard last summer during their festival which was way to "peopley" so we opted to visit the weekend before their festival this year. The peaches were still great and we were practically there by ourselves! Win win!

I got together with a girl from my school to paint rocks for a local student fighting cancer. We even got the school staff and families to join us to paint more!

Our library has hosted a few puzzle races but we've had conflicts with the dates until now!! Chris and I were the only two there at the start, so we had to battle against each other (he's not really into puzzles....). I've never consciously tried to do a puzzle quickly, it's always been more of a relaxing activity, so it was fun to try. We'll have to try again sometime and hope for more competition!

We had a tree taken out from the front yard. Its roots were cracking up the driveway, it oozed liquid, and had a large root that made it difficult to back the camper into the carport. A friend from school recommended a company and they did a great job! Since it was during the summer, it provided great entertainment for me! :)

We've never seen Betty and Terry's house so clearly!

We should've warned the neighbors they were about to have a very sunny backyard!

We had a chance to go see Hunter swim in his tournament!

A little time on the water with friends!

 We also saw Hannah's performance for her summer theater camp. It was a fun show!

Owen stayed with Nana and Grandpa and attended a bowling camp with Hunter. They each got a new bowling ball and got to pick out the weight and color!

The kids' friends had a slip-n-slide at their grandparent's house. It was the perfect hill and a classic way to finish up the summer!

Chris and I celebrated our 20th anniversary with dinner reservations to a new restaurant!

Summer Fun: slip-n-slide, cookies, first official haircut, catch, s'mores, bike riding, cousin time, diving board fun!

Summertime = water fun!

Kim and I took the kids blueberry picking and to the library for the Dare Devil Dogs. They were amazing! Can you spot them in the air? We were all amazed!!

Owen's preschool buddy Kathryn invited us over for a slip-n-slide playdate at her house. They certainly have a good hill in their backyard for it!! 

Here goes Willow!! Watch out for the grass!

Andrea was pretty brave to host so many kiddos at her house being 8+ months pregnant! She even had a water balloon race!

The kids get more and more helpful with baking as they get older! I think this was Owen's first time helping the entire time!! We made some yummy snickerdoodle cookies from a kids cook book from the library. 

70-degree weather with low humidity makes for great reading conditions after the kiddos go to bed!

I've done my best attempts at trimming Willow's hair throughout the years. She's been sick of her tangled ends for a couple months so I asked if she'd like to get a bit more cut off for the summer. One of our neighbors cuts hair out of her basement so we walked over and got on her schedule. Willow said she'd like this haircut:

She was trying to hide her smile the whole time at the end. She was so excited to show both sets of grandparents her hair and tell them all about it. When we "paused" her talking and talking and talking about her hair so Owen could talk, she then said, "Can we go back to talking about my hair now?" Lordy!! I think she likes it! It certainly made her look all grown up! We'll see if mama can style it well enough to keep it looking cute now!

Playing catch!

S'more time!!

Willow was not so crazy about the idea of getting back on her bike this summer. Clearly we should've made it more of a priority throughout the school year so it wasn't such a battle. She's practiced for 15 minutes every day this week, so we'll see if we can get the training wheels off by the end of the summer this time...

Check her out going to the end of the culdesac.

We had fun playing in the backyard and at the mall with the cousins this week!

Puzzle progress has been   s  l  o  w

We headed to a local pool this afternoon and Owen tried the diving board for the first time (not without needing a lot of encouragement though!!). He did great! Check out his first jump and both kids going at the same time.