The Little Things that Summer Brings

It wouldn't be summer without the little things that make summer. 

So here are our little things of summer. 

Broccoli's best friend, Soy Bean had a birthday.

 

The birthday party was cowboy themed, with horse back rides to boot!

B was in heaven.

 Zucchini! Harvesting vegetables is amazing in the eyes of a three year old.

 Feeding ducks with her cuz.

 B's best friend, and neighbor. (Yes, everyone is her best friend).

Sunday summer dresses are my favorite.

It wouldn't be summer without rides on Uncle Chris's boat.

 We learned how to wake surf.
 (Let's just say it took me a while to figure it out, and Chris has a lot of patience, but once I got a hang of it, it was a lot of fun, I like it much more than wake boarding).

 They love the boat. Minus the life vest part.

Even B tried her hand at wake surfing, we "Uncle" Jesse.  (Uncle Chris's good friend and roommate).

Here are the pictures in order from start to finish.

Getting in position for the boat to accelerate.

Accelerating.

Adjusting.

 Balancing.

And finally he can toss in the rope. (For the record, i can't surf without the rope - so this guy can and with a kid no less).

Boating smiles for Dan Dan.

Would it be summer without parades?? Nope, we finally made it to one parade this year. 

Exploring a children's museum.

Oh, Anna comes to our to play every now and then. 

Family time up at our friend's cabin. 

She gave herself a big fat hickey around her mouth.  

(She did so by sucking on a plastic basket around her mouth. She would inhale to keep it stuck to her face without having to hold it, unintentionally giving herself a hickey - it only last a week thank goodness).

Can you guess who?

Wouldn't be summer without some owies.

My first dress I sewed together for her. It is the practice dress. 

You can add your own caption to this one.

We love sidewalk chalk.

Zoo days. 

Summer evening walks.  (Probably the thing I miss the most when summer ends).

First dentist visit, with no cavities!

 And this one, chipped her front tooth when she fell in the bathtub.

 If we had problems telling them apart in pictures, we sure fixed that one.

 We did survival swim lessons this summer. 

It trains your children how to stay alive if they fell into water without any floatation. It was pretty traumatic for the little one. Snuggles a plenty when she was done with her lesson.

And one of our summer highlights. 

After months and months of trying to convince/bribe/peer pressure her into it, she finally rode on Daddy's motorcycle with him! And it was on her own. She woke up one Saturday morning and said, "Daddy I want to ride on your bike." We were astonished and quickly ran outside before she changed her mind. Since then she has been asking for rides daily. 

Summer you have been good to us. We will miss you.

4th of July

Around the 4th of July we went to the Airshow that came to town.

Brad loves planes. He loves helicopters. He loves jets. Pretty much there is nothing about an airshow that does not make him giddy. He is usually a very quiet man, keeps to himself, except when you get him around, planes, jets, and helicopters. 

It's actually quite endearing to see him act like he does around them.

Of course, we are attracted to all things dogs, so we loved to watch the demonstration of how the Air Force trains dogs.

 And the show begins....

 

Our kids are great sports. 

And the Thunderbirds... one word: 

AWESOME.

 On the actual holiday, I had this great idea that we should go for a hike.

On a trail I had never been on. On a very hot day. That was 4 miles. With only one child carrier. I thought B could at least do 2 miles, I was wrong. 1 mile is all she could do. Brad carried her the other 3.

 It was beautiful.

Needless, to say we were dead tired by the time we got back to the car. And pooped the rest of the holiday.

However, after long naps and cold showers. By the evening we were ready for some playtime. We had an impromptu block party with our cul-de-sac. We ate candy and played with sparklers, watched fireworks together then lit our own. It was a fun night enjoyed by all. It was nights like that, that makes me hope no one moves from our circle. Nights like that I will hold onto forever. It wasn't fancy. It wasn't even planned, and yet it was a perfect summer night.

Girls Camp

 Right after our trip to Browne Lake, Brad and I did an overnight backpacking trip with the youth in our church. Seriously, though I mean right after. We got home from Browne Lake on Sunday to head up to this overnighter on Monday the next day.

 Every year the girls attend a week of camping in the mountains, we call this "Girls Camp". I attended girls camp as a teenager and I loved it, I love it as a leader even more. While at camp the girls must pass certain requirements. For the 14 year olds they must do an overnight backpacking hike that Brad and I were over. Thanks to wonderful neighbors our girls went and played for two days while we roughed it.

Here is a slideshow I made for the girls to watch, so you can peek into a week of Girls Camp.

For some reason the video will not pull up in blogger from youtube so I just have to link it:

Girls Camp Video

Browne Lake

 It is catch up time. 

We've had a wonderful summer that lasted well into the fall. 

This year we made our yearly family camping trip to Brown Lake. It seems because we have babies we only make it every other year. 

This just so happened to be the best weather I have ever seen here. AND it wasn't busy. As of recent years the Lake has become more and more popular. However, this year we owned the Lake except for just a few people. It was amazing. 

 My girls favorite thing... was the dirt. They loved to play in the dirt. 

Major  clothes soaking took place after this trip and the water was  black.

 Broccoli loved all the little people she got to play with from sun up until sun down.  A social butterfly's dream.

 Dogs and dirt bikes.

This dog and the sun.

 The view from camp.

 First fish (her cousin did most of the work)

We started out every morning fishing with Uncle Mike.

B was her shadow. 

One of the cutest little girls you will ever meet, and she is everyone's friend instantly.

Lots of naps.

We brought a ton of glow sticks and they were a hit on our last night. We did a big bon fire, stuffed ourselves full of s'mores, listened to stories, acted silly and enjoyed the moment.