July

July continued the trend of lots of time at the pool.  We stayed home for 4th of July weekend because I was away the weekend before, and Mark was away the weekend after.  It always proves to be a very relaxing weekend in our town.  Things kind of go quiet which I love.  It's like a calm settles in on the whole town.  Kind of weird when you think fireworks and such, but I just feel like everyone's very calm and happy about it.

At any rate, we were outside a lot.  We don't use our patio the way we should - our kids tend to be outside in the front, but I hope someday we will hang out there more.  Here is my shadow following me, and I took her picture because she carried her phone (a calculator) around all day, and would have pretend calls with people.  Harlow was the one she called the most.

 For the 4th, we walked into town to watch the parade.  Mark, Sawyer, and Isla were walking in the parade for Indian Princesses, and so it was just me and my girl.  We brought her chair and ended up getting a popsicle to stay cool while we waited.

It's always a great parade - we loved the fire trucks and vets marching.  There were lots of groups throwing candy and despite some over zealous kids by us Margot got enough to make her happy, and I was able to help some other young kids squirrel some away too because we had a front row seat and it would often come to my feet!

Here's our girl Isla marching.  She had a perma-grin on her face, and picked out her outfit herself - red/white stripes, and blue/white polka dots.

 This was the best shot I got of Sawyer.  They did come running up to Margot to give her a hug.

And I think my favorite picture from all of summer is this one.  The girls drew some chalk on the driveway and Mark got onto the ladder to take this picture from above.  Totally got this right - in summer you do just need to chill....

One other highlight from July was the first camping trip for the girls (minus Margot).  Mark and Ted had planned a night of tent camping for the kids which included some light hiking.  So our girls packed up and went off to Western Michigan on Friday to stay at their cousin's house.  These kids always have a great time together and as I understand it, this was no exception.  Charlie and Ben showed off their birthday present dirt bikes, and the girls even gave them a try (and liked).

On Saturday they all packed up into one car and were on their way to a park further north.  Here they are at the start of the journey which included hiking along the Lake Michigan shore.  They got some time to play/run up the dunes though it was windy and the water very cold, so no swimming.

They found a campsite not too far off the beach and set up tents.  Here they are playing around dusk in their jammies.  These long underwear that I bought for playing in the snow came in handy on this trip because it got chilly at night.

Mark tells me that Isla was "one with nature", and loved the experience.  I think all the kids did, but she seemed to revel in it and is a natural.  What can we say, our girls seems very content when allowed to run around in the woods so I guess we'll have to do more of that in the future.  Here they are hiking out in the morning about to head to the store for some much-wanted breakfast.

I think this might become an annual trip which will be nice.  Margot didn't go this year but in the future may be able to do it.  Instead, she and I stayed home and relaxed.  We walked into town for dinner, frozen yogurt and to see the car show.  The next day we hit up the farmers market and spent the day playing with our neighbor Lily, and before we knew it they were home.