4th of July!

While we were trying to recover from our Alaska trip, we jumped right into summer activities, which included dance camp for the girls, swim team for Ben, Vacation Bible School, Arts Alive camp, and Lacrosse Camp. But besides of all that fun stuff, we can't forget to mention the 4th of July fun we had!  We started out with a yummy and patriotic breakfast...

Our new house is nice and close to the parade route, so the Acuff's came over, we loaded up the wagon and walked to our spot on the route that Paul had saved with blankets the night before.  I must say he picked a perfect spot as we were in the shade for the entire parade, which is not an easy task to accomplish when you consider the parade is about 2 hours and the sun moves a lot during that time!  

The girls eagerly awaiting the start of the parade!

Cutie

Eating candy...the kids' favorite part of the parade of course!

We had a bbq at our house after the parade for lunch and then headed over to our friends' the Kurby's to celebrate Joey's 5th birthday!  After the birthday party (where we had a great time swimming and catching up, but didn't take any pictures), we came home right in time to catch the fireworks!  Another perk to our new house...we can walk to a great spot to view the fireworks put on at the Arlington Race Track.  We got into PJ's, loaded up the wagon again and went with neighbors that showed us the good spot! 

The kids were exhausted, but real troopers!

That weekend we had a few close friends from school over to see our new house for a backyard bbq.  While we had everyone there, we decided to go ahead and sing happy birthday to Abbey with cupcakes since her birthday was the very next day.  Sweetly, she also wanted everyone to sing to Juliette since her birthday is only 6 weeks after Abbey's, so we sang to both of them!

And then we had patriotic popsicles too!

It was a great 4th of July weekend!

Jump into Summer

After we got back from Alaska, it took us a while to recover from the trip. But that didn't stop us from jumping into summer fun! We made sure to go to the strawberry farm and pick strawberries before the end of the season. This is always a fun thing to do and I don't think we could ever pick enough that we couldn't eat. I had grand ideas of making strawberry jam, desserts, and all kinds of things, but instead, we just ended up eating them all very quickly before I had a chance to make anything!  Here are my expert strawberry pickers!

 

 

Juliette did a better job of actually picking the strawberries this year (as opposed to eating them and putting the stems in her basket like last year)!

Our harvest...

And of course there is always time for apple doughnuts and strawberry smoothies after all that hard work!

We also broke out the sprinkler for some backyard summer fun!

We also attended the Annual Charge for CHARGE 5k to honor our dear friend Josh Kurby.  Paul ran in the race this year and did very well.  It was a fantastic event that was very well run by our friend Sandy and we were so glad to be able to go this year.  Unfortunately we couldn't stick around for awards because Ben had a baseball game we had to get to, but it was a great race!

Sandy leading the crew on her bike.  This was almost at the finish line and Ben commented that Aunt Sandy was kind of cheating  because it really wasn't fair that she won the race because she was on a bike while everyone else had to run! 

Paul came in 5th overall (I think).  Great run!

 

Time to go Home

We had a great time. Juliette partied a little too hard at the reception with the Shirley Temples and got sick through the night...we definitely had our share of vomit this trip! But it was a fantastic trip and we were sad that it was time to go home.  Our pilot on the flight home was awesome and let the kids get in the cockpit before take off.

Would you trust these guys to fly the plane?

After a delay and layover in Seattle (in the middle of the night),we finally made it home to Chicago in the early morning.  Paul had to work that day unfortunately, but the kids and I all climbed into our bed and slept most of the day!  It took us a full week to fully recover, which was exacerbated by the fact that summer activities started right away!  But it was worth it for the fantastic trip!  A HUGE thank you to Mama Kay and Papa for planning such an amazing trip and for Aunt Theresa and Uncle Josh for your hospitality and fantastic wedding! 

 

 

Time to Party!

The wedding was beautiful, but then it was time to party! There was a moose at the reception!

 

 

I must say that the kids were very brave.  When I got up on the moose I found it to be quite scary!  It was very high up and didn't feel very sturdy!  I'm smiling, but clinging to Paul and begging him not to move too much as I was sure I was about to fall off!

The girls couldn't wait to get on the dance floor!

 

 

Then they passed out sunglasses and Ben got into it too!

Like father like son!

The bride and I!

FINALLY!!!  After how many weddings we have been to in the past few years...I guess it just took sunglasses for him to hide behind, but Ben finally danced with me...and he asked me!!!

Love him!

Josh had some Jewish traditions thrown in as well, which was fun!

Aunt Domi and Juliette.

She cracked me up.  There was a pause in the dancing while they cut the cake, so she just sort of circled the dance floor listening to the music.  All of a sudden, she couldn't stop herself and her little hips just starting shaking!  It was so cute!

 

 

Cuties at the reception!

Congratulations Aunt Theresa and Uncle Josh!

 

Alaska Day 9 - Wedding day!

It was a beautiful day and everyone spent the morning getting ready for the wedding of Aunt Theresa and Josh!  Look at these beautiful flower girls!

 

 

And the beautiful bride!

Before the wedding we went to the top of the mountain for pictures.

Then we took advantage of everyone being dressed up to try to get a nice family picture.

 

Then it was wedding time!  Doesn't Aunt Domi, matron of honor, look beautiful too!

The vows!

More pictures after the wedding, so I took some of my beauties while we waited.