July…also known as the best month of 2011

I LOVE Summer.  Love it. Love it. Love it.  Boo on Back to School and Autumn.

For the 4th of July, we had a great day.  I was determined to have it be all holiday-ish because last year was lame and to see good fireworks, because, we’ve missed out on fireworks for various reasons for years. 

We started out in proper 4th of July attire:

 

and rode bikes to the little tiny town parade, which was super fun

I love watching the littlest kids try to figure out the candy-grabbing thing:

We spent the afternoon at the Daines’ lakehouse and had lovely weather.

We got back in time for fireworks viewing over Liberty Lake, on the deck of our friends’ house.  It was beautiful and perfect. 

We’ve also had some good time spent playing Summer Bingo (see last year’s post for explanation).  We’ve had plenty of outings, which include strawberry picking

and crafting

(I had to take a picture for Ryan to prove I knew how to push a needle through fabric)

and cookie making

all in efforts to earn tickets and keep kids occupied.  It’s working well.

One of our yearly summer highlights is the Family Fun Run we get to do.  This year, Gabe and I ran together and he made me run fast. 

It is a very hilly 4 mile course and Gabe did it in 30:41.  I kept him in my sights and finished in 30:55 (which was apparently fast enough for a 1st place finish in my age division…it was fun because my 3 other friends placed as well.  LOVE running buddies.)

Jane competed and was super tough.

Here’s Seth and his friend Katie at the starting line.

 

I love our active community and my active family!

Emma and I got to go to Girls Camp (seen here, while I monitored the tubing river and Emma floated it). 

I was the leader of the high adventure canoe trip, which turned out to be a little bit crazy.  This is a picture of me and some of my girls taking cover in my van while a MAJOR thunderstorm raged through our camp (post-canoe trip, pre- bedtime). 

 

Since more than half of our bedding was sopping went, I made the executive decision to take the girls back home for the night and have them dry out and return in the morning.  As we drove out we had to drive around numerous downed trees and large branches. 

We got up to the larger Girls Camp in one piece and had a great remaining week.  Emma loved it…this is her look on Bishops Night

(Ryan attended because our bishop was gone).  Despite 29 mosquito bites,

it was one of the highlights of my summer.

Reason #26 We Love Ryan’s Company:  they pay for families to do fun stuff together 4-5 times a year.  This summer it was the Spokane Indians baseball team.  We are SO not baseball fans but it was the most entertaining night.  We want to do it again!

And, also, I love my Zoku popsicle maker.  It’s almost a nightly tradition around here:

S’mores popsicles:

Watermelon popsicles:

Cherry Chocolate popsicle:

Is it any wonder that I am wishing for 3 MORE months of summer?