Fun Summer Weekend

We took a whole week off at the 4th again this year. July 4th is without-a-doubt my favorite holiday. We spent our first weekend home catching up with friends and having fun outside!

We visited our friends and neighbors, the Jensens, at their cottage in Gwinn for a fun Saturday afternoon. The kids had a blast, and the lake was so nice!

Ellie and Daddy enjoying a jet ski ride

Emmit being silly on the dock

Teeter totter

This might be my favorite picture from the whole summer thus far. This was literally Emmit's first time peeing in the woods. Lukey had done it earlier in the day, and as we were eating dinner, Emmit announced he had to go potty (Mr. Emmit is potty trained, yahoo!). So what do they do, they both stand up right by the picnic table and do this. We are all laughing so hard watching.

Carley, Ellie, and Miss Lyla

Taking a pontoon boat ride

Ellie and Lyla...I love how they are looking at each other in these pictures =)

Lukey and Emmit sitting by the campfire. I have a feeling these two will be causing some trouble together growing up!

The next day we headed up to Marquette to hike up Sugarloaf and visit with the Columbs, Proehls, and Schramms. It was another fun day grilling out and catching up with friends.

Hiking up the mountain

View from the top

The 4 of us

Self-portrait of Emmit and I

All the kiddos

The whole group minus Dave (taking picture)

The girls - Brookie, Ellie, and Ava

And Ellie holding baby Jude

Summer Fun

Just a random post of summertime fun =)

Miss Diva sunning herself. She saw our teenage neighbors doing this one day and decided to follow suit. 4 going on 14 playing on Mama's phone and laying in the sun!

Playing in the sandbox. Emmit will spend hours and hours in the sandbox. I think they were making mud pies like Max & Ruby this day =)

Julianna, Ellie, Emmit, and Henry enjoying cupcakes after a fun cook-out

Ellie is in swimming lessons again this summer. She goes just with an instructor now after passing her parent-child class this past winter. This is a fun Wednesday activity for Miss Kim and kids. Ellie goes to her lesson, and Emmit gets to play on the Splash Pad. Emmit and I will do a parent-child class this Fall, so then they can keep it up through the winter too. Our kids are fearless around water so it's time to buckle-down on learning to swim!

Playing on the patio in our swimsuits..a typical summer weekend afternoon at home!

We had a camp-out in the backyard a few weeks ago. We make hotdogs on the fire for dinner and then had smores later on. We played outside all evening long. The kids were SOOO excited to sleep in the tent, but Emmit's excitement got the best of him. About 5 minutes after stories were done, he wanted to go back in the house. Colin and Ellie slept in the tent anyway, but Emmit and I slept together in the house instead =)

2012 Bellin Run

We continued with our running in early June and participated in the 2012 Bellin Run. Colin worked the spaghetti dinner, and then we all geared up for another 1/2 mile Kids Run. Emmit even did this one (Mama carried him a lot of the way, but oh well)! Our neighbors joined us too, and the kids had so much fun.