Summer Time

I love summer time, here are some of the things we've been up to.

Hiking- At the end of May we went on a hike up to some waterfalls.  The kids did great they both walked the whole way (about 2 miles total), it was so much fun to get out and do something together.

Swimming- We love hanging out at the pool.  It has been so great having a neighborhood pool, we love going all the time.  I sometimes get tired of the extra towels to wash, but the kids never get sick of going, they just love it.

Gardening- We've been really excited about our garden this summer.  It has been a while since we've been able to have a real garden and Reid worked really hard on it. This is just one bed, the other is the same size.  We've gotten so much zuchinni, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, okra, and peppers; so delicious.  I've been working really hard to try not to waste anything, but I'm kind of afraid of canning so our freezer is kind of crazy right now.  We have over 70 cups of grated zuchinni, 3 loaves of bread (we've probably made over 15 loaves), 20 cups of tomatoe soup, 12 cups of chopped tomatoes and 10 cups of diced squash, we kind of need a deep freezer if you can't tell!

I was so excited for my hydrangeas to bloom this year.  I think they might be one of my favorite flowers, they are so pretty.

One of Brooke's summer projects was to plant sunflowers.  She did a great job remebering to water them.  Don't they look awesome?

Swim Lessons- I signed both of the kids up for swim lessons.  I wan't sure how Owen would do, but I thought I would try it so I didn't have to spend 30 minutes every day chasing him out of the gym where the youth camps play basketball.  He had a rough start, but by the third day he was doing so great. They both had such great teachers. Brooke was so excited she finally got to jump off the diving board. 

Visitors- In the beginning of June, my dad and his wife stopped by for a couple of days.  We love them so much and is always fun to see them!

Random Fun- I just love all the fun stuff that happens in the summer.  It sure is fun to get to hang out with these cute kids!



Brooke made some goals of things that she wanted to do this summer.  One of them was to make a cake by herself.  She picked out the recipe, made sure we had all the ingredients, and made it (I think all I did was get it in and out of the oven), she was sure proud of that thing, and she was nice enough to share with her friends.



4th of July

We had such a great weekend! We did a lot of work in our yard and around our house but we also managed to have tons of fun and our fourth of July was great, here are some of the highlights.

Smokies Baseball

The kids had such a great time at the baseball game. They probably watched 7 innings and then played at the play area the rest of the time. Brooke loved having her daddy teach her about the game and cheering for the Smokies. Since the game whenever we say "baseball" Owen starts swinging an imaginary bat like he is a baseball player.

Fishing.

Reid woke Brooke up at 5:30 on Monday morning to go fishing. When they got there, he got her ready and then started working on his pole and she already had a bite. She caught an 18 inch rainbow trout and she was quite proud of herself. The other fishermen at the dam came to look at it and they were telling Reid how they had been there since 5 am and hadn't had so much as a bite and then this 5 year old shows up with her princess fishing pole and gets one of the bigger trouts they'd seen. Needless to say she was pleased as punch.

Bike Parade

Later that morning, we invited our neighbors over and we had a little bike parade around our cul-de-sac and then breakfast. I love our neighborhood, I love how many little kids there are and the families are so nice. It was so fun to get together with them.

Swimming, Barbecue & More

Then in the afternoon we invited some friends over to go swimming and grill. We had a great time at the pool. Brooke is seriously turning into a fish and Owen has a lot of fun as well as scaring me to death with his lack of fear. After swimming Reid made homemade root beer, the kids thought the dry ice was super cool and the root beer floats we had with home made root beer and home made ice cream were delicious. We also got a good game of soccer going which sadly the boys one, but it was a close game and I did accidentally kick the soccer ball at sweet little 5 year old Luke's head, but luckily it missed and he said he would forgive me.

Fireworks

Then we went and watched the city fireworks with our neighbors. They have a teenage daughter and Brooke just loves her. The fireworks were beautiful and it was the perfect night.

It was such a fun 4th of July, we are so grateful for this beautiful country, and the many blessings and freedoms we enjoy here