Girls weekend in Vegas...

This past weekend I had the chance to fly out to Las Vegas with Jonas for a girls weekend to meet up with friends from when we lived in Tucson. We had a blast hanging out and catching up on the last few years but you would have never guessed it had been that long since we'd seen each other. It was fun to see how much the kids have grown and meet the younger siblings. We also got to see my grandparents, Nana and Bops, who were driving through on their way home to AZ. They were excited to meet Jonas for the first time and he just loved talk to and smile at them.

The day after getting home I had just woken up from a short nap upstairs and I hear Whitney downstairs saying "No, not that. CLIMB HIGHER, Maren!" When I came downstairs a little while later, I asked what they had been getting into. Whitney pipes up right away, "Maren got it out!". Yes, but funny how there are two lollipop sticks on the floor and Maren doesn't know how to open the bag of jelly beans that came from the upper shelves of the pantry. Nothing like putting the younger sibling up to something and then tattling on them. Aww, but she looks so innocent!

Fourth of July...

We enjoyed a day of festivities to celebrate the 4th of July. We started off the morning with a pancake breakfast and flag ceremony at the church. Whitney was most excited about the bike parade they had outside for the kids afterwards. She was reminding her friends all week to decorate their bikes for the parade. Jim then headed out with some friends to play a few rounds of disc golf. Later in the afternoon we headed to another friends house for a BBQ, swimming, and lawn games. The girls were both little fish and swam for the majority of the 4 hours until it got dark. We headed across the street to watch the fireworks across the water while sitting out on the dock. It reminded me of the years we spent at Lake of the Woods at my grandparents cabin watching fireworks over the lake while sitting on the dock. Maren was not a big fan of the fireworks especially the really loud ones that the neighbors were setting off nearby.

Peach picking...

Whitney and I went out a couple of weeks ago to pick some peaches at a nearby orchard. She enjoyed the hay ride out to the orchard and we quickly picked a large flat of both white and yellow peaches.

The tree ripened peaches were so sweet and juicy. We even tried grilling some of the little white peaches with a honey-balsamic glaze and they were heavenly even without the cream sauce that the recipe called for. We love living in an area with pick your own places.

Whatever it takes!

Maren woke up dry the other morning so we wanted her to sit on the potty to go. This was the only way we could get her to do it. She sat there for almost an hour but finally went.