Well it's about time! Summer finally decided to grace us with it's presence! Although it was quite abrupt, going from 55 to 80 in a matter of 2 days, I'm not going to be the one complaining about it!
June was fairly uneventful. Lots of rain. Cory's little sister, Tiffany, graduated high school on the 13th so we made a trip up and over the mountains to see her get her diploma! I cried a little, not gonna lie. It's hard to believe she was only 10 when I first met her and now she's gearing up for college! Gah! We stayed at Cory's Aunt and Uncle's house on Lake Joy. It's the lake Cory grew up on. It was cold but we were able to let the girls play in the water long enough to get pictures! It makes Cory feel so good that his kids get to play on the same beach he played on as a kid! Aunt Margie gave Claire her first hair cut! Poor baby was desperately in need of it! Her bangs were always hanging in her face and she could never REALLY see. All taken care of! Not only can she now see the world ... the world can actually see her face!!!
Since it's warmed up we have spent most days outside! Ellie is loving the freedom of the backyard. She's become friends with the two 6 years old girls and 4 year old little boy down the street and spends a lot of time with them riding bikes between our houses (4 houses)!
July is looking to be a busy month for us! We have a few weekend adventures coming us, as well as a wedding and our annual family vacation to the Oregon coast! This year we will be accompanied by our new camera! As I requested, Cory made sure we purchased the digital SLR in time to go on vacation! Yaay! I'm trying to find time to mess around with it so I know how to take perfect pictures on the beach, but there's just so much to do! We've started scraping the neighbor's house so we can paint it for them. This is funding our recreation while on vacation ;) We do that in the evenings when it's cooler and I get out while the girls (or at least Claire) nap during the day. Shouldn't take much more than another week!
Ellie is currently in her first session of "Turtle" swim lessons! We signed her up for a 2 week class so it wouldn't interfere with our chaotic July schedule. As usual, she loves it. It's OUR opinion that the class she is in, isn't quite advanced enough for her and I'd like them to move her up to the next level. They do things with the kids below what she was doing in the parent/child classes. They have to assume that the kids starting "turtles" are entry level and have never really been in the water much, as they're only 3. Understandable ... I just don't want to waste my money. We'll see if they move her up after this session at the end of next week. Until then, we are getting ready for the 4th of July! Not sure exactly what we're going to do, but whatever it is we're gonna rock it AMERICA style!
