Art Day with Grandma Cathy

Cathy invited the kids over for an art day. Her friend JoAnne was there to help, too.  She had all sorts of samples and different types of paints, pastels, and water colors to work with.  They had a blast and brought home some fantastic works of art.

Family Photos

Since a significant amount of time has passed since our last family photos, (Peter was 1 and Jonas has grown at least a foot), we decided to take advantage of the wildflowers and try for some updated pics.

Lots of other people had the idea to go see the wildflowers, so it was pretty crowded and finding a place to park was tough. the Morgan's car got a little stuck on this hill, but eventually we successfully got them up.

These are not our actual photos, just some candid shots of the process.  Peter couldn't be happier than to be climbing around on rocks.

My boys.  Peter got so mad when we kept telling him to smile. He insisted that he was.  I'm sure hoping we ended up with at least one shot with a real smile.

Me with my beautiful girls.  A little blurry, but you get the idea.

Did I mention that this kid loves rocks?  He planned to take this one home.

Finally, a real smile - since he's got a rock in his hand.  Unfortunately, Jonas is already bored with the process.

And this is after we made him put the rock down so we could keep taking pictures.  The smile is definitely gone now.

The scenery was beautiful,

as were the subjects.

OK, he would probably prefer to be called good looking instead of beautiful.

Shawn and Amelia took turns with the camera.  Not sure who took pictures of the scenery, but they are pretty.

Some things never change.  Jonas has loved bug watching since he was tiny.  This is what he did the whole time the girls pictures were being taken.

Duffy's own personal photo shoot.

Jonas's attitude by the end of the evening is reflected well here.

I am excited to see how they all turn out!

A Quick Summary of Most of July

Shawn held some water polo camps this summer at Olympus, which brought a large number of kids.  He's excited about the future of Olympus Water Polo.  Amelia is ready to go as soon as she's old enough.

A bunch of surprise selfies from my phone.  Again.

It worked out that Samantha left for Brighton camp the same week that Jonas left for trek.  Things were pretty mellow and quiet at home with only 3 kids.

Samantha left at a reasonable hour,

but Jonas wasn't very thrilled about his 5 am report time.  He wasn't very excited about the whole thing in general, but it turned out to be a good experience for him.

We found ways to occupy our time even without the big kids.  It was hot, so a trip to the library followed by slurpees was pretty good.

Also, a stop at the Cinderella park.

We decided to visit the aquarium.  (Which Jonas and Samantha were not happy to hear about.  They couldn't believe we went without them.  I guess I'll have to go back.)

We could have sat in the shark tunnel for hours, but we got a little tired of the crowds.

My penguins with the penguins.   (Their school mascot is a penguin.)

As much fun as we had, I really missed my big kids.  I was so glad when they were finally back home again.  Jonas got home Thursday evening.  It was so awesome to see all the bus loads of kids coming back.

Since it was Pioneer Day, we set off a few fireworks, but saved  most of them to do later since Samantha wasn't due back until the next day.

Summer is going by way too fast!