Nieces and Nephews and puppies, oh my!
I don’t know how it can possibly be mid-July already. Why do the nice lazy days of summer go so fast? Days of endless daylight and sun, being able to just put on flip-flops and go, grocery stores abundant with fruit! I love it all. And it goes so fast. Soon we’ll be in the dark and cold days of winter again.
But enough of that. What has June brought me? Puppies! Yes, puppies. Everyone around me is getting puppies. A friend just got a little puppy they named Charlie, my husband’s boss got a little bulldog named White Chocolate (or W.C.) Truffle, or just Truffle and my brother-in-law and kids just got a Boston Terrier named Rylie. You want to see? Okay.
Here is Truffle:
Here is Rylie:
So, at the end of June, we went to visit my sister and the kids, for our bi-annual visit. Summer usually coincides with Maddie’s birthday, so we usually celebrate that.
This year was a little different because the kids had to go to karate lessons and CoCo had a birthday party on Saturday, so our beach trip was reserved for Sunday. I love that they live only two hours from the beach, I would go to the beach all summer long if I lived so close to the beach! Our day was perfect, it was hot, near 100, but it didn’t feel bad at the beach. The waves were really rough this year, which we attributed to a storm coming through at some point (and it did).
I was so proud of the little girls. Ginger went into the water this year. Not far, but enough. Good brave Ginger. And CoCo showed no fear and went out to the water almost to her hips! In a few years, we will be having trouble keeping her close by! Maddie is a stronger swimmer than I am and so I found it funny that she couldn’t go out in the water without an adult (who was mostly me, LOL). Maddie is such a charmer. Owen, well, he is still a bit spirited, so he mainly stayed with his dad or mom. Or with Uncle Matt.
This year, we went to the North Carolina Farmer’s Market. The place was HUGE! I can’t tell you how many stands they had. But in addition to the many produce stands, there were flowers/plants, crafts (we didn’t see) and a restaurant. We didn’t get to see it all, cause the kids were bored, but we did get good homemade ice cream! I had blueberry! Yum. I thought how much it would be nice to have a farmer’s market like that here … but then, I remembered that we have the Strip District. It’s different. In NC, its more like a park, or a fair, whereas, the Strip is City shops with tables outside.
Our trip was way too quick and I honestly didn’t get many pictures. So I am going to post one of all four of them that I stole from my sister’s website.
Left to right: Ginger, Maddie, CoCo, and Owen
They also added a canine to their family. However, he isn’t small or a pup. His name is Kalua, aka Buddha or Bu.
For the Fourth of July, Ben and Sydney usually come home to PA and we get to see them. On the third, there was a big picnic at my father-in-law’s house. It was nice to see everyone. We saw people we haven’t seen in a while … Matt’s cousin’s Liz and Steph and aunts and uncles. Ben and Sydney are getting so big and they are very very smart and sweet! It’s nice to be able to hold smart conversations with them.
Here is Sydney with Rylie:
And Katelyn, who is getting so big and has decided to just go ahead and like people, meeting Rylie:
The Monday after, that would be the 5th, Jacob, Ben, Sydney, Joey, Nicholas, and Kate, along with their moms and their grandparents and Uncle Matt and Aunt Jenn went to the Carnegie Science Center. We were there for 5.5 hours and I was really ready to go home. The new SportsWorks was pretty cool though. And we had the entire place to ourselves for a long while. However, I forgot my camera and I only have this picture to show taken on my cool iPhone 4, which still needs a zoom:
That would be Uncle Matt on the bicycle in the air. I did it too. It was too short … as soon as you gained confidence, and knew you weren’t going to topple (it starts out going backwards) it was time to return. But after my Hawaiian adventures, it was hardly intimidating.
Till next time!