Pictures of June

Water has been a huge draw for us this summer, but for all the time we've spent by a pool or on the beach, I don't have any pictures to post. I feel like I'm getting my system down, however, and trips to the beach are becoming less of an ordeal. The fact that our washer and drier are in the garage lessens the amount of sand we track into the house. I back my car in, open the trunk, and dump all towels directly into the washer. After buckets, kites, and boards are removed, and the garage door goes down, the boys take off their suits and hand them to me. No more piles of sand all through the house. When the towels are cleaned and dried, I simply fold them and place them in our huge canvas bag, ready and waiting by the car trunk for our next trip. Although I miss having my laundry area inside the house as we did for the last few years, I don't mind this benefit. For the rest of the time, it can get tricky handling all the laundry I do each week with the car parked a foot or two away.

Here are a few pics of the things we've done in the last week or so...

Olivia's riding lessons wrapped up this week.

Jon went shooting with some friends and brought back some bullets. They made a little pile of gunpowder and set it on fire. I'm not sure why these types of things are universally appealing to boys, but it sure made their day. 

The other day, when the boys asked Olivia to join in their game of army, I heard Olivia answer, "Sure, just pretend that I'm not in my bathing suit and that my towel is not pink tie-dye."

Watermelon. It's been the go-to snack food of the season. It's easy to pack up and the kids don't tire of it, especially if it has seeds. Back yard seed blowing tournaments are awesome; they use street chalk to mark off each contestant's results. They've always wanted Pollyanna style slices, and since this was right before heading up for showers, I didn't mind the juices running all over...

I'm recovering from a really bad haircut-- the kind where the girl hacks away half your hair with the razor scissors. Let me just say that razor scissors are not for textured hair like mine. Ever. I knew that the damage was done after she sheered off the back, and stunned, I just sat there hoping that this "professional" knew more about hair than me. I should have run. When I went to a better stylist to get it fixed, I was prepared for shoulder length hair. I'm glad that summer means I end up with my hair pulled back most of the time anyway.

Jon's choice for lunch for Father's Day was organic, grass-fed burgers. We didn't have time for much else anyway, since preaching/teaching three times doesn't give him much time for play and relaxation. Still it was nice. For the last three years, my kids have decorated large poster boards for him with letters and drawings of their favorite things about their Dad. It's been fun to bring out those posters each year and remember all the cool things they do together, and laugh at the crazy pictures.

Dinner time now...


~Katherine