Project 365, Week 26

We arrived home late Saturday night and woke up Sunday morning to do a quick turnaround to get the house ready for guests.  We welcomed Nana and Grandpa John from Florida.  Because they were here, we got lots of good family time.  

It was a beautiful weather week and we enjoyed the fact that summer is here!

June 22

Uncle Nathan made some safety adjustments to the zipline and now it has an upgraded braking system. 

 Amanda invited Nana into the nail salon and had her use about a dozen different colors.

 June 23
Nathan and Laryssa had us all over for a picnic on a beautiful summer evening.

 Later we went to my SIL's game.  Sienna was clearly the best player (and looks pretty while doing it, too! :)

 For years and years our family lived down at the ball field in the summer....it holds so many great memories, including the kids doing this...

 and downtime during the game...

 June 24
Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

 June 25
We went to the park for birthday photo shoots.  Aiden asked if I would bring the tripod so he could take some pictures.  He got to work right away directing and snapping.  Soon enough three of the four were fighting over it so I had to put it away.

June 26

Its so great to see Shaun around, hanging out.  Boggle is one of our favorites.

 Inaugural trip of the season to the river.

 Lots and lots of stories with Nana.  She's willing to read them, regardless of length and never skips pages.  :)

 June 27
Before our monthly work lunch, we took some head shots.  The kids were highly curious about me getting dressed up in a suit.  I told them I did that everyday for years before they came along.

I used to tell people what to do, but I usually only had to say it once and there was no whining or crying involved.  :)

  Sienna picked up the kids to go strawberry picking.  They brought them back and the kids chowed!

 R left for the weekend to do an camping adventure with the Royal Rangers, so its just been the little guys.  I gave them some hard-to-come-by screen time and they were laughing and having fun playing a silly game.

 June 28
First meeting of the praise team for Vacation Bible School.  I will hear these song a mind-numbing amount of times.

Maine

Another year of Maine in the books!  The kids are all old enough to remember going last year, which helps build their excitement for the next trip.

This year we were frantically cleaning up, fixing up, packing up our old house so the new tenants could move in while we were away.  So, we threw some things in the car packed in record time and hit the road an hour after the kids finished their last day of school.

Along the road we joined up with my sister Amy and her family, stopping for dinner and ice cream.

We arrived at the cabin after dark and found the electricity was out, though it was back within half an hour so we unpacked and made up beds.

 The next morning these two boys were up with the sun, fishing poles in hand.  They were quite persistent over the few days, with very little payoff.

 Digging for worms.

 "the bros" they call each other.

 Paintball, yielding some minor flesh wounds and fun battle stories.

 Late Thursday night Laryssa and Nathan joined us and the guys set out the next morning for Mt. Katahdin.  Colombo took some amazing pictures and my husband has told some amazing stories and I'm really hoping he will do a guest post, since I think the experience is worth hearing and documenting.

 *Spoiler alert*  They all made it back safely!

I still love early mornings, even when I'm on vacation.

 Clever, super-mom Amy set the kids up into two teams and they competed in timed obstacle courses at the park.  At another point in the weekend, she made up a scavenger hunt for the kids.  She's THAT mom!  :)

 Even though it was quite chilly, C4 spent nap time filling up water balloons.

 Renna thought it was great fun...until she got wet.

The cabin in Maine is a good place.  Its the closest we'll ever get to camping as a family, which I think is an important piece of childhood.  There is no TV, no wifi and very sketchy cell service.  There's not a whole lot going on in the surrounding area, so its just being together, enjoying downtime.  And because its tradition, the kids will always remember it.  Good times!

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.

Psalm 96:12