June!

In an effort to stay only two months behind (standards are low these days...), here's our June photo journal.

Starting off with the best event of the month:

We saw baby! The girls and Daddy waited outside the ultrasound room while the tech took all her measurements. He kept them happy and entertained.

Then they came in to check out our next little one.

The girls were expecting more of a TV screen type resolution. The black and white pictures of a baby profile didn't make sense at first, but we explained what they were looking at and they got the idea. Baby was very active during the ultrasound. The tech was glad we didn't want to know the gender because Baby was moving so much she would have a had a hard time finding out. We got to see the heart beating and she even was able to focus on the lens in Baby's eye for a moment so we could see Baby looking around. It is amazing how developed out little 20 week old was already!

In June we went strawberry picking with Grandma and Aunt Nichole. We picked and picked and the girls were actually really helpful and productive.

Which isn't to say they didn't EAT their fair share of berries out in the field...

But who can blame them when the strawberries are so sweet, juicy, and sun-warmed?

Speaking of strawberries! We attended one of our favorite hometown events: Strawberries in the Park! We ate strawberry shortcake sundaes, did crafts, had our faces painted, went to an outdoor storytime, watched a clown show, got balloon hats...

 ...and Felicity and Vivian even ended up in the paper!

Our small town also installed metal sculptures around the downtown area, so we were able to check them out in June.

Miriam started reading chapter books. And let's just take a break to say we're so proud of her reading, but we do dislike the fact that she can read the headlines of the paper or the words some people so "proudly" wear on their clothing. There's a lot of bad news that we just don't love having to explain to our six year old.

Our local library - which you know we LOVE - had some really great outdoor summer programs that we took advantage of this summer.

Plus we had Vacation Bible School in the middle of the month...kids love this week long event but Mom and Dad are BEAT by the end of the week!

More than anything, our kids were just kids...running through the sprinkler, eating popsicles, going to the zoo, being crafty...all the good kids-in-summer-stuff.

Tim was really busy in June, too. He put in our new mailbox and got to work clearing dead and fallen trees up from the woods.

We had a pretty substantial fire going most weekends. He claims it isn't a large fire, just medium...you can be the judge.

We closed out June with a weekend camping trip with Sarah's extended family. The girls LOVED camping...mostly the constant supply of roasted marshmallows. Felicity was introduced to fireflies and she cannot catch enough of them! Even now if we are out anywhere as the sun sets she is begging to stay up "just one more minute to catch fireflies!" It was a hot weekend, but Viv figured out how to snitch ice from coolers to keep herself from over heating. She's a very resourceful little girl.

Miriam is somehow old enough to stay up with Sarah's youngest cousins. And act as their entertainment.

It was a dry weekend, so we slept with the rain fly off the tent and fell asleep counting the stars together. Felicity said one night while we were all cozied up in the tent, "This is my favorite place in the world."

Anywhere with our three little girls safe and happy is our favorite place in the world.