4th of July

The past couple of years my mom has had a for the 4th of July. This year, it was on Saturday the 6th, at the end of our Michigan trip which worked out great. We just stayed in Dallas for an extra day on our way home.

It's pretty awesome that mine and Michael's families get along so great and have been spending more time together. My dad grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and my mom had lots of great sides. Both Katie and Lisa's families came, Ramona and the kids, my Grandma, and even all my siblings were there. Erin and James (Michael's cousins) were in town and they also came with their daughter Kelly.

Seriously those little girls just get cuter every day right?? 

Even though it was a hot day, we spent most of it sitting on the back porch where there is always a really nice breeze. I filmed this sweet video of Phillip teaching Jacob how to throw the football. Jacob is really athletic already and caught on really well!

We had such a fun day!

Camping

We finally went camping in the pop-up!

On our way to Michigan, we stopped in Dallas for a quick camping trip at Cedar Hill State Park near my parents house. Aunt Nina and Gwen met us there and oh my goodness they are so much fun to camp with!

They made the best meals and taught us a little bit about bird watching. They are pretty much expert bird watchers, and have lots of fun stories about places they have been. Aunt Nina even woke us up at 630am letting us know that a painted bunting (type of bird) was in a tree right outside our camper! 

Since we decided going camping in Texas at the end of June is fun, we pretty much sweated all day long. It was so hot that about 2pm we decided to pick up my dad and go see a movie so we could be in AC for awhile. Thankfully we do have AC in the pop-up and that made such a difference at night. I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the beds were, and its very roomy!

I am already looking forward to the next trip!

Michigan

I just love summer vacations! We spent last week in Michigan, and it was so wonderfully relaxing. We went a little earlier than usual (we normally go in August) and it was pretty nice with just us and Michael's brother Daniel and his wife Chloe at the cottage. Michael's Aunt Janna was also there, but after breakfast, she would leave for the day and not be back until dinner, so it was mostly just the 4 of us there during the days.

We really didn't do a whole lot which was pretty wonderful. I read a couple of books, laid on the beach, played games, watched the sunset every night, roasted some s'more's at a campfire on the beach, and ate ice cream from Miss Lisa's every day. 

We did get to spend time with GG (Michael's grandmother) and Uncle Elliot every evening; they would come around 4, stay for dinner, and then we usually played a round of Liar's Dice and go for a walk down on the beach before they left.

The weather was basically perfect. I wore sweatpants and a sweatshirt every morning and night, and it warmed up enough to wear shorts and t-shirts during the day. The only downside was that it was way to cold for me to swim. The water temp was around 62, so I never did more than put my feet in. There was one day where it rained all day so we played about 5 rounds of Settlers of Catan, and I was only able to win one game. Gotta brush up on my strategy skills. 

Gaius of course had a blast, and he was zonked for the ride back to Texas. He got to swim, chase a tennis ball like 1000 times, and never be on a leash for a week straight. It's basically dog heaven up at the cottage. He loved digging in the sand when we weren't throwing the ball and then laying in the hole. Crazy pup.

 And I can't forget the amazing sunsets every night! This one was my favorite :)

Pretty nice vacation if you ask me!