Summer 2014

It's always bittersweet when summer comes to an end.  I love everything about summer, but I also love looking forward to the change of seasons and everything that fall brings with it.  Our summer was wonderful...lots of hot days to enjoy being outside with my sweet girls.  It went by way too fast, as it always does.  This summer was especially hot, and with no air conditioning in our house, we're looking forward to some cooler weather.  We kept busy with Ella's weekly swim lessons and soccer, a dance camp, a play group through our church, and lots of parks, concerts, beach playdates, and  family outings in between.  I've collected and added pictures to this post throughout the summer as I wanted to include these in our blog book...

First day of summer soccer...

I loved our Saturday mornings spent as a family - I would usually get up and go for a run while Cody got the girls up and ready, and then we'd all go to soccer and often stop at Starbucks or Frost donuts afterwards.  Lucy would much rather play than watch her sister, but she was a good spectator with me...

Ella had a love-hate relationship with swim lessons - she loves being in the water and playing in the pool, but was not a fan of getting her face wet when she started lessons.  She made leaps and bounds of progress during lessons this summer and now is great at doing her "head bobs" and jumping in to her teacher...

 We got to meet and hold two week old puppies when Ella's friend Alanya invited us to her grandma's house.  Ella was in heaven cuddling this sweet puppy!

Lots of time spent playing in our backyard...

We took a trip to the Seattle Aquarium when Carly and her family were in town...

 Lucy and Lauren ready to bathe after playing in the sand...



Picking fresh strawberries in our backyard....

 Best buddies at the Civic Club for a BBQ dinner...love these three!

We went to a Mariner's game as a family..

 ...and had some tired girls on the way home...

We went to a few of the summer concerts at Pine Lake Park and got to see lots of friends...probably the thing I miss most about living in Issaquah!

 A trip to Grasslawn Park with my cousin Linda and her family...

 Drew and Lu...so sweet!

The girls and I loved the Kirkland Kids Concerts and would often go to the beach afterwards to play in the water...

Cody and I celebrated our six year anniversary August 2!  We had an amazing dinner at Daniel's and stayed overnight at the Fairmont (where we stayed the night of our wedding).  So thankful for our good friends, Matt and Alison, who watched the girls for us - Ella was so excited to get to have a sleepover with Nathan.

 Gorgeous flowers we got at Pike's Place market the next morning...

Ella went to her first summer camp - a Frozen Dance camp.  She was in heaven!  So fun for her to do the camp with her sweet friend's Olivia and Alanya...

On the final day of camp, the girls did a little "show" dancing to "Let It Go" and "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" So cute!!

We spent a day with Grammy and Grampy at the zoo.  So good to see them!

We took a family outing to Remlinger Farm.  It was our first time there and the girls loved it!  I loved how all the rides were age appropriate for Ella and that Lucy could even go on quite a few.
Ella was excited to ride a horse on her own and Lucy did great riding a pony for the first time!

Lucy cracks me up - she LOVES wearing this little necklace and gets mad if we take it off her...

Ella and I went on the spinning barrels - I love that she loved spinning it as fast as she could :)...

We had a fun night as a family at the Evergreen State Fair - Ella loved the rides (we were so excited she wanted to go on the roller coaster and some of the fast rides!), Lucy loved the animals, and Cody and I loved the fair food :).  Always good people watching too!

And a few family pictures to finish off our summer recap...