A Beach Day!

The stars aligned and we were able to make it to the beach, the one and only time we would go this summer.

The boys headed straight for the water!

Love my kids, love the beach!

The dolphins were enjoying the day as well.

A yummy treat - Thrashers fries!

Soaking in the sun,

lounging in the shade,

and playing in the sand.

The day was extra warm so the kids spent most of the day keeping cool in the water...along with a gazillion other people. It sure was crowded!

That tan line, hee hee!

The boys finally convinced David to come in and throw the football with them. They were in heaven spending time with their dad.

Another treat of the day - my personal favorite, funnel cake!

We warned Xander to hold on extra tight to his. Don't want any seagulls grabbing his away again!

Another hour or two in the water...

and my favorite picture of the day!

We always take away such fabulous memories from the beach.

Special Visits

This summer we were lucky enough to have two special visitors - first up was Elder Benson! Of course it's been awhile since he was officially a missionary but he'll always be Elder Benson to us. He and his girlfriend were in New York for a wedding and decided to drive down to Baltimore to see his old stomping grounds. Thank goodness that included a quick visit with us! We made some dessert since no dessert was always the running joke when he served in our area...

talked a lot about what he was up to and about their life and future plans and then took plenty of pictures.

Of course the kids fell right back into their comfortable relationship with him...

especially Noah. These two could always get goofy with each other.

While Elder Benson was visiting I sent pictures to Elder Anderson, teasing him a bit about Elder Benson making sure he came to see us. Well, about a week later Elder Anderson contacted me about a possible visit in August...and lo and behold, we got a visit from him too! What a fun time we had catching up with him. (And apparently I wore the same shirt for each visit, haha!)

Savannah always says that Elder Anderson looks like he could be one of my kids. They all do kinda go together, don't they?

Quite the talent these two have!

I don't know if there will ever be another Elder Benson/Elder Anderson duo in our life but these next two have probably come the closest...Elder Mitchell and Elder Clayton. These two missionaries were another wonderful pair and we always had so much fun when they visited with us.

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to them mid-August but hopefully we'll see them again.

Missionaries are absolutely the best!

Our July 2018

Summer...we love all the big adventures as well as the many fun small things we do to fill in the rest of our days. Trips to Ritas...

celebrating National Mac and Cheese day...

and playing board games...

including some new ones we checked out of the library.

Each summer we inevitable say goodbye to someone and this year it was to the Richards, my Maryland parents. We had a big party with church friends to send them off with love!

They are some of my favorite people in the whole world and I will miss them tremendously.

Noah spent Monday afternoons with one of his best buds, Marty, at Lego Club at the library. They loved it!

Dates with my cute kids. Panera...

and a hike.

Noah likes to be the photographer as well.

He was entangled in a bunch of branches but it didn't turn out looking as cool on the photo.

Our cool selfie...

and the beautiful scenery we were in.

A week of football camp for the boys, which they absolutely loved despite the torrential downpour one day and the extreme heat and humidity the other days.

Football evaluations...

trip to the Phili temple...

and David continued his travels for work and would always send me cool pictures of where he was.

July was packed full of good memories!