Swimming Party

About two weeks before Ryan came home, we made a little visit to Albuquerque and were able to stay with our friends, the Milbergers. They were packing up, getting ready for a big move to Texas, so it was wonderful to get to spend some time with them before they left. Monica and Katie have been besties for a while and in true bestie fashion, they got together and seemed to pick right up from where they left off. It hurts my heart for Monica when she tells me how much she misses Katie. She has friends at school, but no one she gets to play with regularly like she did with Katie. On the other hand, it's made Monica and Leah get to be even better friends.

Anyways, after a miscommunication on our last trip to Albuquerque, we didn't get to see Aunty Theresa and Uncle Bruce. So, we made sure we got to visit this time around. She was so sweet, with a little surprise party for Monica and Leah. I'm pretty certain that in their eyes, swimming + cupcakes = the best day ever. Emily and her kiddos came, too, so it was a fun party!

Jonah

Leah and Aunty Theresa

Monica is becoming such a fish!

Sweet Jill

Emily and Jonah

Monica is going head under!

Me and Monica

Me and the girls

The party favors

Leah went from not going in the water at all to swimming without help!

Catch me!

Me too!

Shark attack!

Hey ladies!

Cupcakes are awesome.

I love this candid shot of Uncle Bruce and Jonah

Aunty Theresa finds the funniest toys. These little singers are great!

I thought it was too cute that Jonah and Leah were so enthralled with the Singa-Ma-Jigs.

Thanks for the party, Aunty!

Fourth of July- The people

I am so grateful for truly good friends! Ryan and I love to celebrate the 4th and with him working in California for the summer, it was wonderful to have the Harringtons and Soquel over to celebrate the 4th with the girls and me. We BBQ'd, played a bit in the water, watched the fireworks and then did our own sparklers in the backyard.

Mark and May 

Jillian, Me, Soquel, Emily, and Camille

Lays' slogan completely applies to Leah. She can never just have one olive. And they are olives until they make it on her fingers. Then they are "froggie tips". My kids make me laugh!

Kenny was the dual sparkler master. 

Camille

Monica's sparkler.

Kenny

Miss Katie. I had some really cool pictures of her posing with her sparklers but they were too blurry and made my eyes go crossed.  

The girlies.

Camille, Katie, Leah, Emily, and Monica

Fourth of July- Fireworks

This year we got really lucky. One of the places the city was setting off fireworks was just across the street from our house. Literally. You go down our street, cross an arroyo, and a soccer field, and on the other side of the field was where they set them off. So we invited our friends, the Harringtons, and Soquel Stewart, to come over and watch them with us. It was so fun! And our seats were perfect right in front of our house.

I had so much fun with my camera. I'm still learning a lot about how to use the different settings on it, so I was so excited that I actually did capture such great fireworks photos!

Summer Fun

I love how expressive the girls are when they are really having fun!