July...

(I snuck in a post on June 16th also...it never got published back then!) :)

Well...I can't believe that JULY, the WHOLE month, came and went!! :) We were, shall we say...BUSY! Maggie was tracked out for the entire month, so we maximized our play time!! The afternoon of her last day of school we left on our 12 day Road Trip. Try and keep up...we drove through NC, VA, WV, spent the night in Ohio, picked up the 3 Kessler girls (and traded vehicles to fit all 7 of us!), drove through the rest of OH, IN, and into IL to Arlington Heights. Stanton and Eli beat us to Grandma Mary's and Big D's house since they were flying (from Phoenix)! LOL!

We visited with lots of friends and family from Thursday-Wednesday...In no particular order, (because at this point it is hard to remember without referencing my spreadsheet!)
~ Shirley (who has since had baby Madilynn), Bethany & Lily, Meg, Meredith & Gracie, Chrissy, Hannah & Margaret and Maggie, Morgan and I met up at a park...yes 4 Mommas and 8 girls...for a morning of outdoor fun! McD's playplace lunch followed.
~ Visited with Rita and Schuyler a couple times at their lovely pool on the HOT afternoons. Thanks! :)
~ Lunchtime (Portillo's of course) visit and 5th of July Arlington Heights parade/fun with Aunt La Verne including the band concert, pony rides, and playing in the open fire hydrant attached to the firetruck.
~ Taste of Chicago (YUMMMMMM!!!) eat, eat, and more eat! We had 20 strips of tickets...yes, 20...there were 9 of us eating...so it wasn't THAT many...and EVERYBODY was such good try-ers! Then the boat and fireworks with the Webers' entourage.
~ Milwaukee County Zoo with Chrissy, Hannah & Margaret, Jeni & Henry, Trela, Kyle & Cavie, and my cousin Sharon, and her kids Johnny, Matthew, Sarah, Mary Grace & Daniel. We hit Kopp's for the double whammy treat...Cotton Candy Explosion for the little girls and Red Raspberry for the big girls! wink! Then "on our way home" hit Delavan, WI to visit with Giovanna & Cevin, and their kids John and Diana. We brought KFC to the ball field for Diana's Tee-ball game (classic Von Canon, right?!?) and then Gio graciously invited us back to her house to bathe the girls (and hang out for a few hours more!!) before driving to downtown Chicago. (This was a LOOONG DAY!) :)
~ Breakfast at the American Girl Store on Michigan Avenue! It was great to have Elizabeth (who I used to babysit!) join us for the girlie fun...I think she was overwhelmed! :) Wrap it up with Potbelly's for lunch and we headed out of town back to OH!
~ We ended up hanging out for a couple days in OH...just to recooperate from all that FUN we just had!! Then headed off, via the Outlet Mall (where we had to say "see you soon" to Chrissy and her girls) AND Lexington (yes, that's not REALLY on the way!), to Louisville, KY. Spent the weekend there visiting with cousins Tom and Annie who we haven't seen in forever! It was a double bonus since Annie & Eric, Emily, Elizabeth & Michael actually live in CO, but were on their summer vacation road trip! We also got to meet the newest addition to our clan, Catherine, who Tom and Angie (Mary Grace & Joseph, too) adopted this past December from China. A lot changes when you add a 1.5 year old to the mix when previously the youngest was 6! What a great time we had getting all this family together!! We should DEFINITELY do it more often... :) Fred had actually left Chicago on the 5th but flew into Louisville for the weekend so that he could meet Annie and her family for the first time. He then drove back home with us...thankfully!!

We then had swim lessons (for Maggie) twice a week, tap dance (for Maggie) and gymnastics (for Morgan) once a week for the remaining three weeks in July.

There was a softball tournament for Fred and the rest of the Faith Men's Church team in Greenville. Yes, in case you were wondering...it was HOT! The got "Co-Champions" of their division when the rains came and kept them from finishing the rest of the tournament. Fortunately on the rain delay, we were able to do Maggie's school supply shopping at the Target in Greenville! :) Hooray for multi-tasking!

We squeezed in a three day trip to Wilmington to visit Lesley, Ty, Alex and Livia...and the Beach...which was surprisingly nice...the beach that is...I expected it to be GREAT to see Lesley and her family!

I also got together with the Month of Meals Moms and put together 25 different recipes (31 meals!) that filled my freezer and should last us until roughly October...or less, now that Stanton is here living with us! :)

We got the invitations for Anthony & Tanya's October wedding...ordered in Spanish and English.

...and Fred and I just got back from a surprise (to ME!!) getaway to the mountains for the weekend!! Fred determined that he "was working to hard" and I was a little overwhelmed by all the hotness that we have been having! It was nice to getaway just the two of us...nothing big planned. Thankfully I had some time, like ALL DAY on Saturday to get a little caught up on my cover to cover reading the Bible in 90 days! I am almost through the Old Testament! Thank you, Stanton for being a SUPER big brother and taking the girls to Tucker Lake and then on to Wilmington for a memorable weekend!!

Phew...thankfully school starts tomorrow and hopefully we will slow down a little...LOL!!! :)

How was YOUR summer?!? wink, wink!! :)