July Fun

As soon as we arrived, we immediately were surrounded by family. 

We've done a number of things....here are some of them.

 Camping with the Johnsons (and Sarah)

 Once a week in the summer time all my siblings try to get all of the cousins together for 

"Cousin's Day." This one we were at Salem Pond.

Cousin's day in Susie's backyard

 One night we babysat a load of kids....they love the backyard here (who doesn't?)

 My sweetest Bekah was in town visiting from Ohio! We met up at the Dinosaur Museum.

It had only been about 2 weeks since we had moved, but it was still SO good to see her and Toby!!

 Bur-something Pond in freaking Mona. 

Cam and Whitney took us down there one day to try out the rope swings.

And one night we spent time at my Grandma and Grandpa Hale's home 

picking apricots off of their trees. They have a lovely, humble home, with a gorgeous 

view and beautiful yard. I loved being there with my little family.

 James wasn't so sure of their little pup Sammy.

 I has been SO wonderful to be here for the summer. The boys are constantly

running out back, playing and catching bugs. The nights are cool and so enjoyable.

So many things about being here this summer have made my heart happy.

 Cousin's Day at the new Aquarium! This place was really cool. 

Summer isn't over yet. I have many more things to blog about! Stay tuned!

Father and Son's Camp Out

A few weeks ago (I am VERY behind on my blogging) Matt was able to take the boys on their very first father and son's camp out with members of our church. They went out to the John Johnson Farm in Hiram, Ohio. Our church owns a really nice campground there.

And let me tell you, it was the Friday before Mother's day and it was a great way to kick off the weekend! I've never had all 3 boys leave me before. It was awesome!!! But only for one night. :) I was able to stay out late and have a girls night. I wasn't even scared to come home (okay, except for the part where I had to run from my car into my house in the dark) and sleep in my big lonesome bed....and sleep in late in the morning...all by myself. It was pretty great. But I did miss them.

I sent my little dinky camera along with Matt and was shocked at all of the photos he took. I just realized it was set on the lowest file size setting, so these photos are really poor quality, but I think they are fun anyway!

 Matt was such a good sport! He didn't get much sleep, because Devin was screaming until midnight. 

Poor guys!

 And Luke got to spend a whole lot of time with his good buddy Emmett and little bro Talmage.

Thanks for taking both boys Matt! You are the best!!!!

A little of what we've been up to lately

Last weekend we headed out to the JJ Farm with some friends to do a little camping. It was Devin's first time, and quite possibly his last. He loves his bed and that is the only place he wants to sleep. Luke on the other hand is our little trooper, traveler, adventurer...whatever you want to call him. He will sleep anywhere, but his bed. 

We got up there a little late, since we had to wait for Daddy to get home. We picked up some Wendy's on the way. We visited, the kids played and played. We watched the fireflies and cooked up some s'mores. It was great. 

At 10pm the parents mutually decided that we all had to get our kids to sleep. Devin had been and continued to fight sleep for what seemed like forever! After on and off crying of two babies (devin being one of them) in the camp, around midnight they finally fell asleep. 

I left my camera in the car and realized we hadn't taken any pictures so far. These pictures were taken with Matt's Ipod in the tent the next morning. We needed a picture of Dev's first camping trip!

The cute little stinker...

Luke was out cold the second he hit the pillow and slept like a rock. He thought camping was the coolest.

We had a cramp packed weekend, so after lounging around for a while, chatting with some friends and eating some cereal for breakfast (we're hard core campers, can you tell?) we cleaned up and took off.

On our way to Aurora Farms (yes, to do a little after-camping-fire-stinky-shopping) we followed some signs to pick some blueberries.

The following pictures were taken with my point and shoot. I almost always have it tucked away in my purse, just in case...not the best quality, but at least I have the pictures!

These are pretty much the only berry we haven't picked since we've lived here. They were SO YUMMY!

But, the boys were hungry and so tired. And it was a million degrees (in Cleveland terms that like upper 80's+humidity), so it didn't last very long. However, we were happy with the 2 1/2 pounds!

We made it to Aurora Farms where we visited my favorite store, The Children's Place. They always have the best deals! And we picked up our new, Cleveland favorite, Malley's Chocolates. 

We headed home. Me and the kids caught up on some much needed zzzz's, while Matt worked in his little garden and cut up fire wood. (In another post-Matt has become a little obsessed with our little garden-it's cute). 

And later that evening we had our family pictures taken. I have been waiting for this since I met my friend Sarah. She is an amazing photographer and I've wanted her to do our pictures for years. She moves next year, so I told Matt we had to get them done. This is the only one I've seen yet...and I am very anxious and excited to see the rest! (Dev's hair was doing this weird spikey thing with the little bit that he has...I hope it doens't look retarded in the other pics! He kind of looks like Jack Jack, with less hair).

Sunday rolled around, I taught in YW, had a very long 2-3 hr meeting that afternoon and came home to a surprisingly clean house and dinner on the table! Matt is the best, really.

Luke was so excited to have helped.

 

They even went over to the neighbors house-which is now vacant-and cut some hibiscus flowers off to have for the center piece. Don't you love the frozen stouffer's dinner?

Switching gears a little....

Luke started swimming lessons! He loves it and the $15 it cost me is totally worth a babysitter for the 1/2 hour at the pool. :) We also just signed up for Joy School, that I am doing with other mom's this year. He is getting so big, I can't believe it!

And switching gears again...

One of my good friends, Emily, is having her third baby boy in a few weeks. And I love a good reason to eat out with the girls and celebrate!!! We drove across town (or I should say, through the g-hettoo) to a fun, fancy place called Lolita's. One the restaurants of the famous (or maybe just famous to Cleveland?) Micheal Simon. And it was DELISH!

Laura and Emily

And the bone marrow that Laura devoured! Yes, BONE MARROW. It was nasty.

It really was a million degrees in there.

Laura, Emily, Elyse, Me, Lisa

Lisa, Katie, Cicley, Kristy and Laura

It was seriously SO good. Highly recommend it, even if it is a little pricey!

I love that I have so many good friends here in Cleveland. The funny thing is that almost all of them are anywhere from 4-12 years older than me! I am still such a youngin around here, but it doesn't matter, we still have so much fun together! It's awesome. 

Thanks for such a fun night girls.