long days of summer

Welcome back, me! I must say I have most thoroughly enjoyed this summer. It has been filled with great family, great friends, great memories. And so, I give you, a (long) recap and a slideshow (my first!) of our summer.

Although technically spring, our little Lily turned two on May 23rd. We celebrated in Estes Park with our dear family: my sister, Matt and Syl and Matt's parents. And we spent the morning walking around Lily Lake. Lily continues to be full of energy and life, driving us crazy with that strong will of hers, and making us laugh and laugh with her quirky and wonderful sense of humor.

We had a visit from Justin's younger brother, Uncle Bradlee, and celebrated our little niece, Sylvia, turning one. Amelia went to her first Rockies game with Justin and her friend Abby and we watched the Boulder Ballet Company perform at our park during a downpour. We planted flowers, watched my beloved hydrangeas come back to life and bloom, played dress up, tried to feed baby ducks, and had a cul-de-sac summer party.

We drove to Winter Park to visit our dear friends, Loren, Amanda, Hope and Bella, while they were on assignment with Young Life at Crooked Creek. (Friends, swimming, and the mountains - does it really get any better?)

We celebrated the 4th with family and friends and Amelia had her very first swimming lessons. And she passed the class. My Mom came out for her summer visit and Justin and I actually got away to the mountains for three whole nights to celebrate our ten year anniversary before we hit year 11 on the 17th. Needless to say, it was glorious. Glorious.

We then were blessed to have our beloved friends from Charlottesville, VA, Winn, Miska, Wyatt and Seth, out for four whole days. We hadn't been together as families since we moved from South Carolina and so it was something like a homecoming to all be together again.

At the end of July my cousin, Aric, and his family came to stay with us, along with a visit from another cousin and his family from Nebraska. We laughed a lot and Aric took some great pictures. His wife, Gabriele, is German and we had a full-on German meal, music and made an attempt at the language. It was great fun.

With August came my birthday and I'll post more about that later. I can't believe how fast 32 went...yet here I am: thirty-three with a two-year-old and a soon to be five-year-old.

So that's the summer recap for me. Here's hoping that with the next post I won't be recapping the fall...