July

 I feel like our month was filled with a lot of smaller activities, but those are sometimes the best ones.

Lincoln, Annika, and Eden had 2 weeks of swimming lessons.  They loved swimming lessons and looked forward to them each day.  They all made great progress and Lincoln and Annika can now swim a little on their own.  Eden is more passive when it comes to physical activities so she didn't improve quite as much, but she had a positive experience.  It's so amazing to see my kids swim for the first time.  It literally brings tears to my eyes seeing them do something that I can't do.  I'm so proud of them and grateful that we have access to lessons.  I just wish we had access to a pool so they could practice!

We hung out with our favorite friends a few times this month.  We went over to swim at their house but the weather turned stormy so we ended up inside.  Everyone still had fun.

Dress up!

Ice Cream girls' outing!

Lincoln learned to tie shoes this month.  I tried teaching him last year when Annika learned, but she picked it up quicker than Lincoln did and then I dropped the ball and stopped practicing with him. I worked with him 5 minutes and he had it mastered!

Joseph took Lincoln on a few Father/Son outings this month.  Lincoln is at that age where he still loves hanging out with his dad and going on adventures. They enjoyed some archery.

And a hike at Tinker Falls.  

A new family moved in down the street about a month ago and they have 3 kids similar in age to my kids.  If we add in the 3 other kids 2 houses down that makes for a lot of kids running around and playing at our house.  Our house seems to be the place where everyone congregates which has never happened to us before!  One evening the men/boys were playing basketball and the younger kids were playing at the base of the driveway.  We are so grateful that kids have finally moved to our street!

Personalized English muffin pizzas!

More friend time!

We were supposed to go to Maine this month, but a few days before we were supposed to leave Joseph found out that he really couldn't take the next week off from work.  We were all a little disappointed. I really wanted to see Maine!  We ended up taking a short overnight trip to visit a few places in Eastern New York.  We stopped in Cooperstown for Joseph and Kimball.  The rest of us don't really care about baseball and sports cards, but we found a little park to explore and had ice cream for lunch so that helped keep the non-sports lovers happy.

The beginning of the Susquehanna River!

After Cooperstown we went to Howe Caverns.  It is a long cave system discovered in the 1840s.  It has a river running through it and a lot of neat formations.   I love caves and cave formations.  It was a perfect outing for me!  It was a chilly 52 degrees in the cave and I didn't have to worry about the sun damaging my skin!  I'll take the shade, or in this case, the cave!

There have been over 700 weddings performed in this cave. 👱

The cave included a little boat ride!  It's dark, but we're all there!

After an overnight stay in Albany, Joseph and the kids did some mountain biking.  Annika always amazes me with how tough and determined she is! 

Alas, all good things must come to an end. We planned to take the kids to a family fun center with various activities, but when the fighting and arguing got to be too much we just drove home.  Maybe next time!

I took my girls to the mall.  We planned a special outing to the Disney store and were very disappointed to learn that the store had closed.  Most people know that I'm not a shopper and I don't enjoy going to the mall.  I usually take the big kids a few times a year for clothes and that's it.  My little girls haven't been to the mall for a few years and they loved it!  They were so excited about all of the "statues" and they had to stop and pose with them!  

To compensate for the Disney store failure, Joseph took the girls on Daddy/Daughter dates to Sweet Frog.  They had a great time designing their frozen yogurt.

I had some time to kill while the kids were at a Church activity, so I walked for an hour on the Erie Canal trail.  It was my first time and I loved it.  The water isn't very pretty, but it was a peaceful walk.