JULY

We spent the afternoon at my mom's for 4th of July and then headed to Lilli and Cece's house for dinner and fireworks.  I don't really care for fireworks but the girls loved them.  Cece loved the poppers and Lilli wanted everything!

The girls and I enjoyed our first trip to the MK Nature Center.  So much fun.

 We love summer and spending time in the water.  The girls loved helping Marcel wash my car.

Our July envelope date was to hike Jump Creek.  We were both prepared for a much longer hike but still had a great time.  Even though this sign warning us about rattlesnakes made me really nervous!  Now that we know what to expect we are going to take Lilli and Cece since we know they'll be able to make the hike and will love the waterfall.  Marcel and I didn't swim but enjoyed walking through the stream on our way back out to the car.  I don't feel like I'm a particularly big nature girl but being there reminded me that I do enjoy it once I get out in it.

The girls and I were at Albertsons one day and Lilli noticed the fair rides getting set up and begged to go.  The fair isn't my favorite thing, because the rides make me sick and they are so expensive, but when Marcel found out that it was free on the opening day from 12-2pm before the rides were ready we decided to go.  We saw lots of animals and made a quick trip through the exhibits.

 All of the pigs were sleeping when we were walking through so when we'd ask Cece what a pig says she'd pretend snore!

On our way back to the car Lilli noticed that her sunhat in her shadow looked like a cowboy hat.  "Look, I'm a cow girl ready for the fair."

And after we got back home, we all enjoyed the fudgesicles Lilli and I made the day before.  I love finding recipes for treats that are a bit healthier than the alternatives.

Marcel got asked to be the stage manager (or a similar position) the God & Country Festival at the Idaho Center before the 4th of July, which he normally does as a volunteer, but this year they were going to pay him!  And it has led to a lot of work.  The Village in Meridian has a 8 week concert series on Friday nights and Marcel is now working them.  He also worked at a company conference in a Boise hotel and spent the last week of July in Bend working at the county fair.  It has been a big sacrifice to give up so many hours of his precious time off during the summer but we are so grateful for the work.  He really enjoys it even though the days are so long (the concerts are about 14 hour days outside in the heat)

We also continued to train for our 10K.  I'm at about 4-4.5 miles on the way to 6.2 and Marcel is just a little behind.  His crazy work schedule has slowed his training down just a bit but we still have 9 weeks left.  He'll be ready by race day!

JUNE

We spent all of June training for our 10K in September.

Our anniversary is in May and about a week before school gets out, so we always wait until June to celebrate with our night at the Anniversary Inn.  We enjoyed another new room, love the escape it provides us!

We enjoyed a BBQ with some teacher friends from Marcel's second school.  This coming school year he is going to be at South full time so he won't be working with these people anymore.

Our envelope date for June for a night at the drive in.  Our car is perfect for us to enjoy the movie.  We put off the date for weeks because of stormy weather and movies we weren't thrilled to see.  We were just about out of time before our groupon expired so even though Home was the first movie we decided.  It was a hilarious kid movie that we have since seen again.  The Longest Ride was the second movie.  I had just finished reading the book and was so excited to see the movie.  Major disappointment.  I know the movies never compare but this one was epic for being much worse.

We spent more than entire week refininshing our table.  I had no idea how much work and time it was going to be.  So many hours to let the stain/polyurethane dry in between each coat and so many coats, but now that it is finished I love it!

May

We started May with a picnic in Kleiner Park in Meridian with Emily and the twins.  Cece decided to eat lunch on the rock and Lilli put raspberries on her fingers like olives, I don't think I've ever seen that before!

And now that Cece is big enough to hold on to the big swings, she loves swinging.  She never would swing in the baby ones.

Hannah moved back to Kansas for the summer so we are babysitting her hammock and have already spent hours in it.  Cece loves Marcel!

The girls decided to build a "road" for their toys with all of our games.  It was a huge mess and hard to clean up but they were having so much fun.

Selfie :)

We got this fun new game from Katrina and they love it.  I was so surprised to see Cece could match the bugs to the answer sheet.

Our house has very limited hiding spots but that has never stopped us from playing.  One day I found her in the play pen.

A different day, all the games got dumped out because the pieces and cards were perfect for pretend money.

Lilli has been spending so much time in our office drawing, cutting and gluing, etc.  One day I tried to go through there to switch the laundry but Lilli didn't want me to so she offered to switch it for me.  She had to use the step stool and then climb almost into the washer to reach the clothes but she did great!

Halfway through the month Marcel's jazz band had a year-end party (jazz band is an after-school club so they don't go all the way to the end of the school year) so we brought brownies to the party and let the girls finally play on the instruments.

And after the party, we went to Roaring Springs and got our passes picked up!

We love forts!

Lilli graduated preschool and is headed to kindergarten in the fall!

 

On the first nice day after graduation we had a classic summer day: bubbles, bugs, and chalk!

Coloring is one thing that the girls can usually do without fighting :)

We went to the Youth Ranch and got a new game.  We love GuessWho?

Marcel and I went to Parade of Homes in Boise for the first time. The houses were crazy expensive, but so fun to walk through.

Marcel is on breakfast duty on Saturday mornings and it is just about my favorite part of the week!

Lilli has been so fascinated in taking pictures!

Marcel and I have started running together again.  And we were talking about signing up for the same race we did last year and Marcel said "how about we do the 10K together this year?"  Okay, deal. Official training starts the day after school is out.